Here are some great ideas for serving your children and guest on Halloween!!! Many of these treats the children could actively participate in, with adult supervision. Great for group cooking with young chef's. It makes for fun activities for parties or gatherings. Yes some of this is bad for you. Feel free to substitute any ingredients from my recipe with something more desirable.
I do not advise giving these out on to trick or treater's!
Monster Pizza
I come from New York, so naturally I'm a pizza snob. Living in Florida I have had to improvise.
Take the pita bread, put a layer of sauce on one side. Try not to be too thick or use too much. Sprinkle cheese on top. Arrange toppings to look like a scary face. Place on pan and toast in oven or toaster oven until cheese melts. Usually 325-350 for 15-20 minutes. Leave longer for extra crispy.
Zombies Cookies
Sugar cooke or Gingerbread dough
Candy and Frosting for decor
For sugar cookies you could dye the dough green
Use your favorite sugar cookie or gingerbread recipe, roll dough flat and use person shape cookies cutter to shape your zombie. Decorate with candy and icing. Add m&ms as eyes before baking, the coloring bleeds around the eye.
Mud Dip
1/2 cup of almond butter
Coco non sweetened powder to preference.
Honey, sweetnesses preference
Mix ingredients together unit blended. It looks like mud, the consistency of uncooked brownie batter, taste great and has more protein than sugar. Use for pretzel and fruit dip. Apples tend to work best, but so does short bread cookies too. It makes a tasty toast spread and I hear it's delicious with banana's.
Cemetery Cupcakes
Medium to large size cupcakes
Frosting of your preference
White chocolate covered Oreo's
A tube of colored frosting. Thin tip.
Autumn leave sprinkles (optional)
Make your favorite cupcake with your favorite topping, green and purple color frosting looks the best. Shove a white chocolate covered Oreo through the top, leaving half the cookie stick out. Write with decorative icing "RIP" or "BOO!"on the cookie.
Bloodshot Eyeball Eggs
Eggs
Ketup
Black olives
Hard boil eggs, unshell and cut in half. Use exposed yoke as the pupil, cut olive into the iris if the eye and push into the yoke. Put ketup into a small plastic sandwich bag. Prick a small hole on the bottom corner, just like a pastry bag and draw red cracks on the egg whites along side the yoke.
Popcorn Bags
Popcorn
There has to be a mi!lion ways to dress up popcorn in a bag. From the glove to the ghost. This easy, tasty and low cost treat is a life saviour!
May you and your family have aa wonderful Halloween!
First let me be clear, I was born and raised in New York, but because of the cost of living, I'm a displaced New Yorker, living in Florida. I'm told it's lovely, from those who like the tropics, which I don't. I'm also a mutt, I come from several lines of generations in this country, plus my family got around in Europe. I know my fathers father was born to Italian immigrants in the Bronx. Both of my grandfathers were Italian and both served in World War Two. A New Yorker will understands the significance of the Italian World War Two veterans, but many outside our state don't fully understand the pain and suffering of our heritage.
Before we go into detail about that, let us acknowledge,Columbus was a Bastard! The story we all learned in school about him discovering America and the shape of the earth were directly from a fictional novel "A History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus," by Washington Irving, written in 1828. This was written during a time where the American Colonists were in the act of committing mass genocide to the Natives from the northern continent. Making Christopher Columbus a hero was fitting for men who devalued human life for means of profits and power. The same arts of manipulation were used to change the "Thanksgiving" history, into the school musical's your parents loved watching you preform back when you still had a bed time.
Columbus was a slave trader and tyrant. In fact he and his brothers treated the indigenous people of Hispaniola so horribly, that Queen Isabella of Spain had the trio brought back to Europe in chains. This was the same monarch who began the Spanish Inquisition, had Columbus stripped of his title as Governor of the Indies for inhumane treatment. It is understandable why the decendents in the indigenous people, who have been nearly wiped out find this man so offensive.
Why do Italian's love him so? Well take a look of the myth we have been wrongly taught as fact's. Columbus, an Italian, discovers America and that the world isn't in some way flat. Those are pretty flattering accomplishments for one to associate yourself with. Who would want to give that up, especially for a truth that is so ugly!
