Holi

Holi festival was originally a Hindu festival linked with the birthday celebrations of Lord Chaitanya. Now it is celebrated as a Universal festival in Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States, Germany, other countries where the concentration of Hindu populations are huge in numbers. People from all religions participate in this festival of happiness, friendship, tolerance and acceptance between other religions, languages and creeds. Holi also celebrates the transformation from winter to summer season.

Holi is celebrated with joyful parties where everybody sprinkles colored powder on each other. The idea is to cover everybody in color so no matter your color, sex, religion...everybody is the same. 

I already try at every opportunity to teach Eira about being tolerate and accepting. We talked about all the ways people are different. The best part of the day was the Holi powder throwing inspired paint fight! I think there is something about covering your mother is messy paint. 

 

Mardi Gras (fat tuesday)

This was a fun holiday! Yesterday the only thing I really knew about Mardi Gras was it was a huge parade/partying day in New Orleans where people took off their shirts for beads. It's original purpose was actually party driven. Mardi Gras is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for fat Tuesday because people celebrated and used up the last of their eggs, butter, milk and rich foods before fasting for the next 46 days during Lent.

We started the day with a mock king cake (cinnamon rolls baked into a circle with colored icing). Traditionally a plastic baby is baked into the cake, we used a pin. Eiralynn got it in her piece of cake and was the king (or queen in her case) for the day.

For dinner we had New Orleans style jambalaya with shrimp (which Eira LOVED, who knew?) in our kitchen decorated in the traditional Mardi Gras colors green (for faith), gold (for power) and purple (for justice), beads, masks and horns.

Presidents Day!

Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday of February. Since the day falls between the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, most people take the opportunity to honor both presidents. Others celebrate all the presidents today. For simplicity's sake I'll just concentrate on Washington and Lincoln and teach Eira a little about being a president and how it works.

St. Valentines Day!

Ok, so you've all celebrated it since you were in Kindergarten. The little party after lunch where they handed out cookies covered in red sprinkles and boxes of chalk flavored Be Mine! and Love Ya conversation hearts then everyone passes out valentines. The characters featured depend on when you grew up, but they may have feature Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles declaring you "totally rad", Pokemon cards "glad I caught YOU valentine!" or maybe some sweet hand made ones with terrible word play.

But do you know who St. Valentine was? Surprise! It's not a single St. we celebrate on February 14th. St. Valentines day mixes bits of Christian and Roman tradition. According to the Catholic church there are three different martyrs named Valentine. In the third century in Rome marriage was outlawed because the Emperor decided single men made better soldiers than married ones. Valentine defied the Emperor and wed couples in secret. He was put to death when the Emperor found out. How romantic.

So why February 14th? And why all the mushy gushy love and valentines gifts? Christians decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Sneaky Christians. During the Middle Ages in France and England they believed February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season bringing out the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

We had so much fun today. Eira-lynn got her Valentine gifts when she got up. This afternoon we made cupcakes for our "dinner party". For dinner I made heart shaped berry pancakes, eggs and fried potatos. We decorated the table with valentines day balloons, valentines day cups, the cupcakes and flowers. Even some sparkling grape juice to be extra special.

Groundhogs Day/Candlemas/Imbolc

    Today is 3 for 1! Four if you count my brother's birthday (Happy Birthday Kyle!).

    This morning Punxsutawney Phil (the groundhog in PA) did indeed see his shadow. As legend goes, he gets scared and runs back in his hole to hibernate through the next six weeks, therefore predicting six more weeks of winter weather! This was fun for Eira-lynn. We got http://www.amazon.com/Groundhog-Day-Book-Facts-Fun/dp/0807530662/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328198996&sr=1-5 from the library and read all about Groundhogs Day. What's a groundhogs favorite food? Burrow-itos! hahaha.

   Candlemas is a Christan holiday when candles are blessed and lit representing the idea Jesus is the light of the world. I wasn't about to take some candles to my local church to have them blessed, but we did eat lunch by candle light and talked about the metaphoric light inside (being kind, empathetic, etc). This confused Eira-lynn for a while, but I think she understands now.

   Imbolc is a celtic/pagan holiday celebrating the coming of spring. In Celtic times in Ireland, Imbolc was a Pagan holiday celebrating Brigid, the goddess of all things of high dimensions, like mountains and high rising fire and of activities and states, such as wisdom, excellence, perfection and high intelligence. Since the spring is when animals are born and sheep begin producing milk for their young traditional Imbolc meals include plenty of dairy. We had grilled cheese sandwiches and green peas (which always seem like such a spring vegetable to me) for lunch.

