Celebration

National Spaghetti Day

Do you like Spaghetti?

Well today is National Spaghetti Day and besides giving you a family recipe, I thought I'd give you a little history of one of my family's favorite foods. Made from any of several varieties of durum wheat that thrive in dry climates, spaghetti, ( pasta,) has become one of the world's most popular foods.

For many, many years we have been told that it was Marco Polo who introduced spaghetti to Venice, Italy. He supposedly brought it from one of his voyages to the far east in the late 13th century. The spaghetti Polo encountered in the far east, was more than likely made from either rice flour or hard wheat flour (long noodles made from both grains exist in eastern cookery.)

But the big question on the minds of many has always been, wasn't spaghetti really invented in Sicily?

First, it's important to remember that at the same time, but in different parts of the planet, more than one culture at the same time could have been experimenting with food. So to attribute any one common food, such as noodles, to certain peoples and places exclusively, is probably unfair. As already mentioned, the spaghetti Marco Polo found in the far east was made from either rice flour or hard wheat flour. And the historical references to the variety of durum wheat known in Sicily during the middle ages, had been introduced to the region by Arabs, and was like lemons and oranges.

During the Middle Ages, a court chronicler and geographer named Abu Abdullah Mohammed al Edrisi completed a detailed geographical survey of Sicily. (The original book still exists in manuscript form.) Titled "The Book of Roger", it is considered one of the most important scientific works of the Middle Ages. And here's the important part.

One of the observations in the book, mentions that the inhabitants if a Sicilian town called Trabia,  made a form of pasta from hard wheat, and that this product, shaped into long strands, was manufactured in large quantity for export to other regions. This may represent what could have been the earliest production of spaghetti even though in Italian it was called "vermicelli."

Enjoy!

I'll add one of grandma's favorite recipes for Spaghetti Bolognese shortly.

Thanksgiving and the Wampanoag Indians

When you think about the celebration of the Thanksgiving feast, here is a bit of historical background to the story that we have come to accept since childhood.

The Indians in the classic Thanksgiving story, were the Wampanoags, a tribe that lived for hundreds of years, in what we know today as coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

When the ship arrived in 1620, carrying the 120 Puritan exiles, who would eventually be called the Pilgrims, they started a settlement in an abandoned Patuxet Wampanoag village. The original Native Americans (Indians) on this stretch of shoreline, had already been killed off in great numbers by a series of epidemics and battles with a warring tribe to the north. History also tells us that it seems in 1614, a British expedition had landed in this area and when they left, they took 24 Native Americans as slaves and left smallpox, syphilis and gonorrhea behind.

The Puritans built their settlement, called the "Plymouth Plantation," and ate from the abandoned corn fields grown wild that once belonged to the decimated Patuxet village they now occupied. When their own crops failed miserably, it has been reported that they engaged in a treaty with the Wampanoags. This treaty provided the Pilgrims with help from the tribe to assist them grow and gather the native food.

Thanks to the Wampanoags, these Pilgrims not only survived their first winter, but they signed a treaty of friendship, that probably meant very different things to them both, because the Wampanoags, like most Native Americans, had no concept of owning land.  The Wampanoags probably found no harm in signing such a pact with this group of people who seem harmless and lost in this land, because these new settlers seemed to be struggling just to stay alive. In European culture, however, a treaty now meant the land belonged to the Pilgrims!

In 1621, to celebrate their good fortunes, their first harvest, and new treaty with the Wampanoags, the Pilgrim colony's governor, William Bradford, declared a three-day feast. Of course, it was later called Thanksgiving, but the Pilgrims never called it that.

The Pilgrims invited the leader of the Wampanoag tribe, Chief Massasoit to the celebration, and it was the Chief who invited several more of his "Indian" brothers and sisters to the affair, not the Pilgrims.

No turkey, cranberry sauce or pumpkin pie was served at that first feast.

And it was the last time the "Indians" were invited back for any such meals with the settlers known as the Pilgrims.

   

History of Veterans Day

World War I – known at the time as “The Great War” - officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919 , in the Palace of Versailles outside the town of Versailles , France. However, fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918 , is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

The original concept for the celebration was for a day observed with parades and public meetings and a brief suspension of business beginning at 11 a.m.

An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday - - a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as "Armistice Day." Armistice Day was primarily a day set aside to honor veterans of World War I, but in 1954, after World War II had required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen in the Nation’s history; after American forces had fought aggression in Korea, the 83rd Congress, at the urging of the veterans service organizations, amended the Act of 1938 by striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in its place the word "Veterans." With the approval of this legislation (Public Law 380) on June 1, 1954, November 11th became a day to honor American veterans of all wars.

