Thanksgiving, As Best We Know

Conclusion from a thoughtful and thorough article in The Christian Science Monitor (November 27, 2002).

There are many myths surrounding Thanksgiving. Here are nine things we do know are true about the holiday.

1. The first Thanksgiving was a harvest celebration in 1621 that lasted for three days.

2. The feast most likely occurred between Sept. 21 and Nov. 11.

3. Approximately 90 Wampanoag Indians and 52 colonists - the latter mostly women and children - participated.

4. The Wampanoag, led by Chief Massasoit, contributed at least five deer to the feast.

5. Cranberry sauce, potatoes - white or sweet - and pies were not on the menu.

6. The Pilgrims and Wampanoag communicated through Squanto, a member of the Patuxet tribe, who knew English because he had associated with earlier explorers. [In fact, Squanto (or Tisquantum), had spent several years in Europe and England.]

7. Besides meals, the event included recreation and entertainment.

8. There are only two surviving descriptions of the first Thanksgiving. One is in a letter by colonist Edward Winslow. He mentions some of the food and activities. The second description was in a book written by William Bradford 20 years afterward. His account was lost for almost 100 years.

9. Abraham Lincoln named Thanksgiving an annual holiday in 1863.

And this, The Year We Had Two Thanksgivings.

Thanksgiving, Then and Now

Click image to see larger version.

More covers.

Time for that perfect Christmas tree

From UrbanOutfitters.com.

“I never thought it was such a bad tree, Charlie Brown.”

Just 39 more shopping days (counting today)!

Reposted from one year ago. Original link via Reecie.

Happy Holidays!

Enough of this Christmas crap. With the Democrats in charge, from now on we’ll be celebrating the Feast of Our Monkey Ancestors.

They’d Just Be a Damn Nuisance

This is my eighth year at Casa NewMexiKen and the total number of trick-or-treaters that have come to my door in that time is zero. I kind of miss seeing the little extortionists.

(I was in Virginia the last two years for Halloween. Plenty of little ‘uns there.)

In the past when the kids would come up and say “trick or treat” I’d say, “OK, I’ll take the trick” and just look at them for a few seconds before dishing out the candy. The little brats would just stare back, dumbfounded and totally clueless about dealing with an unpredictable situation.

I’m lucky I wasn’t arrested.

Photo of Aidan, in Virginia, with his loot.

Where I was a kid, there was some expectation that (a) you would wear a costume when trick-or-treating, and (b) if you were old enough to drive, then you would not go trick-or-treating.

When did that change and why?

- Freakonomics Blog: Steven D. Levitt

All Hallow E’en

From Today’s Inspiration, a Saturday Evening Post Halloween cover illustration from 1958.

And via Annette’s Notebook, the Lunch Box of the DAMNED.

Here’s the ultimate (ultimate poor taste, that is) Halloween Decoration. I can’t wait to see what they do for Christmas the holidays.

Google has a Halloween logo, though it’s not on the Google Holiday Logos page yet.

NewMexiKen could probably still identify the house that gave away packages of Krun-Chee potato chips when I was a seven or eight year old. And that someone in that same block gave out full size candy bars. Now granted, a full size candy bar in those days cost just a nickel, but “a dollar’s worth” was a common gasoline purchase then, too.

Oh, and be very careful watching this. It’s scary and the special effects will amaze you.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween

Jack-o-lanterns carved by Josh, official nephew of NewMexiKen, and Beth, official important person in Josh’s life.

Click image to view larger version.

Boo!

Frighten the be-jebbers out of the little ones daring to come to your door next Tuesday.

From iTunes, 29 Scary Scores.

Trick or …

So, is this cartoon about Halloween or the election?

Words for Today

Triskaidekaphobia — the fear of 13.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia — the fear of Friday the 13th.

Decorating for Halloween

As sun streamed through the clerestory windows for the first time since NewMexiKen arrived home from Virginia, I noticed that I won’t have to do much decorating for Halloween this year.

The cobwebs are already up.

Thinking About Columbus Day

Today is the second Monday in October and the day we celebrate the federal holiday honoring Christopher Columbus. Last year I posted some thoughts on the matter. Here they are again (with a few inconsequential edits):

NewMexiKen is well aware of the feelings among many American Indians and others about Columbus Day. One Lakota woman who worked for me used to ask if—as a protest—she could come in and work on Columbus Day, a federal holiday.

My feeling is that we can’t have enough holidays and so I choose to think of Columbus Day as the Italian-American holiday. Nothing wrong with that. We have an African-American holiday on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. We have the Irish-American celebration that is St. Patrick’s Day. And Cinco de Mayo is surely the Mexican-American holiday, a much larger celebration here than in most of Mexico.

So, instead of protesting Columbus Day, perhaps American Indians should organize and bring about a holiday of their very own. Given the great diversity among Indian nations (and, lets face it, a proclivity for endless debate), the tribes might never reach agreement, though, so NewMexiKen will suggest a date.

The day before Columbus Day.

L’Shanah Tovah

Rosh Hashanah began last evening and continues until sunset Sunday.

Happy New Year, 5767.