    

Australia Day

G'day mate! The Australian accent is my second favorite accent ever (next to an Irish one). This is a pretty laid back and fun holiday to celebrate. People in Australia celebrate the day with parties, parades, concerts and BBQ's.

Australia is the smallest continent but the 6th largest country (about the same size as the US). Australia day celebrates the day (in 1788) the first fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip landed at Sydney, establishing the Colony of New South Wales (official on Feb. 7,1788 ).

Eira-lynn and I made an Australian flag out of construction paper and sang the national anthem;

Australians all let us rejoice,
For we are young and free,
We've golden soil and wealth for toil;
Our home is girt by sea;
Our land abounds in nature's gifts
Of beauty rich and rare,
In history's page, let every stage
Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Beneath our radiant Southern Cross
We'll toil with hearts and hands;
To make this Commonwealth of ours
Renowned of all the lands;
For those who've come across the seas
We've boundless plains to share:
With courage let us all combine
To Advance Australia Fair.
In joyful strains then let us sing,
Advance Australia Fair.

Eira-lynn got a kick out of the different words they use. We loaded up the "boot" of the car for our trip to NC (the trunk) we had morning (and afternoon) tea with "biscuits" (cookies). We watched Bindi Irwin on you tube to hear the Australian accent and I also taught her how they say bloody (meaning very, as in bloody well done, or bloody hungry). That was probably a mistake. She won't stop saying it.

I actually looked up where to buy kangaroo meat the other day to make something for dinner tonight, but they don't sell it around here (big surprise) and the cheapest I could find it online was $42 including shipping. Apparently, Australians don't even usually eat kangaroo so I looked around for something else. Since Australia is surrounded by water (it's basically a big island) they eat a lot of seafood, and have a ton of fish and chips (french fries) restaurants, so we went with that.

I really would like to visit some day.

Chinese New Year

    新年快乐! Xīnnián kuàilè! Happy New Year! Our new year is kind of boring. You sit around all night, maybe go to a party, maybe sit at home counting down till midnight. Shout happy new year and go to bed. But in China! Their new year celebration lasts for 2 weeks! It's pretty much the same idea of what your used to. It's the beginning of the Chinese calendar year. One big difference is the animals. One of 12 specific animals represents each year, this year being the year of the dragon. Luck plays a big role in the Chinese new year. They eat certain foods for good luck, decorate with the color red for good luck, have huge parades and celebrations with fireworks to scare away the evil spirits and bring good luck.

     Eira-lynn and I made some pretty cute paper lanterns to hang up. And of course we ordered chinese food for dinner (homemade fortune cookies too! So easy!) and ate picnic style on the living room floor dressed in red. The day before the lantern festival (feb. 6, the last day of the new year celebration) there is a big Chinese new year celebration here in Knoxville. We're so excited to go to that also.

Our Lady of Altagracia

Toady the Dominican Republic celebrates Día de la Altagracia. It's a day to celebrate the country's patron saint Our Lady of Altagracia.

Eira-lynn and I read the book Gift of Gracias: Legend of Altagracia. Kind of lacking, but we were pretty busy today.

Up next: Australia Day  (Jan 26th)

Pongal

     Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated in India. It's a four day celebration (Jan 14-17)

     The first day is called Bhogi. It's a day to give thanks to the Lord Indra, the God of thunder and rain, for a good harvest. On Bhogi people thoroughly clean their homes and get rid of everything they don't need. Brian hated this part haha! Eira-lynn and I went through the house cleaning and purging. Boy it felt good to get rid of so much crap. And a TON of clothes that didn't fit the kids or Brian or me anymore. It's much less cluttered in here. This is probably my favorite part of the holiday. I thought it was a little much to teach Eira about people worshiping the God of thunder, so we just talked about being thankful of the rain so crops could grow and people all over the world could eat.

     The second day is Surya Pongal and is the day Pongal actually begins. People celebrate the sun God, Surya, cook pongal (a sweet dish made when rice and milk cooked in clay pots until it boils over) and draw kolam (colorful designs usually made with colored rice flour, they are really pretty. Google it) in front of their home.