Veterans Day continues to be observed on November 11, regardless of what day of the week on which it falls. The restoration of the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 not only preserves the historical significance of the date, but helps focus attention on the important purpose of Veterans Day: A celebration to honor America's veterans for their patriotism, love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.

National American Indian Heritage Month

November is National American Indian Heritage Month.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of N.Y. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919.

This tradition continued and expanded on the state level for decades. It wasn't until 1990 that President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations have been issued each year since.

There is so much about the history and culture of the Native Americans that we have to learn. It is my opinion that the portrayal of the "American Indians" in cinema and television, has done a great disservice to an entire race of people and their cultures.

A good resource to begin with is: The National Register of Historic Places.

 

The Season of Giving Thanks

Well, believe it or not, ... it's already November!

And when some of us think of November, especially those of us living in America, the first thing we think of is the celebration of Thanksgiving, right?

But believe it or not there are many reasons that can give cause to celebrate in November besides Thanksgiving. I'll try to cover as many as I can throughout the month, while continuously adding some information and resources to help you prepare for the celebration of Thanksgiving day.

So let's get started.

I have always thought of Thanksgiving as such a special time. It’s a time to reflect on all the blessings in your life. All too often in our daily lives, we focus on bad things and don’t take time out of our busy schedules to be thankful for our blessings. Thanksgiving can be the perfect time to sort through and express these feelings.

If you have children or grand-children, this is the perfect time to help them understand what Thanksgiving is all about, too. Even though they may be learning something about the Pilgrims and Native Americans in their school curriculum, there is always an opportunity to share in their learning experience.

The best way to learn the story of the Pilgrims, and the Native Americans with whom they interacted, is to tour the PILGRIM STORY, which combines artifacts with historical information to illuminate the Pilgrim and Native American story to 1692, when Plymouth Colony as an independent entity came to an end.

Don’t let this Thanksgiving just be a time for your family to get together, eat dinner, and watch football games. Here are a few ways to help kids learn what Thanksgiving is all about.

• Make it Interesting - While you are discussing the Thanksgiving story, make it interesting to your kids. They don’t want a boring history lesson.
• Bring the Thanksgiving story to life when you talk about the pilgrims and Native Americans. Add your own words when you tell your kids how Thanksgiving became a national holiday.
• Incorporate the here-and-now into the Thanksgiving Story - Once you’ve discussed the history of Thanksgiving with your kids, bring it full circle, back to today. Ask them what they are thankful for. Remind them of the little things we so often take for granted that many children and families living in other parts of the world do not have. Ask them how they can be more thankful for the things they have.

And above all lead by example. Why not write a beautiful Thanksgiving card or letter to your life partner, your parents, your friends, or each of your children or grandchildren, and tell them why you’re thankful for them.

Take some time for youself every now and then and begin to compose your thoughts. Pretty soon, you'll start to discover your own personal thoughts on giving thanks.

The Celebration of Halloween: It's History and Traditions (Part 3)

If you were to read the almanacs of North America, written in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, you would see no mention of Halloween in the lists of holidays. It was the transatlantic migration of nearly two million Irish following the Irish potato famine (in 1845-1849) that brought the holiday and it's customs to America. The Scotts also brought their own country's version of the holiday to North America when they emigrated to America after 1870.

By the mid-19th-century America, the holiday known as Halloween became as important to the Irish-Americans and Scottish-Americans, as the Columbus Day celebrations were to the Italian-Americans. Both of these celebrations, Halloween and Columbus Day, were about heritage and customs. Families would gather together and tell stories, play games, and enjoy traditional foods.

And while pranks and mischief were common on Halloween, the home parties would center around children's games and activities such as bobbing for apples. If you look at the games that were played, these "parlor games," as they were called, were centered around future romances and match-making.

The commercial exploitation of Halloween in America, did not begin until the 20th century. The earliest products were perhaps the Halloween postcards, which were most popular between 1905 and 1915, and featured hundreds of different designs. Dennison Manufacturing Company, which published its first Halloween catalog in 1909, and the Beistle Company were pioneers in commercially made Halloween decorations, particularly die-cut paper items. German manufacturers specialized in Halloween figurines that were exported to America in the period between the two world wars.

It seems that the mass-produced Halloween costumes did not start to appear in stores until the 1950s, when trick-or-treating became a fixture of the holiday. Commercially made masks were available earlier.

