Happy Hall-o-we'en

Happy Hall-o-we'en

Where it all started:  Ireland

Ireland’s Celtic Sanheim celebration

was meant to keep evil spirits away. Ireland’s traditions are the “father” of many of today’s Hall-o-we’en traditions such as costumes, harmless pranks,bonfires,and “treats” to enjoy. 

A favorite “treat” in Ireland is “barnbrack” – a type of fruitcake. (Sounds more like a “trick” to me.)

The Catholic celebration of All Saints Day is November 1, making October 31 the “Hallowed Evening” before Nov 1. The story goes that as the “ghouls” were banned from wreaking havoc on the earth on All Saints Day, they would come out “en masse” on Oct. 31, “making up” for being unable to indulge in their usual mischief from the earth on Nov. 1.   Thus the name “Hall-o-we’en”.

But, if Hall-o-we’en is a Catholic celebration, what happened when England broke away from the Catholic  church?

When England broke away from the Catholic church they also broke away from the traditional "All Saint's Day." 

However...everyone enjoys a reason to celebrate and Guy Fawkes was the unfortunate person who provided England a reason to continue to celebrate “Hall-o-we’en” as “Guy Fawkes Day.” 

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605 was set in motion.  Guy Fawkes was chosen to carry out the plan to blow up the English parliament. He was not successful.  He was captured, tried, and executed on Nov.5 (hanged, drawn and quartered!)

To celebrate their victory of stopping Fawkes from blowing up the English parliament, “All Hallowed Eve” was dropped and replaced by "Guy Fawkes Day" on Nov. 5.

Many other countries have holidays around the same time as Hall-o-we’en, but they are not all for the same reasons as the American or British celebrations.

In Hong Kong, the celebration similar to our Hall-o-we’en is “Yue Lan” (Festival of the Hungry Ghosts”).  It is believed the spirits have a 24-hour period in which they roam the earth.

The Japanese people have an “Obon Festival) which is dedicated to their ancestors’ spirits journey back to the place of their birth during this time. Altars with food are set up, lanterns are set afloat on the rivers, and fires are built to welcome the spirits of their ancestors home.

In Korea the holiday is called “Chusok.” Families thank their ancestors for their hard work (while they were living).  They visit the graves of the ancestors and leave food offerings.  

Mexico, Spain, and Latin American countries celebrate “The Day of the Dead.”  This is a happy day of parades, feasting, flowers and costumes to honor those who went before and those who are here on earth to celebrate it now.  

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There are as many traditions as there are countries.  Just google “Hall-o-we’en” and find out many more traditions.

For more info:

http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-ten-irish-traditions-for-halloween-see-photos-105754748-237724251

Dogs or Cats....which do you prefer?

Which do you prefer?

Dogs bark.

                               

Cats sleep a lot.

Cats are smaller than dogs.....usually

Cats are finicky eaters

Dogs....not so much.

But when it comes to love

They're both THE best!


Cats and Dogs....I've had both and have loved both.  

FIRST DATE (sort of)

A recently divorced mother of two, it was taking me a bit to adjust to being single.

Actually, it was taking me longer to adjust to not having my children every other weekend than to being divorced.  It wasn't as if this was an overnight decision.  A couple of years of therapy, many tears, humiliation after humiliation, finally culminated in my ex coming in at 6:00 a.m. (I was getting ready for work) and my telling him, "Don't be here when I come home tonight."  And he wasn't.

The situation then was to make this change as easy as possible for the two innocents in this circus.

So I made up a few rules (I'm a rule kinda person).

1.  My children are the #1 priority in my life.
2.  I will provide my children with as stable a home life as possible.
3.  I will not look back.  The decision was made after much angst and I will move forward with it.
4.  I will not talk bad about my children's father.
                 I tried really hard to keep this one.  When they were younger they told me I didn't                               do well with this one.  Now that they are older they see/recognize things they didn't then                     and are more forgiving of my occasional melt-downs.

But that's not the story today.

I worked in a large company.  Gary, a friend I worked with, always smiling and polite, approached my desk one day in May and said, "My brother, Fred, is being stationed at the air base and he is also recently divorced.  Would you be interested in meeting him?"

After asking some questions, "I'll think about it and let you know," was my reply.

A few days later I agreed to meet Fred.

That's when the fiasco began.

Remember #1 above?  One of those priority things was that I NEVER hired a babysitter for my children.  If they couldn't go with me wherever I went, then I didn't go.  Needless to say, above mentioned brother wasn't big on taking two children with us on our first date.

