Quirky Burque knows how to do Bastille Day.
Join me, epicureans, on a dangerous backyard adventure! Right here, right now in the Duke City, tantalizing bits of Atkins-certified protein are swarming your backyard. Yep, you got it, SNAILS! Don’t twist up your nose at me, you Franco-phobe, this is high-couture culinary hunting! I’ve been trapping and “purging” snails ALL WEEK LONG in honor of Bastille Day today.
Check out the Google holiday logos for Father’s Day and Independence Day.
According to The Writer’s Almanac:
Mother’s Day is the busiest day of the year for florists, restaurants, and long distance phone companies. Father’s day is the day on which the most collect phone calls are made.
According to the Library of Congress:
In 1868, Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic issued General Order Number 11 designating May 30 as a memorial day “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land.”
The first national celebration of the holiday took place May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, where both Confederate and Union soldiers were buried. Originally known as Decoration Day, at the turn of the century it was designated as Memorial Day. In many American towns, the day is celebrated with a parade. …
In 1971, federal law changed the observance of the holiday to the last Monday in May and extended it to honor all soldiers who died in American wars. A few states continue to celebrate Memorial Day on May 30.
The holiday of Cinco De Mayo, The Fifth Of May, commemorates the victory of the Mexicans over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, but is also celebrated in other parts of the country and in U.S.cities with a significant Mexican population. It is not, as many people think, Mexico’s Independence Day, which is actually September 16.
… mutinied on this date in 1789. The following is from the review of The Bounty: The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander from The New York Times.
The events that took place aboard the Bounty at sunrise on April 28, 1789, boil down to the characters of two men, William Bligh, age 34, and the mutineer, Fletcher Christian, who was a decade younger. As he waited, hands bound behind him, to be lowered into the Bounty’s overloaded launch — and having shouted himself hoarse calling for aid — Bligh asked Christian, who had sailed with him twice before, how he could have found the ingratitude to mutiny. Bligh recorded Christian’s answer in his journal. ”That! — Captain Bligh,” said Christian, sounding much like Milton’s Satan, ”that is the thing — I am in hell — I am in hell.”
was celebrated on this date from 1752 through 1970. Before 1752 and the change to the Gregorian Calendar, Washington’s birthday was February 11. Beginning in 1971, Washington’s birthday has been celebrated on the third Monday in February.
George Washington was born on February 11, 1731, according to the Julian calendar. In 1752, however, Britain and her colonies adopted 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.
American Catholic.org has an interesting take on The Origins of St. Valentine’s Day. Saint Valentine, by the way, is no longer an “official” Catholic saint.
NewMexiKen wishes he had said it as well as Body and Soul —
I have nothing the least bit original or insightful to say about the political or moral implications of San Francisco’s decision to marry same-sex couples. Just a straight-from-the-heart, personal reaction: If you can look at this picture of two elderly women who clearly adore each other and have waited five decades to declare that love to the world, and not share their joy, I don’t think I want to know you.
The Official Site of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club
Update: Phil says six more weeks.
Though advertisers and merchants would have us believe that the Christmas season begins at Thanksgiving (or possibly Halloween), liturgically it begins on Christmas Eve and extends until Twelfth Night, the eve of the Epiphany. The Twelve Days of Christmas are Christmas through January 5th.
No one knows when Jesus was actually born and the few sources are conflicted. The best guess is it was in the spring (northern hemisphere) sometime between 6 and 4 BCE.
As the Christian faith evolved over several centuries different events were observed — the nativity, the baptism, the epiphany (i.e., the arrival of the Magi). Ultimately January 6th emerged as an important feast, the baptism or revelation of Christ (to the Gentiles) being more significant than his birth. The Roman church came to recognize December 25th for the nativity, possibly to offset the pagan Roman solstice celebration Natalis Solis Invicti.
Tonight, Monday evening, is Twelfth Night (the eve of the Epiphany).
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by.
In the song The Twelve Days of Christmas how many total gifts are given during the 12 days?
You get one calculation/guess. The answer is in Comment(s).
The Writer’s Almanac provides this background on December 26:
Today is Boxing Day and St. Stephen’s Day in England, Canada, and several other countries. The origins of this national holiday are not certain, but it might come from an old custom of wealthy estate owners giving small gifts or money, wrapped in boxes, to their servants and those who worked for them. Servants were needed on Christmas Day to help with their masters’ holiday events, so they were often given a rest the next day. St. Stephen is honored today as the first Christian martyr, having been stoned to death for blasphemy.
The Miami Herald: Biggest pop tune of all time is back
Before White Christmas, the holidays meant traditional carols and religious hymns. After it, secular tunes became part of the fiber of popular culture.
Rosen estimates 125 million copies of the three-minute song have been sold since it was first recorded in 1942.
”Is there another song that Kenny G, Peggy Lee, Mantovani, Odetta, Loretta Lynn, the Flaming Lips, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the Backstreet Boys have in common?” writes Rosen. “What other tune links Destiny’s Child, The Three Tenors and Alvin and the Chipmunks; Perry Como, Garth Brooks and Stiff Little Fingers; the Reverend James Cleveland, Doris Day and Kiss?”