Just as the Irish hold true to Saint Patrick as an excuse to celebrate their culture, with limited knowledge of the history of the character, Columbus is a sort of demi god that reprents a culture and people. Even if the real person is nothing as the myth claim's, the idea has evolved further into a culture. Italians from the early twenth century, especially those from southern Italy were considered genetically inferior. Many italian families abandoned their native lanuage completely in hopes of acceptance, well as their names altered by authority figures. Religion was also a complication. America prided itself on its white Protestant image, demanding cultures submit to their standards. Naturally due to poverty, discrimination and in the case of the 1920s Prohibition, led to a new level of crime, ie.... organised crime.
Italian families fought long and hard to reach acceptance. A turning point came when the United States entered into World War Two. Italian were the largest national group to join the serve to fight. To many Italians who fought it was about freeing the motherland from Mussolini to proving their undying loyalty to the new world. Yet fifty years later and still no Italian President, there is still the fear against Catholics and old fears often die kicking screaming.
Italian families, despite many cultural sacrifices maintained a close net family ties and reinvention of Italian cooking, Italian American cuisine. Ideas between which traditions should be kept and which should die is battle from generation to generation. Today many younger Italian's are leaving Catholicism, some become Protestant, but fastly more becomes secular or pagan. Italian history has famous atheist like Umberto Veronesi an oncologist who contributed greatly to the prevention and treatment of breast cancer and Renato Caccioppio a mathematician and pianists. Italian culture also has a strong pagan history. From ancient Rome to Catholic mytheism, Italian culture is rich in ancient spirituality. These changes are frightening to the older individuals who won't question the authorities of their childhood.
Which is why many Italian individual's become attached to the nostalgic romantized story story of Columbia. The problem is the idea that American Italian culture needs to represented by a singular historical figure. I challenge this notion!
World War Two Italian veterans: these brave men and women were more than willing to fight and even die for this country. So many fought, mainstream society was forced to reconsider Italian's in American culture.
Our food is a celebration all in itself! From cappuccino to lasagna. Your mouth waters with just the smell of a good pizza. You haven't lived until you had cannolli-gasm!
Italian artist and celebrities. From Leonardo DiVinci to Robert DeNero. Frank Sinatra, is iconic and Valentino still received flowers on his grave. Not to mention century old operas, dances, sculptures, paintings, etc. . Italian culture has contributed to society.
All of these people and traditions represent modern day Italian Americans better than a mad slave trader who died in the early sixteenth century. We as a culture have much to be proud of, over the dark stain from our his history, which Columbus really was. We deserve better than him and should celebrate all that makes our culture great and in turn make America great!
Let's face it, October is a fun month! It's colorful, playful, creative and even scary at times. With holidays like Samhain and Halloween, inspire our little festive dance with death, which essentially what these holidays are. Death is the window, to the past, which led to my love of old legends and the history behind it. History is loaded with gruesome stories. Some are thought provoking, others are scary, but all great ways to bring out a little history from a young persons life.
Please consider the age and mentality of your children before sharing any of theses stories. Some image's are rather graphic, but in black and white format.
1. Hauntedhouse are always a favorite, but one house I'm sure was haunted, because it was literally a murder house. " The Castle" it was called by its creator and American serial killer H. H. Holmes, was a luxury hotel that took up three addresses, with torture below its surface. In Holmes 34 years of life, its confirmed he killed 9 people, but estimated the true number was around 200. His hotel held secret chambers were his victims would suffocate, dehydration, starve or be tortured to death. Holmes was eventually caught and hanged on May 7, 1896. His "Castle" burned to the ground in a mysterious fire years later.
Project's
a) Try making model of a house with trap doors and hiddenpassageways. Use cardboard as a medium.
b) Have your student play detective and review the evidence themselves.
2. Torturedevice's, because lefts face it, a murder house is just house with messy rooms without torture and its devices. Although it may seem like fun and games, the art of torture is actual profession. It disturbing to admit that much of our medical advancements came from the act of torture. From knowledge of anatomy to medical methods and devices. A good study on the history of torture devices from ancient China to modern times is a fascinating evolutionary process.
Project's
a) Talk about social issues of a society that uses torture, both current and past.
b) Have your student make a model or drawing of the device, then explain its mechanics.
3. No Haunted house is complete without its Mad Scientist! Dr. Josef Mengele, an SS officer of the Nazi party. He cruelty conducted experiments of forced subjects, men, women and children. He would sew identical twins together in an attempt to create conjoint twins. In attempts to learn how to make sea water drinkable, he would deprive his all other food or drink, other than his experiments. Other grosume experiment in ways to prevent and treat hypothermia, involved stripping people nude exposing their flesh to extremely cold temperatures.