Fred was an air-traffic-controller, which meant he worked 2 days on day shift, 2 days on afternoon shift, and 2 days on midnights with the following 48 hours his weekend.

I worked Monday through Friday, some Saturdays and had Sundays off.  AND, I only dated on the weekends my children were with their dad.

Think about it.  This meant that it was often 2 and 3 weeks between the times when he and I both had a Saturday or Sunday off together.

June, July, and August came and went and we still hadn't had our first date.

In September the children went back to school, which made me even less accessible because I was president of the PTO.  More demands on my time and I still had the rule: No Babysitters.

Gary came to my desk one day and said, "Fred has Wednesday and Thursday off this week.   If you want to go out with him, he has asked you to call him at work. Here's his number."

"I'll call him tonight," I said.

When I arrived home, the children were upset because the dog was gone.  We spent an hour or more searching for our dog, without any luck.

"It's time to eat.  We're all hungry.  Let's go home and we'll go back out after dinner."

They agreed.  We went home and ate.  As we were "redding" the table, the phone rang.  The voice on the other end said, "There is a dog that has been hit by a car and we think it belongs to you."

The three of us rushed out the door and over to the address given us and--sure enough--it was our dog.  I called the emergency vet number.  The three of us spent the next 2.5 - 3 hours at the vets with our much loved pet.

All thoughts of calling Fred were forgotten.

Gary was waiting for me at my desk the next morning.  He was not happy.

He gave me time to sit down and put my purse away, then he leaned over my desk and said, in a quiet voice, "Look, if you don't want to go out with my brother, just say so.  But don't keep stringing him along.  He waited all night for you to call and you didn't."

I've always believed that quiet voices could be more menacing than loud ones.  Gary's quiet voice proved it.  He was mad.  I could tell.

Looking up I said, "I forgot to call him."

"How could you forget?  We talked about it just yesterday!  I reminded you before I left work?!?"

"I am sorry.  I didn't mean to brush him off.  My dog was hit by a car and I spent most of the night at the vets."

He backed off.  "Is that true?"

"Yes.  Of course it is.  Look.  Here's my checkbook.  See?   Dr. Woods, Vet    $300.00."

"Okay.  Here's his number.  Call him now.  He said he'd stay up and wait to hear from you."

(Remember that this was his second midnight day so he had left work around 7:00 so he would just be getting home.)

Finally Fred and I connected on the phone.

He sounded nice.

And I broke my rule.  I agreed to go out with him on Thursday,
if I could get a babysitter.

I found a babysitter.

We went out on our first date and it was, for me, love at first sight.

Thirty-four years later, it still is.

Share and Share Alike

Benny was excited.  All the cousins were coming to visit.  Of course, that meant Uncle Ed would be there also, but that was okay because Jenny and Tom and Pete would be there too.  Jenny, Tom, and Pete were Uncle Ed and Aunt Edna's children...Benny's cousins.  And more...almost all the aunts and uncles and cousins were coming to the pre-graduation party.

Oh, yes, the party was to celebrate his older brothers graduation from high school.

And he was going to be the ultimate host.

If the weather was nice there was a new set of horseshoes and a new croquet set.

If the weather didn't cooperate, there were board and card games.

AND....he knew where his mother hid her special chocolate candy.
          That would be the hit of the day!


Excitement grew as carloads of relatives began to arrive.


The uncles went golfing.

The aunts did last minute shopping and cooking for the following days festivities.

Older cousins and younger cousins played croquet for several hours.

 The older cousins then decided to go to the movies without the younger cousins.

"Don't worry," Benny said. "I have games and," he leaned into the group of cousins, "I know where Mom hides her best chocolates."

"Oooooohhhhh!" the cousins replied.

All the younger cousins went in the house and "shared" the best chocolates.  When they were finished, there were no chocolates left.

A little later all the cousins had stomach aches.

Which grew worse and worse.

"What have you been eating?"

Then Mom discovered all her "special"
chocolates were gone.

The cousins were very unhappy.

Mom and Dad and all the Aunts and Uncles and cousins were rolling on the floor laughing.

It was a good thing all the neighbors were home

so they could use their bathrooms.

Benny never shared Mom's "special" chocolates again, even though he was not punished (by Mom or Dad) for sharing them this one time.

"Chocolate" ex-lax for those who did not like the taste of the regulars.   :-)