And Crosby’s performance marks a turning point in the music industry.
”It marks the moment when performers supplant songwriters as the central creative forces at least in mainstream American pop music,” he told NPR in 2002. “After the success of White Christmas, records become the primary means of disseminating pop music, and they replace sheet music. And the emphasis shifts to charismatic performances recorded for all time and preserved on records….
Some facts about the “hit of hits”:
• Bing Crosby first performed White Christmas on Dec. 25, 1941, on NBC’s Kraft Music Hall radio show.
• Crosby first recorded the song for Decca on May 29, 1942. He rerecorded it March 19, 1947, as a result of damage to the 1942 master from frequent use. As in 1942, Crosby was joined in the studio by the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers.
• The song was featured in two films: Holiday Inn in 1942 (for which it collected the Academy Award for best song) and 12 years later in White Christmas.
• Crosby’s single sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was recognized as the bestselling single in any music category until 1998 when Elton John’s tribute to Princess Diana, Candle in the Wind, overtook it.
• Irving Berlin so hated Elvis Presley’s cover of White Christmas that he launched a fierce (and fruitless) campaign to ban Presley’s recording.
by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), 1906.
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And
sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two
at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and
the butcher until one’s cheeks burned with the silent
imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.
Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven
cents. And the next day would be Christmas.
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the
shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which
instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of
sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.
was first published on this date in 1843.
Scrooge. a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire; secret, and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shrivelled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about with him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn’t thaw it one degree at Christmas.
begins this year (5764/2003) this evening. According to
The Jewish Outreach Institute:
The story of Hanukkah is the struggle for religious freedom. Over two thousand years ago, the foreign rulers of the Israelites decreed that the Jews bow down to the image of their leader, Antiochus, whose statue was erected in the Temple.
But the Jewish people were forbidden by the law of God to bow to statues or idols. Inspired by Mattathias and led by his son, Judah, a small group of Jews called Maccabees (meaning “hammer”) rebelled. The Maccabees risked their lives to live according to Jewish law and to prevent this desecration of their sacred Temple. Although the Maccabees won, the Temple in Jerusalem, the Jews’ holy place, was destroyed. The Jews had to clean and repair the Temple, and when they were finished they rededicated it to God by rekindling the menorah, the candelabrum symbolizing the eternal covenant between God and the Jewish people and the continuity of tradition through the generations. But there was only enough olive oil to fuel the menorah for one night, and it would have taken eight days to make more oil. The legend of the miracle at Hanukkah says that the one day supply of oil burned for eight days and nights until more oil could be made.
There are eight days of Hanukkah corresponding to the legend of the miracle of the oil in the Temple. Foods cooked in oil are traditional, particularly potato pancakes, called latkes. Today, candles are used instead of oil. On each successive night, the number of candles lit increases by one. Prayers accompany the lighting of the candles.
Hanukkah is celebrated in the home beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Even though it is not mentioned in the Hebrew Scriptures, Hanukkah is widely celebrated as a major holy day of the Jewish liturgical calendar. Given its proximity to Christmas, Hanukkah has taken on importance in the United States and many other countries where Christmas has been commercialized.
It is traditional to give small gifts to children on each night of Hanukkah. The party atmosphere is enhanced with songs, games and toys such as a dreidel — a spinning top. Yet the religious celebration — the lighting of the candles with accompanying prayers — must come before the party.
Ugly Christmas Lights.com!: “houses where the residents are likely celebrating a happy holiday, but have no sense of decency in how they choose to celebrate.”
Slate’s Today’s Papers closes today with this:
Wall Street Journal says fake Christmas trees—or “faux” trees, as the high-end sellers call them—are going upscale. The faux models now account for 70 percent of the trees found in U.S. homes, and some even come with a small bag of loose needles one can spread on the floor to enhance the effect. After testing out a tree handcrafted from goose feathers, the WSJ gives the Kmart Martha Stewart Everyday 7-and-a-half-foot Mount Rainier tree the thumbs down. Its “too-perfect triangular shape and aggressively green color” are a little disconcerting, says the author. In other words, Martha’s creation looks far too real not to be a fake.
From the Herald Sun
An Austrian trade union has claimed the repetitive playing of Christmas carols in department stores is “psycho-terrorism” for salespeople.
From morning to night, week after week, the same Christmas music was played in department stores over and over again, Gottfried Rieser, of the Union of Private Employees, said.
“Many staff in the retail sector suffer psychologically from it. They get aggressions and aversions against Christmas music. On Christmas Eve, with their families, they can’t stand Silent Night or Jingle Bells any more,” he said.
NewMexiKen is with the union on this one. Bah Humbug!
From The New Yorker
“The Allied powers signed a cease-fire agreement with Germany at Rethondes, France on November 11, 1918, bringing World War I to a close. Between the wars, November 11 was commemorated as Armistice Day in the United States, Great Britain, and France. After World War II, the holiday was recognized as a day of tribute to veterans of both world wars. Beginning in 1954, the United States designated November 11 as Veterans Day to honor veterans of all U.S. wars.” (Source: Library of Congress)
Official Department of Veterans Affairs Veterans Day website.
Photo taken at the Arizona Memorial, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
