Tuesday

Good morning,

Quote of the day:

“The degree of inner tranquility comes from the development of love and compassion. The more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of well-being.”

                                           Dalai Lama

                 The History of Halloween

This pagan celebration of Halloween goes back more that 2000 years to the ancient Celts of present day Ireland, England and northern France. The original name of the festival was Sawhain pronounced “sow-in” and was to celebrate the harvest and prepare for the upcoming harsh winter. The Celts celebrated November 1 as the beginning of a new year and the evening before became known as “All Hallow’s Eve” which was corrupted to Halloween. It was the only day of the year that the boundary between the living and the dead became clouded and on this night the dead walked the earth. It was also believed that only on this night could one person predict the future of another. This was very important because of the rigors of the upcoming winter did indeed kill many of them. Every house extinguished the fire in their hearth because the Celtic priests (Druids) would cut down a sacred tree and build a gigantic bonfire for this night’s celebration. It was believed that if they could get a scrap of burning wood from this sacred fire and bring it into their homes, it would keep them warm throughout the winter. When the Celts approached the sacred fire they were costumed in animal heads and skins for ritualistic reasons. Upon the arrival of the Romans the rituals changed somewhat and Roman rituals were introduced as being part of the ritual. One of these rituals was the celebration of the harvest also except here they would honor the Roman goddess of fruits and trees, Pomona. Pomona is represented by the symbol of an apple. I guess y’all see where this is going. That’s right; it is the bobbing for apples and trying to bite an apple while it is hanging from a string that was the result of paying homage to Pomona. During the 8^th and 9^th century the Roman Catholic Church tried their damnedest to eliminate this pagan festival and make it a church related event and instituted all Saint’s Day on November 1 hoping to sway the existing pagans back under the umbrella of the church. It did not work. This pagan festival continues to this day. There is no written evidence for the rise of the event known as “trick or treat” except that on All Hallow’s Eve some of the dead that walked the earth were mean, spiteful creatures. I suspect that ritual was really fostered by candy manufacturers and costume makers. Anyway the colors that are associated with Halloween as being orange and black have a meaning. Orange represented the changing color of the leaves on deciduous trees and black meant winter, shorter days and death was on the horizon for some. It bothers me somewhat for different churches to sponsor a Halloween event. It means that they are fostering a pagan festival but it could keep some of the kids off the street.

                   This Date in History    October 28

1775    The new British military governor, General William Howe, ordered that every citizen of the city of Boston cannot leave town until further notice. Additionally, he decreed that all the citizens were expected to combat that group of ruffians that threw the tea into the harbor and that rag tag militia that had killed 226 and wounded 838 of his majesty’s troops at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June of this year. The Continental Congress had elected Virginia planter George Washington as commander-in-chief of the army but he was having a hell of a time convincing his troops that this was not a game. They were used to being commanded like a militia whereby the leaders are elected by the troops and if the leader was not what they wanted they simply fired him. Not only that, they all went back to the farm at harvest time. It happened here and Washington had no choice but to wait until spring and recruit a new army. Only this time he would have a professional military trainer to whip them into shape. That man was the Prussian Baron Von Steuben who joined Washington at Valley Forge this winter. Von Steuben did indeed begin training the remainder of the troops soon after his arrival. It worked and a well trained and disciplined army emerged. Howe stayed in Boston until in the following March when Washington and the brilliant Henry Knox were able to get some captured British artillery on high ground overlooking Boston. Howe had no choice but to retreat and the Bostonians were free to travel about for the first time in six months.

1864  The Battle of Fair Oaks ended. In the siege of Petersburg, two days earlier US General George Meade had tried and failed to turn the Confederate flank at Hatchers Run. A simultaneous attack was launched by US General Grant at the Confederate embrasures near Fair Oaks, Virginia in the hopes of preventing Lee from reinforcing the points of attack. The defenses near Fair Oaks were formidable ones and the Confederate commander there was CSA General James Longstreet who skillfully placed his troops to stem any and all attacks. After a two day struggle, the Union commander decided that they had done all he could and on this day withdrew and the drudgery of the siege continued. The Union had lost 1,100 killed, wounded or missing to the Confederate losing only 450.

1961    Rhythm and blues singer Chuck Berry went on trial for the second time for violation of the Mann Act. The trial was dubbed the “Apache Trial” by the media. It seems that Chuck had met Janice Escalante in a bar in El Paso, Texas. Chuck became enamored with Janice and invited her to join his entourage. Janice was a Mescalero Apache Indian. Chuck questioned her at length about her age and she insisted that she was 21 years old. After a few weeks Janice tired of the road and Chuck’s treatment of her and she went to the cops and complained and Chuck was arrested. At the trial the prosecution produced a birth certificate showing Janice as being only 14 years old. In spite of the fact that Janice lied to Chuck about her age, Chuck was indeed found guilty and was sentenced to three years and sent to Leavenworth. Later on he was sent to a jail in Saint Louis where he served his time until paroled. By the way, the Mann Act makes it a Federal crime to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. It was meant to prevent interstate prostitution and white slavery. Does that mean if I take a woman from Greenville, South Carolina to Hendersonville, North Carolina, about 40 miles, to view the Autumn leaves or pick apples and we spend the night, am I am guilty of a Federal crime? I realize that leaf looking and apple picking is not immoral, but I probably had thoughts of staying over in mind from the start.

1999    Cyclone 05B comes ashore on the southeast coast of India. As y'all know, in that part of the world a hurricane is known as a cyclone. This bad boy was a category 4 when it came ashore. The only problem is that it never quite came ashore completely and stalled out with part of it still out over the Indian Ocean which kept feeding it warm, moist air and therefore the storm never broke up. It poured torrential rains for days which resulted in monumental flooding. After it was all over there were 10,000 dead or missing along with 406,000 head of cattle. The same thing happened here that happened earlier in Bangladesh. Some of the human bodies were not found right away and the tigers came out of the jungle and feasted on them. They developed a taste for it and began hunting humans as a matter of course. It took a generation for the tigers to get back to normal.

1965    On this day the famous arch in Saint Louis, Missouri is dedicated. This monument was designed by the famous Finnish architect Eero Saarinen as a memorial to the western expansion fostered by Thomas Jefferson and explored by the immortal Lewis and Clark expedition that began and ended in Saint Louis.

Births and deaths:

1704 English philosopher John Locke died. He said “The care of souls cannot belong to a civil magistrate.” The same thing can be said about the churches these days.

1898 US costume designer Edith Head is born. She said “Your dress should be tight enough to show that you are a woman but loose enough to show that you are a lady.” Hey Edith, will you go have a talk with Lindsay Lohan and Miley Cyrus?

1949 US Olympian Bruce Jenner is born. He said “I spent four years training for one day and Joe Namath trains for one day and plays for 12 years.” Joe was famous for wearing pantyhose of cold game days. There ain’t no justice.

1960 English writer Steve Pond is born. He said “Just how long can you know nothing without you head collapsing inward?” I have met many of them, Steve.

1967 US actress Julia Roberts is born. She said “I won’t do nudity in films…performing while clothed is acting, performing while nude is a documentary.” Julia has a beautiful face and is very skilled at acting (Erin Brockovich, in particular) but in my opinion her physique is lacking in certain places...but what do I know.

      Thanks for listening    I can hardly wait until tomorrow