Project's
a) Ask, what would cause a person and group of people to be so apathetic to such level high level of human suffering?
c) Have your student's study the stories of those who survived torture, both long ago past, to recent times.
4. Evil Queen, try Empress! Empress consort of Emperor Augustus Caeser, Livia Drusillia is rumored to have murdered everyone before her son Tiberius path to Emperor of Rome. Including her husband, the current Emperor of the time. It is believed she painted figs in the gardens with poison, knowing her husband apparently justified paranoid about picking his own food. Posion is Queen, they said about her. She and Augustus were married over fifty years.
Project's
a) Rome was always theatrical, so why not recreate realistic scenes of common people, like peasants, slaves, soldiers, etc.... It's a great way to make history become more live, while relieving the soap opera, that was the Roman Empirical family.
b) Teach your younger students about poisonous plants, what they do and most importantly, the antidote!
5. The true story behind the Fairytale's, especially Hansel and Gretel are rather disturbing. One of my favorite stories is similar the murder case of a baker named Katharine Scharderin from Harz German. Apparently her ginger bread was so good, it rocked the seventh century, that it lead her death by a rival Baker, Hans Metzlar 37 and his sister Grete 34 burned Scharderin to death in her own oven, in an attempt to get her recipe. Although the premise of the story dates back four hundred years before this murder, the Grims Brother's used the earlier account for minor details, like names.
Project's
a) Find your favorite fairytale and learn the history behind the story.
b) Make up a play of the fairytale in the realistic manner the story implies though historical context.
6. Another fun story to dissect is Washington Irving's
"Legend of Sleepy Hollow."
This story was originally a German legend "The Wild Huntsman" said to chase down criminals at great speed. Irving's take on the story was based off the Dutch version, who disliked the German's, made their hero a mindless killer. Another drastic change from realty, Ichabod Crane was indeed a real person, whom Irving was acquainted. Although he wasn't like the character, an anxious school teacher, but rather a high ranking USA Marine, whom served in the war if 1812.
Project's
a) Ask what other ancient myth has been taken out of context and why.
b) Through the real Ichabod Crane was a rough and tough sort of fellow, it is said Irving added personal behaviors from Crane, to his character. What kind of person do think the the real Crane was?
7. Body Snatchers, are actually a fascinating history. It was often the only way for early medical schools to have enough bodies. Creepy notorious body snatcher, Carl Tanzier a radiologic technologist, who became infatuated with a patient he failed to save from tuberculosis in 1931. Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, succumbed to her illness on October 25, she was twenty-two years old. Tanzier, who was fifty-four years when she died, paid for her burial. He eventually stole Hoyos body, mummified and had his way with it. He wasn't caught until 1940, where the corpse was placed in a secret burial location. Tanzier died in 1952 at the age of seventy five.
Project's
a) This is a good time to review morty science. Talk about the different ways bodies are disposed of.
b) Talk about necrophilia with older students, obviously. It's crazy enough to spike some teenagers curiosity.
8. Attack of the Killer_______! We've all seen some version of this genre of movie, like Jaws aka attack of the killer shark. Human beings enjoy being on top of the food chain, but are humbled when one of us is consumed by nature. It could be a bear, a pack of wolves or you break your neck tripping over a house cat, man kind can damage more than pride when encountering the animal kingdom. The stories are endless!
Project's
a) Time to talk about animal safety!
b) Have your students review animal attack cases and think of ways to avoid them.
9. Monster or People with medical conditions? Medical science has come along from the dark ages. We are able to study the very make-up of a being, discovering all kinds of information. Including postmodern of a corpse that hasn't embalmed decomposition to genetic trades that cause the person to be covered in hair, Hyperichosis. There many medical conditions that could be tied to superstitions, mythologies and legends. I wish to make clear, it is not the individual's with disabilities who are scary, but how they were treated by family and society! For example the sad tale of Julia Pastana.
Project's
a) Teach your students to identify medical conditions in these legends and understand the time period if when the story was told.
b) Try to involve your student into working with peers with physical and mental challenge's. Better to break the ground early and encourage support, patients, respect and dignity towards all kinds of people.
