Holiday Cards (Felinitations)

Sherry wrote:

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays too, and am completely
ignorant (by choice) of the true origins, history, etc. It's the
only chance kids get to pretend they're a pirate or a princess for
an evening and eat themselves sick on candy. It's a celebration that
the horrid 100 degree temps of Aug. and Sept. are over with, the
weather is indescribably beautiful here in October. It's carving
jack-o-lanters, decorating with gourds and chrysanthemums in bloom.

If you grew up with Halloween being about costumes and candy and
pumpkin-carving, then that's what the holiday is for you. I think
personal experiences like these are more meaningful to most people
than trying to celebrate in some ancient way that's probably totally
unfamiliar to them. Halloween means the same thing for me, too -
along with millions of other people.

I think a lot of people these days have no idea of the history of
Halloween, mostly because they haven't had a chance to learn about it,
or they simply don't care about it. But I'm curious why you would choose
to avoid learning about it deliberately. Not saying you should have to
learn about it, I'm just wondering why that's such a conscious choice
on your part.

I'm no expert on this, but I assume that modern Halloween comes from
Samhain, the Pagan holiday. I've gone to a number of Samhain rituals,
and I think they're lovely, but to me that's a totally different
celebration from what I think of as "Halloween". They might as well
have no connection at all, not just because they're done differently,
but also because I experienced each one in completely separate contexts
and periods of my life.

On a tangential note, I think it's interesting that Samhain, All Souls
Day, and the Mexican Day of the Dead holidays are all very close together
in the calendar, and they all deal with themes of contacting the dead,
the "other side", the spirit world - where the "veil between worlds"
becomes very thin. There must be some connection between the three
holidays - either a historical connection, or maybe there's just something
about that time of year that reminds one of death - it's almost winter,
leaves are mostly fallen and are decaying, etc. (I wonder if there are
any southern-hemisphere cultures that celebrate similar things around
late March/early April?)

And it still irritates me that the schools have put a taboo
on the "H-Word" and now they have to say "Fall Festival."

Wackos. Or idiots? Maybe both.

Of course, this is the same school who decided the Rainbow Brite doll,
Smurfs and unicorns were evil. (????)

LOL, that's to be expected, I guess. It doesn't sound like the collective
IQ points are very high among some people.

Joyce
--
The heck with top and bottom -- I want relationships with strangeness
and charm.

On Aug 27, 3:41*pm, Judith Latham wrote:
In article
,
* *hopitus wrote:





I refuse to participate in contentious discussion re what goes on near
the end of the
year. I respect everyone's choice of words for all of it and will
merely state that I use
massive amounts of colored lighting at the residence, which is a PITA
because it must
all be way above the reach of the misguided felines who have the urge
to attack and bite
the decorative and tempting arrays (electric shock not the least
danger to the short, furry
people).
Hoping to defuse the hostile commentary in this thread....I would like
the say something
I have been wanting to here for some time, non-related to any
festivities whatsoever. I have
used for many years the finest bath soaps IMHO on earth...hardmilled
body bars, with
various floral fragrances in varying strengths, all imported from UK.
None of the soaps in
my country, USA, come close to the superiority of these English soaps.
The prevailing
ads dominating our consumption of cleansing products for bath and
shower are for liquid
gels and bottled liquid cleansers all promising to do miraculous thngs
to our skin, hair,
pores, etc.(yeah, right) which you do not see on the boxes English
soaps are contained in.
Only the ingredients in the soap are listed, and they are not the
strange, exotic plant life
additives which I personally am bigtime allergic to....various leaves,
roots, extracts, herbs
which cause me various levels of itching and rashes post-bathing. IMHO
the USA soap
manufacturers don't know when to *quit* with the additives! Thank God
I can buy these
simple, lovely, long-lasting soap bars from your country at outlet
stores both in FL and
MileHigh near where I live and at a quite reasonable price. Thank you,
Brits.
Let us all attempt to regain some semblance of civility here. Or not.
LOL.

What a glowing tribute to our soaps. I hadn't realised how I take these
for granted.

Judith

--
Judith Latham
Stourbridge, West Midlands. UK.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oh man. Don't ever take them for granted. I have been known to stop
in at Marshalls just so I can stock up on Italian or British hand-
milled
soaps at a good price. I'm surprised to read others are so particular
too!
There really is a difference. My fave is lavendar or honey-almond.

Sherry

Jofirey wrote:
Judith wrote:
What a glowing tribute to our soaps. I hadn't realised how I take these
for granted.

I've had some glorious english soaps as well.

I also have my own private stash of hard milled soap. But mine is from
Clinique, not imported.