One of the traditions of Rosh Hashanah I’ve learned, is an apple dipped in honey to signify a wish for a sweet new year.

Sunday Is Grandparents Day (I’m thinking presents and cash)

“Grandparents Day was the brainchild of Marian McQuade of Fayette County, W.Va., who hoped that such an observance might persuade grandchildren to tap the wisdom and heritage of their grandparents. The first presidential proclamation was issued in 1978, and one has been issued each year since — designating the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. In honor of our nation’s grandparents, the Census Bureau presents an array of data about these unsung role models and caregivers.”

• About 56 million — Number of grandparents in the United States.
• 5.7 million — The number of grandparents whose grandchildren under 18 live with them.
• 2.4 million — The number of grandparents responsible for most of the basic needs (i.e., food, shelter, clothing) of one or more of the grandchildren who live with them. These grandparents represent about 42 percent of all grandparents whose grandchildren live with them. Of these caregivers, 1.5 million are grandmothers and 880,000 are grandfathers.
• 920,000 — Number of grandparents responsible for caring for their grandchildren for at least the last five years.
• 28% — Among preschoolers with employed mothers, the percentage regularly cared for by their grandparent during the hours their mom spends employed outside the home. No other type of child care arrangement was more prevalent than by grandparents.
• 6.1 million — The number of children living with a grandparent; these children comprise 8 percent of all children in the United States. Of these children, 4.1 million lived in a grandparent’s home and 1.9 million in a parent’s home.
• Recent research by the AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) reveals that more than 80 percent of the nation’s grandparents had visited or spoken with their grandchildren by phone in the past month.
• About 3 million — Number of Grandparents Day cards given, nationwide, each year.

— US Census Press Releases

An even surer sign that Christmas is coming

Forget the appearance of Christmas toys and decorations at Costco in August. Here’s this year’s first idiocy complaining that stores are leaving Christmas out of the holidays; this from the American Family Association.

“Last week the first Christmas ad came out, and that was for Sam’s Club, owned by the Wal-Mart Stores Corporation,” the AFA spokesman explains. “The ad is clearly meant to promote Christmas decorations and Christmas tree items,” he says, “but Sam’s Club refuses to refer to Christmas as Christmas. They simply use the generic term holiday.”

And it’s not even Labor Day.

Maybe Sam’s should just go with “Noël.” French surely would be a satisfactory solution for all. It is the language of diplomacy.

Someone should

Andy Borowitz says:

“Hillary Offers to Housesit for Bush” while he is on vacation.

“Would Water Plants, Read Presidential Briefings in Oval Office”

‘Tis the season

I noticed at Costco today that the Christmas decorations and seasonal toy assortment are being stocked. I thought, gee it sure seems early this year. And then I remembered it was August 5th, and realized it was right on schedule.

Only 141 more shopping days until Christmas.

Bastille Day

But above all, Bastille Day, or the Fourteenth of July, is the symbol of the end of the monarchy and the beginning of the Republic. The national holiday is a time when all citizens celebrate their membership to a republican nation. It is because this national holiday is rooted in the history of the birth of the Republic that it has such great significance.

… The people of Paris rose up and decided to march on the Bastille, a state prison that symbolized the absolutism and arbitrariness of the Ancien Regime.

The storming of the Bastille, on July 14, 1789, immediately became a symbol of historical dimensions; it was proof that power no longer resided in the King or in God, but in the people, in accordance with the theories developed by the Philosophes of the 18th century.

On July 16, the King recognized the tricolor cockade: the Revolution had succeeded.

For all citizens of France, the storming of the Bastille symbolizes, liberty, democracy and the struggle against all forms of oppression.

— Embassy of France

Happy Independence Day

Don’t drink a fifth on the fourth

NewMexiKen read many years ago that traffic fatalities were not particularly more significant on holiday weekends than any other days. Safety advocates just had us all thinking they were with their public service advertising campaigns and police check points.

A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety confirms this. For the period 1986 through 2002 there were an average of 117 traffic fatalities a day in the United States. And, while July 4 was the worst day of the year with an average of 161 fatalities, 158 people were killed on any given Saturday. July 4 is the only date in the year less safe than any Saturday.

The worst dates:
July 4 — 161
July 3 — 149
December 23 — 145
August 3 — 142
January 1 — 142

Days of the week:
Sunday — 132
Monday — 96
Tuesday — 95
Wednesday — 98
Thursday — 105
Friday — 133
Saturday — 158

Of course, maybe the holidays remain relatively safe because of all the attention placed on them.

Source: The New York Times

Father’s Day

Today is Father’s Day, a holiday in this country that goes back to a Sunday morning in May of 1909, when a woman named Sonora Smart Dodd was sitting in church in Spokane, Washington, listening to a Mother’s Day sermon. She thought of her father who had raised her and her siblings after her mother died in childbirth, and she thought that fathers should get recognition too.

So she asked the minister of the church if he would deliver a sermon honoring fathers on her father’s birthday, which was coming up in June, and the minister did. And the tradition of Father’s Day caught on, though rather slowly. Mother’s Day became an official holiday in 1914; Father’s Day, not until 1972.