10. Raising a Demon Slayer! With stories of ghost, vampires, ghouls, let us not forget real monster's exist and they come in all forms. Teaching your students criminology will give them a better understanding about what they could be up against. Don't become paranoid, but teach your students to question adults, to look out for suspicious or inappropriate behavior. Teach them how to defend themselves from an adult they don't know or trust.
Project's
a) Teach age appropriate defenses and identify methods of what is acceptable adult behavior. Also explain, different adults like medical staff may touch their body parts, but teach them to identify the correct measures of the medical staff.
b) Have your students volunteer for searches of missing persons. Let them see how real these cases are and how much they hurt a family.
May your autumn festives be as thought provoking as well as fun!
Every so often it's good to watch a few inspirational videos. Here are some wonderful video I feel fit the theme of my more popular post!
1. The Dugger's article is by far my most viewed article. Though rather disturbing topic, it has that train wreck effect, you don't want to see it, but can't look away. I try to look on the bright side, at least the former TLC reality sitcom would inspire such satire.
Kid Farm
2. Although my Fat Shaming article didn't make the top ten, it had a recent increase of viewing, upon seeing this remarkable video, I felt inspired to share!
Why Fat Girls Shouldn't Wear Bikinis
3. Although this video doesn't represent any one particular article, Charlie Chaplin's speech at end of "the Great Dictator" was breath taking my beautiful. Hear in his words transformed into visual gratification, called
The Greatest Speech Ever Made
4. My Fraggle article is still my favorite. Yes it may seem silly, but I do believe in the philosophy in much of the work of the Jim Henson Corporation.
Let Me Be Your Song
5. My last article, Aging Pagan; Our Personal Autumn Equinox became very popular, thanks to the sharing of a kind, wise and respected elder on her page. This video series, is a reaction channel, exploring the differences between generations.
Elders React
I hope to continue to write for you and thank you for reading. Expect more articles coming soon!
In the spirit of the upcoming Equinox, I feel it's time to talk about age and death. For fourteen years I have worked in health care, some of that time as an EMT, but mostly as a Home Health Aide. I'm not a doctor, nurse or lawyer. What I'm is a witness. I'm there when the nurse leaves, in the patients home, where few doctors venture. I have seen courage and fear. The stories I could tell you could equally break your heart or inspire a greeting card. I'm here merely to give my personal advice and strongly suggest you seek your own legal counsel. I share with you some suggestions, as well address concerns. Please use both knowledge and free will.
1. Some wise advice from his holiness the Dahai Lama.
This holds true, especially for those who suffer from conditions that affects memory. Don't live with regrets, make amends if you can and patch up damaged relationships. Be kind and thoughtful as often as you can. Your fancy toys won't fit in your hospital room, but images of your past will dance in your head. Make those memories special. Remember kisses, hugs, sun rises/ sets, butterfly's, songs, good cheers, merriment. Let go of your arguments, disappointments, scratches on pride and low point's.
2. Please heal past traumas. I can not stress this enough. An elderly person I knew witnessed the sexual assault of a friend, both were very young at the time. This resulted in many nightmares and as the patients mind deteriorated she relived the experience unable to understand this was no longer a threat.
3. Study the effects of advance aging, as well as your families medical history. Make the decisions of what you are willing to go through and what you are not. Seek legal counsel, realize DNRs (Do Not Resuscitate) only prevent medical professionals from any attempts of restarting the heart, they will often go to great lengths from preventing the organ from stopping. I suggest you not stop with documents, but video record your feeling's on this issue. This means brainstorming on some of the most horrific of situations. As difficult as this may be, its far worse being in these situations without your wishes honored.
4. Be kind to the young. To your children or younger family members, never forget these will be the people determining what happens to you and your estates. The children of today will be your caretaker's and world leader's when you become more vulnerable. Think about the world you leave behind.
5. Obviously, eat right and exercise, but stay mentally active as well. Do that crossword puzzle while you eat your yogurt and drink coffee without sugar. Socialise, date and be sexually active. Find some social hobbies and take on several. As an able body person, you may want to start a program that encourages others with physical limitations to be physically active. You never know, you could one day be benefiting from the gifts you gave others. So volunteer at the hospital, make crafts, fix old cars, learn a new language, take a class, play on a team, dance even with just your eyes.
6. Celebrate age. Crown yourself the Crone or the Wise one. Own your age and be the person you want to be. Enjoy your free time and appreciate the wisdom you have gained. Believe it or not it will serve you better than youth.