I love the Pre de Provence soaps, widely available in the US, I think.
They're french and absolutely delightful. Plus, they're relatively
inexpensive! Lavender is my favorite, followed by sage and verbena.
I am a sucker for fancy soaps...

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Christina Websell wrote:
I'll tell you who I am. I am a white British person whose culture is
disappearing in my home town and it concerns me.

How does that give you the right to tell the rest of us what to do?

--
Victor M. Martinez
Owned and operated by the Fantastic Seven (TM)
Send your spam he
Email me he

Christina Websell wrote:
"Adrian" wrote in message
om...
Christina Websell wrote:
"Victor Martinez" wrote in message
...
Christina Websell wrote:
So why send cards out at that time ? Ignore it then.

There you go again, telling people what to do. Who do you think you
are?
I'll tell you who I am. I am a white British person whose culture
is disappearing in my home town and it concerns me.
Tweed

You're begining to sound like a racist bigot.
--
Explain how I am an racist bigot for saying my culture is
disappearing. It is and I make no apology for saying so.

I didn't say you were one, only that you were begining to sound like one.
What's so wonderful about _your_ culture anyway?
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

I'm no expert on this, but I assume that modern Halloween comes
from Samhain, the Pagan holiday.

Not directly. The American Halloween is very closely based on the
Scottish one, as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, except you
guys discovered that pumpkins were a helluva lot easier to carve
than turnips (= rutabagas in American). Any explicit pagan content
had long been lost before the British colonized North America.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts
****** I killfile Google posts - email me if you want to be whitelisted ******

"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in
message ...
I'm no expert on this, but I assume that modern Halloween comes
from Samhain, the Pagan holiday.

Not directly. The American Halloween is very closely based on the
Scottish one, as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, except you
guys discovered that pumpkins were a helluva lot easier to carve
than turnips (= rutabagas in American). Any explicit pagan
content
had long been lost before the British colonized North America.

We have turnips (usually white with purple trim) parsnips (like
pale, sweet carrots) and rutabagas (bigger than turnips and yellow).
Though I'm guessing very few Americans knowingly eat any of them.
We don't examine our canned vegetable soup too closely.

Those whose family roots are to the north, got heartily sick and
tired of them back when families ate what they canned and what was
in the root cellar all winter.

I can't imagine carving a lantern out of any of them, but then
people used to be handier at carving with a pocket knife.


Jo

American Halloween is very closely based on the Scottish one, as
it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, except you guys discovered
that pumpkins were a helluva lot easier to carve than turnips
(= rutabagas in American).
We have turnips (usually white with purple trim) parsnips (like
pale, sweet carrots) and rutabagas (bigger than turnips and yellow).

"Turnip" in Scots is the same thing as "rutabaga" in American or
"swede" in English. What you and the English call a "turnip", we
call a "white turnip".

I can't imagine carving a lantern out of any of them, but then
people used to be handier at carving with a pocket knife.

Me either. Without using power tools, a lot of folks must have
lost fingers from knifeslips at that time of year.

==== j a c k at c a m p i n . m e . u k === http://www.campin.me.uk ====
Jack Campin, 11 Third St, Newtongrange EH22 4PU, Scotland == mob 07800 739 557
CD-ROMs and free stuff: Scottish music, food intolerance, and Mac logic fonts
****** I killfile Google posts - email me if you want to be whitelisted ******

On Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:23:42 +0100, Jack Campin - bogus address
wrote:

I'm no expert on this, but I assume that modern Halloween comes
from Samhain, the Pagan holiday.

Not directly. The American Halloween is very closely based on the
Scottish one, as it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, except you
guys discovered that pumpkins were a helluva lot easier to carve
than turnips (= rutabagas in American). Any explicit pagan content
had long been lost before the British colonized North America.

Turnips here are turnips there.

Rutabagas here are swedes there.

They look about the same.

Bud

"Jack Campin - bogus address" wrote in
message ...
American Halloween is very closely based on the Scottish one, as
it was in the 18th and 19th centuries, except you guys
discovered
that pumpkins were a helluva lot easier to carve than turnips
(= rutabagas in American).
We have turnips (usually white with purple trim) parsnips (like
pale, sweet carrots) and rutabagas (bigger than turnips and
yellow).

"Turnip" in Scots is the same thing as "rutabaga" in American or
"swede" in English. What you and the English call a "turnip", we
call a "white turnip".

I can't imagine carving a lantern out of any of them, but then
people used to be handier at carving with a pocket knife.

Me either. Without using power tools, a lot of folks must have
lost fingers from knifeslips at that time of year.

You forget that our grandpa's would sit and whittle toys and kitchen
tools and artistic stuff from the time they were seven or eight
years old. And there was a grindstone out back where they kept
those clumsy looking knives razor sharp. They had the time to be
patient. Not like there was anything on TV.

Jo