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
Here
is the root of our celebration of Halloween:
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. The people 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 8th
and 9th
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.
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 would have had thoughts of
spending the night 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 like that
earlier in Bangladesh. Some of the human bodies were not found right
away...but the tigers found them. 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.
Thanks
for listening I can hardly wait until tomorrow
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