Until somewhere in the 1990's, a majority of decorations were homemade and were usually displayed inside the home. Suddenly, manufactures began producing a larger variety of Halloween yard decorations, including orange trash bags, and people in cities and towns across America began to decorate the exterior of their homes. And once again, another transformation of the celebration of Halloween was born.

I'm not quite sure when I first noticed the transformation but now, it is quite common to see a home and, quite often, entire neighborhoods, decorated with large Halloween yard decorations such as illuminated jack-o'-lanterns, creepy scarecrows, and gruesome witches, foam tombstones, creaky coffins and even gargoyles. And displayed on the roofs of some of these houses, are gigantic inflatable decorations such as spiders, pumpkins, mummies, vampires and Frankenstein. It is also quite common to see homes outlined in eerie colored lights.

Other popular decorations are spooky animatronics used in window displays or on porches, large spider-webs, fancy light displays, orange and green spotlights, and scary door decorations. I've also noticed that in the last few years, it is not uncommon to hear a wide variety of ghoulish sound effects coming from a home or two.

So in truth, Halloween in modern-day America, has become one of the most commercial and profitable holidays, next to Christmas, for the retailers and candy makers.

But along about the same time of the increased interest in flamboyant decorations, there emerged a concern for the safety and welfare of  children, as well as a concern about the protection of property from pranksters.  Based on these concerns, in some cities and towns across America, trick-or-treating has been discouraged, forbidden, or restricted.

In it's place, some communities stage trick-or-treating events that are held within facilities such as shopping centers or malls during a designated time-frame, a house-of-horror or, even small town Halloween parades where the kids of all ages can display their costumes.

Many families have reverted back to supervised Halloween parties in the home. These parties usually involve games like searching for candy in a similar manner to Easter egg hunting, or the traditional game of bobbing for apples, telling scary stories, watching horror movies and, getting bags of candy. Similar parties are sometimes offered in the school setting where they are supervised by the teachers.

But the spirit of the Halloween celebration is still very much alive and well in many cities and towns in America!

• Salem, a town in Massachusetts, has laid claim to the title of "Halloween Capital of the World," though Salem has tried to separate itself from its history of prosecuting "witches" through the infamous Salem witch trials. Despite that, the town does see a great deal of tourism surrounding the witch trials, especially around Halloween.

Also in America:

• Keene, New Hampshire, which claims that it  holds the record for most pumpkins carved in a single day, hosts a Jack-O-Lantern festival each October.
• Anoka, Minnesota,  also proclaims itself as the "Halloween Capital of the World," and celebrates with a large parade.
• New York City hosts the United States' largest Halloween celebration, The Village Halloween Parade. Started by a Greenwich Village mask maker in 1973, the parade now attracts over two million spectators and participants as well as a very large television audience. It is the largest participatory parade in the country.

It is unclear where the celebration of Halloween will go from here in our culture, but one thing is sure. What was once new becomes old, and what was old, has now become new. People of all ages will always find a way to celebrate and, the celebration of Halloween is no exception.

The Celebration of Halloween: It's History and Traditions (Part 2)

Around the eighth century, the Christian church made November 1 All Saints' Day to honor all of the saints that didn't have a special day of their own. Over the years these festivals combined, the mass held on All Saints' Day was called Allhallowmas (the mass of all Hallows - saintly people). The night before was known as All Hallows Eve. Eventually this name became Halloween.

In the 1800s, when there was a huge emigration of people to America, the holidays and traditions of different cultures began to merge their celebrations of Halloween, but with a few twists. The "twists" were due mostly to the varying beliefs and religious convictions of the separate ethnic groups.

But, the celebration of Halloween was not always a happy time.

October 31, or the night before All Saints Day,  took on other names. Some called it Devil's or Hell night. And to others it was simply mischief night. To some people this became a time to play tricks on others, but some of these tricks were not fun at all.

Around the turn of the century, in 1900, the government and newspapers around the country, began to encourage folks to have more of a celebration, with less empathizes on the ghoulish and frightening practices of Halloween. The community groups and concerned individuals took action, and began a process to change the Halloween celebration. The merging of the separate nationalities and their religious beliefs, including the traditions of the Native Americans, gradually changed All-Hallows Eve, into more of  a family celebration and harvest festival.

So ... here we are. But wait ... let's look at some of the familiar things we now associate with Halloween and see where they originated.

Trick or Treating has it's origins in an English tradition, an event called the "All Soul's Day Parade." Throughout this designated day, the poor would wander the streets and beg for food from the more affluent residents of the town. In return for the "soul cakes," which were little pastries, they would be asked to pray for the souls of those related to the pastry giver. This became referred to as "going-a-souling." and was sanctioned by the church as a replacement for the practice of leaving food and wine out for roaming spirits.

