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Christmas 2007
by Ted L Glines
Toss out your darkly woes
let nothing in but light,
for joy rebirths our sorry world
this lovely Christmas night.
“The first Noel, the angel did say,
Was to certain poor shepherds in fields as they lay;
In fields where they lay keeping their sheep,
On a cold winter's night that was so deep.”
See the little children
peek peek peek to see
excitement gleaming in their eyes,
what did Santa bring for thee?
“Angels we have heard on high,
Singing sweetly through the night,
And the mountains in reply
Echoing their brave delight.”
Granny swaddles afghan
smiling old and loving tears,
proud of all her memories,
family Christmas through the years.
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
From heaven's all-gracious King.
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.”
Soldiers wearing Christmas hats
wishing they could be with you
warmed by all the hugs you send
and they are sending you hugs, too.
“O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above thy deep and dreamless sleep
The silent stars go by.”
Invite a homeless person
to share your hearth tonight,
learn what joy is all about
purely giving love and light.
“Rudolf, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.”
Jolly is a state of mind,
no room for darkly fright,
we drink a toast to life and love
no CNN for us tonight.
“For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!”
I love you oh so dearly,
you cherished friend of mine,
I wish you Splendid Christmas
and a New Year so sublime!
New Year History
compiled by Ted L Glines
Going back only several hundred years ago, you would have been ringing in the New Year on March 1st. Zip on back to about 2000 B.C. in Mesopotamia for what the historians say was the first New Year celebration and you'll find the vernal equinox (around March 20th) to be the year's beginning. The Greeks had the winter solstice (around December 21st) as their New Year date, and the Persians, Egyptians, and Phoenicians celebrated New Year on the fall equinox (around September 23rd).
The early Roman calendar only had ten months, March through December, and they celebrated New Year on March 1st. The month of January was added to the calendar in about 700 B.C., when Roman King Numa Pontilius added both January and February. However, it was not until 153 B.C. that Romans first celebrated New Year on January 1st, as the beginning of their civil year (newly elected Roman consuls began their one-year tenure on that date). Many Romans continued to celebrate March 1st as their New Year Day.
With the new solar-based Julian calendar, in 46 B.C., Julius Caesar decreed that New Year would occur on January 1st, and this was made official within the Roman world.
In 567 A.D., the Council of Tours abolished January 1st as the beginning of the new year, because the celebrations accompanying this holiday were considered to be unchristianlike and pagan. Throughout medieval Christian Europe, New Year Day was celebrated on December 25th, or March 1st, or March 25th, corresponding to Church holy days.
It was not until the Gregorian calendar reform in A.D. 1582 that January 1st was restored as New Year's Day. Most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar right away, but many Protestant countries (like England and her American colonies) did not adopt the reformed calendar until A.D. 1752, continuing to celebrate their New Year in March.
Legend of The Chinese New Year
by Sandie May Angel
Sandie May Angel Chinese New Year Greeting
Legend of The Chinese New Year
by Sandie May Angel
On February 18, 2007 the Chinese will celebrate the first day of the New Year (The Year of the Pig).
The Chinese New Year day does not fall on the same day every year as it does on the Roman calendar. It holds its own horoscope by the years consisting of 12 animals signs for a 12 year-cycle - beginning from the year of the Rat, followed by the Ox, then the Tiger, the Rabbit, the Dragon…and the list just goes on until it reaches the Pig; and then the cycle will begin from the Rat once again.
The Chinese New Year is an important celebration. Chinese people from all over the world celebrate this New Year’s Day by visiting each other, and congratulating each other. They wish each other good luck and good fortune, happiness and long life.
There are also similar celebrations in Japan, Korea and Vietnam as well, they are known as the Lunar New Year or the Spring Festival.
But just how did this Chinese New Year began? What is its legend? When did the Chinese New Year begin?
There are many different versions of the legend of the Chinese New year. I’m going to share with you one that I have heard of when I was a little girl…
Many thousands and thousands of years ago, there was a small village in China. Its villagers were being terrorized by a monster that looked like a dragon. This monster came to this small village once every year to eat its villagers. Whenever this monster shows up at the village, many villagers would be missing the following day.