7. Remember, just because you're retired doesn't mean everyone else has stopped working. All your free time could consume you and lead to feelings of neglect. If you want to be closer to your family, try to get to know them and find an interest you could share. You may not fully understand the newer generation, doesn't mean you can not connect in some way. Be a friend. Please don't forget how difficult life can be. Understand life's circumstances when frustrated by youth.
8. Determine your final interment and the details of your last ceremony. Following religious and spiritual customs tends to make the transition more peaceful. You don't have to follow the traditional route of a funeral home, Death Doula's are an option in most if the USA. Pagan funeral options are also becoming more available. Military Viking Funeral.
9. Assistant living facilities and nursing homes hate change! Some have not adjusted to the fact most of their residents grew up with rock and roll. A music once despised by the generation before. They are also of the mindset of pushing Christianity onto their residents. Too often a prayer said by the director ends "in Jesus name." Offensive to pagans, atheist. Jews, Muslims and other ideas outside this one religion. This is not the time to be intimidated or weak. Stand up for your rights.
10. Know when to stop driving. As we age, our sight goes, our mind may wander, we might nap randomly, all serious dangers while we drive. Please, you don't want to be responsible for the death of another person, know when to let go. Its often better for seniors to live where there is decent public transportation.
11. Down size! You don't want to waste your energy cleaning a big empty house. Stairs are lovely, but are your enemy! Trust me! You might want to consider an apartment or condo over an entire house. When looking for a final home, you want to consider a few things.
You have to think ahead.
A. Where's the closes hospital and do you like it?
B. What access to public transportation is there available? Just because you can drive now, doesn't mean you will in the future.
C. How close are there stores for food, clothing and other area's? Are there dangerous roads, intersections, insufficient space for safe travel by walking or wheelchair?
E. Home maintenance coverage, utilities and security coverage.
F. Activities to do in the community.
G. Avoid stairs! Your knees will thank me. Also don't go with narrow hallways, doors and rooms. Make sure to look for big bathrooms with spacious showers or walk in tubs. Either have a large bedroom or get a smaller bed.
12. When you're dead your will can be contested. If you have something special you want to give to a special person, give it to them before you die. This way you can enjoy their happiness, while ensuring the item goes where you want it.
13. If you need further advice, watch the Golden Girls. Believe it or not, these four women, through comedy covered many of complex issues of living longer.
14. Keep your favorite music from your youth handy!
The final year's of your life does not mean you are no longer an adult, but a sacred one. Ancient story teller. Our living past and gift to the future. Appreciate the treasure you are!
I was born in the summer of 1980. To me Sesame Street has always existed, for I never knew life without it. At that moment in time all four Beatles were still alive. Reagan was in office, making racist remarks about African Americans to increase his vote.
Long before the internet, people were excited about music television and being able to watch, rewind and fast forward movies from their homes with VCRs. Access to knowledge was limited to your library and catalogs. Your memory held about a dozen phone numbers by heart, which you had at one point dialed in a phone booth. The world was a different place, not in a change in behavior, but man state of ignorance has long been shattered with the interconnection of the world wide web. Something the younger generations will take for granted, much like our generation did for television and with the generation before that it was radio and so on....
Eleven years before then, in 1969 Sesame Street starring Jim Hensons Muppets, aired its first episode on the Children Television Workshop. Its main objection was to educate inner city children, who often couldn't attend preschool, basic learning skills for entering elementary school. The alphabet, counting, colors, shapes, early science and social studies were made available to children with access to public broadcasting. Not only was this educational, but fully entertaining. Sesame Street made learning fun, with lovable characters like Big Bird and Groover, who had a child like demeanour that both entertained and related to common stresses a small child would understand, but an adult would not. They had fun parental figures like Gordon and Susan, who gave direction and security to all children and Muppets alike. Education was drilled into us with song and dance.