Over time, the wandering from door to door to collect the "soul cakes," became an activity practiced by the children. They would go house to house collecting food, ale, and money from the neighbors.

Costume wearing has it's origins in both the Celtic and European heritage. It was believed by the Celtic people that evil spirits roamed the earth on the last night of the Celtic year (October 31) and that they worked mischief among the living The people believed that the ghosts of the dead would not be able to recognize an individual if he was wearing a costume. The dead would confuse the costume wearer with other spirits. (But just to be sure, and further protect themselves, the costume wearer would also leave bowls of food outside their door to bribe the evil spirits.)

The origin of the Jack O' Lantern is from a popular Irish tale. The Irish would place a candle in hollowed out gourds turnips, potatoes, rutabagas, or even beets, to ward off a character called "Stingy Jack." But when the Irish immigrants arrived in America, they discovered the pumpkin. They soon found that the pumpkin could be hollowed out and carved much easier that the other vegetables they had traditionally been using.

So you see, most of our traditions of Halloween, have originated from the traditions, cultures, and spiritual beliefs of  the immigrants who settled in America many years ago. Today, dressing up in costumes and going "trick or treating", community parties, autumn festivals, and costume parades are just some of the ways that Halloween is celebrated. Halloween is no longer about the fear of the dead but instead, it is a celebration of the customs and traditions of the people who brought them to the shores of America. Most people, irregardless of cultural origins, remember their dead and keep their memories alive through personal celebration, remembrance, and prayer.

The Celebration of Halloween: It's History and Traditions (Part 1)

Well, it's almost Halloween.

Halloween as we know it today, is an observance celebrated on the night of October 31, most notably by children dressing in costumes and going door-to-door collecting candy. It is celebrated in much of the Western world, though most common in Canada, the United States, Puerto Rico, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and with increasing popularity in Australia and New Zealand.

But have you ever wondered where it came from?

The term "Halloween," and its older spelling "Hallowe'en," is shortened from "All-hallow-even," as it is the evening before "All Hallows' Day" (also known as "All Saints' Day"). In Ireland, the name was "All Hallows' Eve" (often shortened to "Hallow Eve"), and though seldom used today, it is still a well accepted label. Halloween was also sometimes called "All Saints' Eve." The holiday was a day of religious festivities that originated among the Celts, or the people in Ireland, Britain and northern France, around 2000 years ago, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries and given a Christian interpretation.

The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st. That meant that the end of the year for them was October 31st. This was the time that the harvest was over and signified the start of the long cold winter when many people usually died.

They believed that on this day, "All Hallows' Eve," the boundary between the living world and the dead opened up. They fervently believed that on this day, the dead could invade the world of the living.  In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

They would all gather around one large communal bonfire, lit to ward off evil spirits, dressed up in their costumes of animal skins, including the head of the animals, where they would try to tell the fortunes of each other. They sacrificed crops and animals, while paying homage to the Celtic deities. It was their belief that this was one of the only times of the year when the spiritual world could make contact with the physical world and when magic was most potent.

In Ireland, Halloween is also known in Irish Gaelic as "Oíche Shamhna" or "Samhain Night;" a pastoral and agricultural festival of fire, when the dead revisited the mortal world. They continued to practice their deep-rooted, ancient pagan rites well after the arrival of Christianity in the middle of the sixth century.

Halloween is also called Pooky Night in some parts of Ireland, presumably named after the púca, a mischievous spirit.

The Anglo-Saxon invasions of the 5th and 6th centuries A.D. pushed the native Celts north and westward in Britain, to present-day Wales, and Northern England, taking the festival with them. Scotland, having a shared Gaelic culture and language with ancient Ireland, celebrated the festival of Samhain.

When the Romans conquered the Celts in the first century A.D., they added parts of their festivals, Feralia and Pomona to the tradition. Feralia was a festival to honor the dead and Pomona was a harvest festival named after the goddess of fruit (apples) and trees. One was to honor Pomona, the goddess of fruit and trees. Our present day Halloween activity of "bobbing for apples," comes from the symbol of Pomona, which was the apple.

Meanwhile in England, the English Reformation in the 16th century de-emphasized Roman Catholic holy days like 'All Hallows Day" and its' associated eve. With the rise of Guy Fawkes Night celebrations in 17th-century England, many Halloween traditions, especially the building of bonfires, were transferred to the new holiday.