Soon, on the night the dragon was supposed to arrive, all the villagers got together to scheme up a plan to destroy this monster. They wanted to at least frighten this evil dragon away. The villagers decorated the front of their houses with bright red banners, burn the fire crackers to make loud noises to scare the monster, some played drums loudly to make noises; and some took it upon themselves to be lions and did the lion dance to the beat of the drums. Believe this or not, by doing this they had actually scared the monster away. The dragon had never come to attack the village and its inhabitants during that night. The following morning, all the villagers were still alive. They were so happy that they congratulated each other for being lucky and alive!
The following year when the time the dragon was supposed to arrive, the villagers repeated the same ceremony. They put red banners in front of their houses, lit the firecrackers, and did the lion dance. The following day they congratulated each other once again for being lucky and alive; and ever since that time, the Chinese had called this day “The New Year Day.”
Thus the legend of the Chinese New Year was created.
Now every year on the New Year Day of the Chinese calendar, all the Chinese people of the world are still very happy. They visit each other and exchange good wishes. They serve each other fortune cakes and cookies, also some fruits and vegetables of which the names resemble good lucks. Small children get lucky money in little red envelops from adults as a good omen for them to grow up to be adults without any obstables and dangers.
Many people also wear new clothes and shoes, many wear red color to show happiness and also to fight off the spirits that are of evil.
Special foods are prepared and many snacks are being offered with well-meanings: Eating fish brings long life and good fortune, it is because the sound of the name “fish” is the same sound of “having things left-over”, that is including money. Eating melon seeds will bring new babies to the family, and the red dates are for receiving prosperity and good fortunes.
One must be very careful not to break any dishes, or eat from bowls or plates that are chipped as it is considered bad luck.
The fire-crackers are still being lit, but now this gesture is only as a symbol of celebration. Also, the Lion Dance, and the sound of the drums are still being performed, but it is now more as a form of New Year’s celebration, and to chase all evils away.
Valentine's Day History
Compiled by Ted L Glines
Roman Roots
The history of Valentine's Day is obscure, and further clouded by various fanciful legends. The holiday's roots are in the ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration commemorated annually on February 15. Pope Gelasius I recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day circa 496, declaring February 14 to be St. Valentine's Day.
Valentines Galore
Which St. Valentine this early pope intended to honor remains a mystery: according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, there were at least three early Christian saints by that name. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop in Terni, and of a third St. Valentine almost nothing is known except that he met his end in Africa. Rather astonishingly, all three Valentines were said to have been martyred on Feb. 14.
Most scholars believe that the St. Valentine of the holiday was a priest who attracted the disfavor of Roman emperor Claudius II around 270. At this stage, the factual ends and the mythic begins. According to one legend, Claudius II had prohibited marriage for young men, claiming that bachelors made better soldiers. Valentine continued to secretly perform marriage ceremonies but was eventually apprehended by the Romans and put to death. Another legend has it that Valentine, imprisoned by Claudius, fell in love with the daughter of his jailer. Before he was executed, he allegedly sent her a letter signed "from your Valentine." Probably the most plausible story surrounding St. Valentine is one not focused on Eros (passionate love) but on agape (Christian love): he was martyred for refusing to renounce his religion.
In 1969, the Catholic Church revised its liturgical calendar, removing the feast days of saints whose historical origins were questionable. St. Valentine was one of the casualties.
Chaucer's Love Birds
It was not until the 14th century that this Christian feast day became definitively associated with love. According to UCLA medieval scholar Henry Ansgar Kelly, author of Chaucer and the Cult of Saint Valentine, it was Chaucer who first linked St. Valentine's Day with romance.
In 1381, Chaucer composed a poem in honor of the engagement between England's Richard II and Anne of Bohemia. As was the poetic tradition, Chaucer associated the occasion with a feast day. In "The Parliament of Fowls," the royal engagement, the mating season of birds, and St. Valentine's Day are linked:
"For this was on St. Valentine's Day,
When every fowl cometh there to choose his mate."
Tradition of Valentine's Cards
Over the centuries, the holiday evolved, and by the 18th century, gift-giving and exchanging hand-made cards on Valentine's Day had become common in England. Hand-made valentine cards made of lace, ribbons, and featuring cupids and hearts eventually spread to the American colonies. The tradition of Valentine's cards did not become widespread in the United States, however, until the 1850s, when Esther A. Howland, a Mount Holyoke graduate and native of Worcester, Mass., began mass-producing them. Today, of course, the holiday has become a booming commercial success. According to the Greeting Card Association, 25% of all cards sent each year are valentines.