In just four short year's, the show will be celebrating fifty years on the aire. To just think, those children who first appeared on the show are not only already grown, but likely grandparents or entering that time period in their life. Imagine how old the adults are now. Loretta Long (Susan,) Bob McGrath and Caroll Spinney (Big Bird) are three of the remaining performers of the original show. I remember when Maria ( Sonia Manzano) had an African American boyfriend named David (Northern Calloway) and I was confused to why she was suddenly marrying Luis. It was the first time I ever saw an interracial relationship and I believed this short term relationship affected my generation enough to help change society
Classic Sesame Street is considered outdated, for example they teach children how to use a pay phone. It's also considered controversial, using the word Ash can as an example for the letter A. During the story line, Gordon is walking with a young girl who was new to the neighborhood. He openly talked about bringing her to his apartment, where his wife Susan served milk and homemade cookies. Back then this was completely innocent. This was the actions of good neighbors. Now a days, people are extremely cautious. No one wants to be accused of anything, communities began neglecting their children. It's not something I would advise allowing your child to watch unattended, due to social and technical differences. When watching the first episode with my daughter, I explained that this behavior has changed. No longer could you trust a stranger who is so friendly. Yet I feel tomorrows generation could stand to learn from an obvious mistake we are currently making. It is not we should fear, our neighbors, but know them. Nothing is full proof and even a family relative could be that monster you fear. I say, let us bring back the idea of community and the people in our neighborhood.
Throughout the year's many talented, inspirational, influential and even historical people have either appeared or worked on the show. Sesame Street often brought out a more gentler side in an individual. Many great people who have since died have their way into this show. Historical Sesame when watched in order will show you our evolution in society.
Another often frowned upon aspect of the show was the encouragement of imagination, including imagery friends. I support imagery car rides, pretend cake at tea parties, finding images in clouds and day dreaming.
I believe in children playing outside, singing songs and looking at world through lenses of the future, not present. I support encouraging children to improve upon things, not keep things as they are. Maria and David's relationship had to end, when Sonia became pregnant in real life. David being her boyfriend was pretty controversial during that time, but no one wanted it to go further. So they broke up David and Maria, hooked Maria up with Luis, then they had a short engagement, marriage and then the Maria is pregnant story line came, with the birth of her daughter later on. The show has long since evolved, but let us not forget this lesson.
Gina in the role of the Maiden.
Gina with her adopted son Marco, now she is the Mother!
The show also first at the time to have a single mother character, now Gina a character who came in to replace the maiden down the street (character Maria once was, who then was the Mother and has since retired a Crone,) became a single mother, though adoption and is still at the Mother figure today.
Maiden, Mother, Crone
To avoid repeating the past, one should know about it. However, take a tip from Sesame Street and find a more interesting way to learn your history. Watching the Sesame Street from your childhood will help you relate better to your parents generation and go back further if you can, and further generations. Also I love Sonias imitation of Charlie Chaplin and how Forgetful Jones always forgets the next line. It's those little moments that are special so, scattered throughout the show. We all who watched the show had them. I ask you, what were your?
Old school Sesame Street is also a great way to introduce your children to the music you grew up with.
Giving you a trip down memory lane, while giving your children a history lesson, yes history! One of the greatest aspects of watching these old episodes, is it makes the older generations more approachable. Something about watching your parents generation play as you did, in such an intimate a setting Sesame Street provides breaks a barrier between generations, which I hope out last my lifetime. Our children have parents who grew up and loved many of the same characters they loved. Though the show will have to change, people retire, die, technology and social structure change, the goal to make education available and fun has been the greatest gift Sesame Street has provided.
I hope one Saturday morning you wake up early with your little ones, pull out the bowls, milk and cereal. Break the rules and have a feast in your living room together. Put on some old school cartoons and shows and don't forget your Classic Sesame Street. Tell your kids stories, fill them in on the outdated stuff, point out the old technology, hair styles, clothing, cars, etc... Remind your children that you were once like them, don't be afraid of that common bond.
I have a confession to make, I've never celebrated Lammas as a holiday. Then I realized, I rarely celebrate any of the holidays in the literal fashion. I do preform actual rituals, when I feel like it. I'm just not a traditional hands-on person in the spiritual sense. I wasn't brought up religious, so it's not second nature for me to conform to these traditions. I like most adults wasn't brought up pagan, my parents were Christian in the looses sense. After childhood my family stopped practicing most holiday traditions and even big holidays like Christmas became just another day. As an adult I struggle with the basic efforts for the required holidays. Decorations don't go up themselves nor will they be put away. I would like to be more festive, but is it really worth the dusting? Will Martha Stewart maintain the up keep and put this stuff away when the season ends, or am I stuck cleaning up even more of a mess than I usually put up with? I'm too practical to go completely nuts.