     The first offering of the pongal is to the sun God. Again, I thought it was too much to talk to Eira about the sun God, but we did talk about all the good things the sun is used for. I've never cooked or eaten Indian food in my life, but I figured Pongal would be a good day to start. I made chick pea curry which was actually pretty good for my first try. For desert I cheated and got a packaged yellow lentil and milk pudding called Moong Dal Halwa. It was quite gross. It had the texture of chewed-up-and-spit-out peanuts. "Oh, you mean peanut butter?" you ask. No. Like chewed-up-and-spit-out peanuts. Big difference.  It was the closest thing to Pongal I could find. I could have made it pretty easily but do you have any idea how expensive Indian spices are? $10 for a jar of cardamom! Maybe next time i'll be a little more adventurous.

     Eira-lynn was so excited to do the kolam, so we started our day with that. It was freezing and come to find out I'm a crappy chalk artist, but I think we got the job done (those thing on the points of the star are jars of pongal boiling over). While we were out there we fed some birds. I didn't have coked rice, so I used rice krispies instead.

     The third day is Mattu Pongal and is a day to celebrate the cattle. The family's cattle are washed and beads, flower garlands and bells are tied around their necks and their horns are painted. On Mattu Pongal  Lord Ganesh and Goddess Parvati are worshiped. According to a legend, once Shiva asked his bull, Basava, to go to the earth and ask the mortals to have an oil massage and bath every day and to eat once a month. Inadvertently, Basava announced that everyone should eat daily and have an oil bath once a month. This mistake enraged Shiva who then cursed Basava, banishing him to live on the earth forever. He would have to plough the fields and help people produce more food. Thus this day is associated with cattle. As you could imagine, I couldn't get my hands on any cows to paint, so Eira-lynn and I drew some cows and threw some glitter and stickers on them. They were awful pretty cows.

The last day is Kanum Pongal and is a day people travel to see other family members and the younger members of the family pay homage to the elders, and the elders thank them by giving token money. Many leave food out on banana leaves for birds to take. Some also go to temple to worship and thank God for all good things that are bestowed on them.
Traveling to see family was kind of out of the question today, but Eira-lynn talked to Brian's mom on the phone. And we threw some rice kripies to the birds. I'm sure it counts.

    We should have more fun holidays like that in the US. I never knew I was missing out on so many fun activities, neat ideas and excuses to eat chewed-up-and-spit-out peanut pudding.

Next up: Lady of Altagracia day (Jan 21)

Martyrs' Day (Panama)/Coming of Age Day (Japan)

     Today, Japan celebrates the national holiday Coming of Age day (Seijin no hi). In Japan twenty is the age of adulthood and the age drinking, voting and smoking are legal. It's a festival for all of the people who have turned twenty years old during the previous year. Since I don't know anyone who has turned 20 recently I really can't celebrate this one, but It's a great excuse for a party if you happen to know one.

 

     Today is also Panama's Martyrs' Day. It's a day to remember the tragic day of January 9, 1964 when twenty two Panamanians were killed in a fight that broke out between the kids that lived in Panama City and U.S. citizens living in the Canal Zone at Balboa high school. The U.S. broke the agreement that the Panama flag and the American flag be flown together, by raising just the American flag. Close to 200 students from the local Panama high school came to raise the flag of Panama. A fight broke out between the students and the U.S. soldiers when the soldiers tried to stop them and the Panama flag was torn. A three day riot broke out killing twenty two Panamanian students and four American soldiers. All schools and businesses are closed in remembrance and mourning in Panama today, but most Americans have no idea.

     This makes me really sad. I don't understand why people don't just get along. Just because you don't share, agree with or understand another persons race, culture, religion, believes, sexuality, lifestyle or anything else doesn't give you the right to treat that person any worse than your brother, sister, mother or father. If I don't teach my kids anything besides being compassionate towards others that'd be ok by me.

Epiphany

     Happy Epiphany! Merry 12th night! Good Theophany! Merry El Dia de los Tres Reyes! Happy Three Kings Day! What country you're in determines what it's called but, it's a much more joyous holiday then yesterday's Tevet 10.

  Whatever you call it, Epiphany is the last day of the twelve days of Christmas. It celebrates the day the Magi/three wise men/three kings visited the baby Jesus. Although the Eastern Christians, like the Greek Orthodox prefer to celebrate it as the day Jesus was baptized. In some countries (Spain for one) children leave their shoes outside the house for the three wise men to fill with sweets as they pass by, or the Magi leave gifts (representing the gifts of frankincense, gold and myrrh they brought to the baby Jesus) to be opened Epiphany morning (similar to our Santa Clause).