Excerpts from: (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/valentinesdayhistory.html)
PRINCESS GABRIELLA'S VALENTINE SURPRISE
By Ed Kostro
I first met Princess Gabriella at the animal shelter on a hot, muggy, Saturday afternoon in July. On that particular day, my volunteer duties included working in the Cat Adoption Room. My job was to groom the cats, calm them, and prepare them for the arrival of any potential foster parents who might wander in.
When I saw the large number of cats up for adoption that day, I decided that I was going to take one of them home. I figured that I could sneak one more in without my spouse getting too upset.
As I went about my grooming duties, I must have held and groomed 40 cats before I came upon old Princess Gabriella. Most of these cats were young, frisky, and very playful. This one was just the opposite. She was black and white and old. She just stared out at me from her cramped prison cage with the saddest looking eyes that I had ever seen on any animal.
When I opened her cage door, she slowly and gingerly crawled into my arms and immediately began nuzzling my chin. She was also purring delightedly. She clung to my chest so tightly that I had a difficult time getting her back in the cage. I was hooked.
The shelter keeps a log on each unfortunate creature brought in, and I soon learned that Miss Gabriella was 8 years old. Older cats like her often end up at a shelter when their owner dies and family members no longer wish to care for the deceased person’s pet.
Gabriella, however, had been abandoned in a high-rise apartment building in the centre of town. Her former owner had simply moved out and left her in the empty apartment to fend for herself, without any food or water.
I learned from shelter personnel that this is a far too common occurrence in big cities today. On a daily basis, apartment superintendents find abandoned forlorn pets like Princess Gabriella. These unfortunate throw-aways are then taken to animal shelters, and sadly, very often put to sleep.
I decided right there that Miss Gabriella would be spared this terrible fate. When I told shelter personnel of my decision to take her home, they seemed surprised and delighted that I wanted to adopt such an old cat.
Almost everyone who wandered into their facility rescued only kittens and younger felines up to two or three years of age. Seniors such as Miss Gabriella were usually left to linger in their cages for a few weeks, and then sadly escorted to the ‘sleep room.’
As I loaded Princess Gabriella into my car that evening, I wondered if any other elderly felines would be given a second chance at life that day. I sincerely hoped they would.
The elderly Miss Gabriella soon blossomed into a real geriatric treasure in our household. She’s now our home’s official listener, confidant, tummy warmer, visitor greeter, photographic ham, and sexy senior, and she’s in love with our old tabby, Buddy. He’s definitely her ‘Valentine Guy.’
Our Princess Gabriella definitely believes in senior citizen courtship and female aggressiveness. She is madly in love with old Buddy, and she’s been after him with Cupid’s Bow and Arrow for several years now – and she refuses to give up hope.
She will follow him around the house for hours, batting her long lovely whiskers at him every chance she gets. Gruff old Buddy usually ignores her or hisses his disapproval of her continuous amorous attentions.
But the old girl will just not give up or give in. She obviously believes that Buddy will one day come to his senses and fall madly in love with her, too. She’s a very stubborn old love-sick cat.
And I just know that she’s planning something extremely romantic for old Buddy this Valentine’s Day.
He’s especially fond of dining on spiders, and I’ve recently seen the Princess dashing all about our basement, collecting a wide variety of them for Buddy’s ‘Special Valentine’s Day Gift.’
Won’t he be surprised!
And maybe, just maybe, this year, Princess Gabriella’s Valentine Dream will finally come true. I sincerely hope it does.
Isn’t love simply grand?!
© Ed Kostro 2005
Be sure to check out Ed's websites.
http://edkostro.home.comcast.net/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html
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My Paper Valentine |
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The Legend of The White Snake Lady
Written by Sandie May Angel
Once upon a time, on the mountain of Er-Mei in China, two snakes were born. One of them was White, and the other – her sister – was green. However, these were not the ordinary snakes, for these two snakes possessed special magical power that was of spiritual value, since both snakes were spirits.
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Valentine
by Ted L Glines
A wish for you
on this Valentine's Day
that you'll take time to laugh
and maybe to play,
just bury the blues
let go your worries
do something happy
and giggle in flurries,
run in the forest
hug a small child
grin at the clouds
and do something wild,
just for this day
be perfectly free
for that is the way
you were meant to be,
watch how your magick
blossoms in wonder
as lightning flashes
in evening thunder,
and know in your heart
come what may
I send you my blessings
on Valentine's Day.