So what is my relationship with holidays? I have always been a solitary pagan. A quality I enjoy. By my late teens, I was already accustomed with my family's neglect in festivities. At this moment in time I began to question the need for the material objects during rituals and ceremonies. What does it matter which color the candle is and why bother with it at all? The candle doesn't have the power, I do. As I rediscovered rituals can have their meanings without all the colorful stipulations, I rediscovered magic and myself. I shouldn't force some energy for something that has always come naturally, so I stopped caring. The same concept applies with the holidays.
Another reason is I don't belong to a coven or any direct community. Because of this, there really isn't any incentive. Mind you, all the powers behind Christmas usually fails in their manipulative ploy of marketing affairs to engulf me with desires for material items made to make me feel less desirable. I entertain that I'm, sparing these groups an abundance of aggravation. Samhain, Yule, Imbolic, Spring Equinox, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas, Autumn Equinox can be wonderful holidays to celebrate, but because most of us are no longer farmers, many of these traditions need to be reexamined. Samhain, Yule and the Spring equinox have adapted to modern context. Halloween, Christmas and Easter, knock offs, but a step in the evolutionary latter in preserving these traditions.
Holidays like Imbolic, Beltane, Summer Solstice, Lammas and the Autumn Equinox didn't adapt as well as three other popular holidays. Mostly because of their strong ties to farming, once the most common profession, now one of the least.
Imbolic a time to order seeds and set up location for crops becomes pointless. Yet, we could take a step back and see there is more to this tradition to starting up a farm. What I have come to realize it is no longer the planting I need to be focusing on, but my future. For me, this wasn't a time to create a Bridget doll and cradle. No need to light a red candle. I do not need to focus on a bride, but what the bride represents, the future. This could be checking out colleges or the want adds. It could be contacting that realtor about looking for a new place. Joining that gym to reach your weight goal. Have a dream? This is often a good time to create and set a plan in motion.
As the wheel slowly moved to the Spring Equinox, where having lived up north, I had a healthy appreciation for the first signs of spring. Be it a sprout of green peaking from a snow bank or buds covering the barren tree's, always brought me a feeling of hope. Living in Florida has changed my perspective. I have learned I am more successful nurturing and growing ideas better than plants and they too will suddenly grow. Planning a wedding, well where is your planner? Got that essay to write for that scholarship, get to it! Pants feeling looser? Before you dive into that chocolate cake, invest in a juicer. For me, if you can't celebrate
Beltane with bonfires and debauchery, you can celebrate it by trying out different ideas or concepts. It may suck not enjoying Beltane in the traditional sense, you can at least make the best of it by embracing some of its meaning. For example, this is certainly a good day for trying something new. It could be a new food to a new experience like sky diving.
Summer Solstice, the peak of the length of days. A time to embrace the divine masculine, which is often measured through aggressive assertions of dominance. This is a time to show your peacock feathers to the world. Be confident, look people in the eye. Embracing the strength you have earned from your hard work and discipline.
Lammas, a time of the first harvest for farmers. It's a time to reward yourself without undoing your goal. It might be a good time to splurge on an expensive item or fattening treat. It's a time to feel good about yourself. Come the Autumn Equinox,
our mortality becomes the subject of debate. As the seasons change from the peak of life, to the crippling fall in death, our own life we cycle played out year after year. As time goes by, your list of dead loved ones out number the living strangers amongst you. Grandchildren not yet born handling your affairs. This is a time to not fight, but accept your mortality. Samhain has always been a spiritual time. I love dressing up and trick or treating. I've been Medusa, the grim reaper, Charlie Chaplin and much more. Even as a child, I saw magic everywhere that day. Something I never let go. Although I don't believe one day a witches broom shall grant my flight, my Charlie Chaplin costume caused me to connect with an older generation. This led to each others happiness. Although I'm sure those gentlemen, I encounter that day have passed away, I'm convinced this has resulted in just another door to the land of the dead I have access to. To me the power in Samhain is about dressing up.
Winter Solstice/Yule, is the longest night of the year. Next to Samhain, it is my most celebrated holiday, especially now as a parent. My daughter is still young and between four grandparents, she has managed a gift giving holiday that spans five days. What I try to do to compensate, because I do not have the funds to compete against the grandparents, is to spend time with my daughter around this time. Most often we are making gifts. For me, this holiday could last over two weeks. Even before I was a parent and this time of year just meant overtime, I always reminded myself to be more giving.
In the end, the Holidays are there to serve you, to help plan your year and your life. Use them wisely and don't be ashamed for not openly celebrating what you choose to practice.
