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Halloween’s Beginning

How did Halloween come about? Well, the History Channel says it originated from the Irish.

Celtic farmers used the word Samhain, which means “The End of Summer” to signify Halloween. They believed there was one day per year that represented both the living and the dead, where spirits could rise from the dead. The Celtics lit great bonfires and dressed up in order to repel the spirits from ruining their feature crops.

In the mid-19th century, after a devastating potato famine, one billion Irish came over to the United States, which brought the traditional holiday known as “All Hallows Eve.”

About 40 odd years after Christ, the Romans had primarily conquered Celtic land. Over the next four hundred years the Romans ruled over the Celtic land and certain traditional festivals were combined and inter-woven into both cultures. The first festival was called Feralia, which happened in late October when the Romans traditionally celebrated the passing of the dead. The next festival was to honor a Roman goddess of fruit and trees named Pomona.

(For Scary Stories, try this website called American Folklore.net and have fun re-telling age old spooky tales like “Bloody Mary,” and “Don’t Turn on the Light.” )

Needless to say, when the Celtic traditions came to the “New World,” the concept of Halloween didn’t go over well with the New England Puritans. But slowly it was disseminated into Puritan society and great bonfires were replaced with jack-o-lanterns, spirit dancing/deterring was replaced with dressing up in spooky attire, but no one really knows where/how the candy giving started…

SO the question remains: How did we go from deterring spirits from ruining our crops through rituals to giving candies to little children? We don’t let them in the house, we block them from coming inside, and appease them with bon bons. Creepy. Thought to chew on until next time.

 

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Revolutionary Spirit

Revolutionary Letter #1

I have just realized that the stakes are myself
I have no other
ransom money, nothing to break or barter but my life
my spirit measured out, in bits, spread over
the roulette table, I recoup what you can
nothing else to shove under the nose of the maitre de jeu
nothing to thrust out the window, no white flag
this flesh all I have to offer, to make the play with
this immediate head, what it comes up with, my move
as we slither over this go board, stepping always
(we hope) between the lines

-Diane di Prima

(excerpt from City Lights Pocket Poets Anthology, edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti)

 

 

Occupy Wall Street Blog

“The protests have been mostly peaceful. That is, until Saturday, when 700 were arrested after a march on the Brooklyn Bridge spilled over from the pedestrian walkway onto the roadway, blocking traffic for several hours. Most of the demonstrators who were arrested were given a summonses and released.*”

 

Occupy Wall Street protesters are now backed by powerful labor unions with hundreds of thousands of members and millions of dollars behind them. So much for that “nonsense” march, huh? Undoubtedly the Tea Party is cringing in the attention to the left-wing uprising, but the protest isn’t about segregation, even politically. It’s about uniting white, black, rich, poor…because everyone has financial inequality pressing down on them and we’ve all been “scammed.” “In fact, some tea party members have been down to Liberty Square to lend their support. Both groups are fed up with the status quo. Still, the protesters insist they are not all Democrats nor Republicans,” reports ABC news.

Are people now waking up from the American Dream, only to realize they’ve been lulled into exactly that: a complacent, quiet dream? People won’t be complacent anymore, they are standing up, banding together, and fighting with their presence. Turns out the young liberals have learned a thing or two from Egypt: stick together, use your voice, and protest the inequalities. And what better city in the USA to start such a revolution than New York City?

Following suit is Chicago, Illinois; Joplin, Missouri; Fargo, North Dakota; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and more. The revolutionary spirit is spreading like a wild fire around the country!

 

*Quote from ABC News

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