The Writer’s Almanac

Flag Day

On this date in 1777 the Continental Congress approved a national flag:

Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.

In 1916 President Wilson issued a proclamation declaring June 14 Flag Day.

The present design of the flag was established in 1818 — thirteen stripes to represent the original states and a star for each state. The current flag with 50 stars was established on July 4, 1960, when Hawaii was admitted to the Union.

The Star Spangled Banner at Fort McHenry during the War of 1812 had 15 stars and 15 stripes.

Harley’s Angels

Dan Neil on the Harley culture and Memorial Day. A must read that includes this:

The trappings of Harley culture—the leather jackets with club colors, the Kaiser-style helmets, the tattoos, the beards like Arizona tumbleweeds—were established in the ’50s and ’60s, the heyday of outlaw motorcycle clubs such as the Hells Angels, which are still around and whose members, may I state clearly, are exemplary young men for whom I have nothing but the greatest admiration and fear.

The first bikers I ever met were, in fact, Angels, and they were total bad asses, the sort of guys who, after firmly planting the knife in your head, would attempt to kick the handle off.

‘My Easter Bunny Can Rise From the Dead.’

Helpful Tips for Fighting and Winning the War on Easter by J. Chris Rock. Here’s two:

Tip No. 3

Have each member of your family write a letter every day to Just Born, Inc., makers of PEEPS. Suggest they make PALMS instead, marshmallow fronds that deliciously celebrate Christ’s triumphant return to Jerusalem. Great writing exercise for the kids!

Tip No. 5

Mothers, throw that “Easter” bonnet your child brought home from art class right in the trash. They’ll cry (trust me on this one), but tell them that if they really loved Mommy they’d make you a crown of thorns out of a paper plate.

April Fool

NewMexiKen is, once again, retiring from the blogging world.

Now, you have to figure out if that is the April Fool, or if this time I really mean it and you won’t believe me and that is the April Fool.

Happy April Fool’s Day.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day

NewMexiKen assumes all his Irish children and grandchildren are wearing green today in honor or Ireland’s patron saint.

May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
In the palm of his hand.

Mardi Gras

Mardi Gras, literally “Fat Tuesday,” has grown in popularity in recent years as a raucous, sometimes hedonistic event. But its roots lie in the Christian calendar, as the “last hurrah” before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. That’s why the enormous party in New Orleans, for example, ends abruptly at midnight on Tuesday, with battalions of streetsweepers pushing the crowds out of the French Quarter towards home.
…

Carnival comes from the Latin words carne vale, meaning “farewell to the flesh.” Like many Catholic holidays and seasonal celebrations, it likely has its roots in pre-Christian traditions based on the seasons. Some believe the festival represented the few days added to the lunar calendar to make it coincide with the solar calendar; since these days were outside the calendar, rules and customs were not obeyed. Others see it as a late-winter celebration designed to welcome the coming spring. As early as the middle of the second century, the Romans observed a Fast of 40 Days, which was preceded by a brief season of feasting, costumes and merrymaking.

Catholic Roots of Mardi Gras from American Catholic, which has more.

Shrove Tuesday, and I’m off to IHOP

Shrove Tuesday is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent. It’s a day of penitence, to clean the soul, and a day of celebration as the last chance to feast before Lent begins.

Shrove Tuesday is sometimes called Pancake Day after the fried batter recipe traditionally eaten on this day.

But there’s more to Shrove Tuesday than pigging out on pancakes or taking part in a public pancake race. The pancakes themselves are part of an ancient custom with deeply religious roots.

BBC - Religion & Ethics, which has more.

Washington’s Birthday

George Washington was born on February 11, 1731. In 1752, however, Britain and her colonies changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, the calendar we use today. The change added 11 days and designated January rather than March as the beginning of the year. Accordingly, Washington’s birthday was February 22, 1732.

The federal holiday was celebrated on February 22 until legislation in 1968 designated the third Monday of February the official day to celebrate Washington’s birthday. In 1971, when the 1968 Act went into effect, President Nixon proclaimed the holiday Presidents’ Day, to commemorate all past presidents, not just Washington and Lincoln. This was never intended or authorized by Congress; even so, it gained a strong hold on the public consciousness.

The states are not obliged to adopt federal holidays, which only affect federal offices and agencies. While most states have adopted Washington’s Birthday, a dozen of them officially celebrate Presidents’ Day. A number of the states that celebrate Washington’s Birthday also recognize Lincoln’s Birthday as a separate legal holiday.

Massacre Valentine’s Day

St. Valentine was supposedly a martyred 3rd century priest, not a shill for the flower industry or a marketing genius for a certain Kansas City, Mo., greeting-card titan. Still, with all due respect to his martyrdom, we think it’s high time the holiday bearing his name be abolished.

Call us hopeless romantics on this page, but we find that true love is overwhelming, irrepressible and spontaneous. Romance shouldn’t be confined to a particular day; nor need it be triggered by the arrival of Feb. 14. Compulsory love is an oxymoron.

Excerpt from a Los Angeles Times editorial