    Traditionally, Epiphany is observed by blessing the home, exchanging gifts and feasting on a "King Cake".

     We started our day off with Happy Epiphany's! and King Cake (cinnamon rolls covered with green, gold and purple icing). The custom is whoever gets the piece with the trinket inside gets to be the a King for the day. Guess who got it? Yup. Eira-lynn. She was so excited to be the "Royal King". Over our cake I told her the story of the Magi meeting the baby Jesus.

     We blessed our house, Epiphany style. I let Eira-lynn write the 20+C+B+M+12 over the door (the letters have two meanings, the initials of the three wise men; Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar and, the abbreviate the Latin phrase Christus Mansionem Benedicat translated to may Christ bless this house. The 20 in the front and 12 at the end make up the year and the + represents the protection of the Christ.) while I read the house blessing prayer-

     May God bless our home and all who live here. May we be filled with health, goodness of heart, gentleness, love, and thanksgiving. Help us love and respect one another and make your presence known by the way we care for others. May this blessing remain upon this house and upon all who live here. Amen.

 Christmas kind of wiped us our financially so I skipped the gift giving aspect and we made king crowns for each other instead.

These past two days are probably the most religious I've ever been in my life. It feels kind of strange praying, especially while using the words God, Lord or Jesus. Usually the only time I use the word God is with a "damn it" after it or a "oh my" in front of it. I kind of like it though. Afterward I feel peaceful and more connected.

Next up- January 9 is Martyr's day (Panama) and Coming of Age day (Japan)

10 Tevet or Asarah B'Tevet

     I was looking through the Israel calendar and saw that today they celebrated Asarah B'Tevet. I don't know how I skipped over it before. So today was my first official holiday. I'm sort of excited, despite the solemn nature of the observation.

     Asarah B'Tevet is a Jewish holiday celebrated on Tevet 10. Tevet 10 is the 10th day of the Jewish month of Tevet. On Tevet 10, 425 BCE the armies of the Babylonian emperor Nebuchadnezzar began attacking Jerusalem, eventually destroying the holy temple and exiling the Jewish people to Babylonia. 
     
     The 10th of Tevet has also become a day to remember the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust. It's a day of fasting, remembrance and prayer. So that's what I did.
 
     Since fasting is from sunup to sundown I started my day early to squeeze in some breakfast before the sun rose at 7:45am. After I ate, I began my day of prayer and remembrance. First up was a Jewish Kaddish, or prayer of mourning. It's a surprisingly uplifting, thankful prayer for one of mourning. Nowhere is the word death mentioned, or sadness, regret or anything else I would think describe a period of mourning. Instead I think it's a beautiful way to remember that you are alive and be thankful for it. Here is the translation

Mourners Kaddish
Glorified and sanctified be God's great name throughout the world which He has created according to His will.

May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days, and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights, may He create peace for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

Beautiful, is it not?

     The fasting wasn't as difficult as I thought. And I could see why it is practiced. It really does focus you. Whenever I wanted to eat something I switched to thinking about all of the Jews who were effected by the Holocaust. They couldn't just eat whenever they wanted. In fact I was lucky to be not eating in comfort with family.

    What really got me was the remembrance part. I wasn't looking forward to this part. I pictured myself moping about with images of every heartbreaking scene about the Holocaust I'd ever seen on TV or read about. As I thought about all the souls lost during the Holocaust something happened to me. Like the mourning prayer I had an unexpectedly uplifting, positive day. I noticed the small things more. I spent the day thankful for every moment with my kids. Instead of tossing my son in his crib for his nap I held him and looked into his beautiful face, grateful that I could do this. That I happen to live in a time and place that allows me the freedom to believe in what I want without fear of terrible things happening to me or my family.

     Overall, It was a pretty good "holiday". It really gave me that other perspective I was looking for.  I'm in for quite a year.
    

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us and for all. Beautiful.

My new year resolution

     Yesterday was January 1, 2012. It was the first year I didn't make a resolution. Instead I decided instead to change my life up a little. I want to expand my world, explore new horizons and all that. I'm bored with my small world everyday view on life.
     
     I was setting up my kids' calender and was looking at all the holidays on there. I noticed a whole bunch of them that I'd never heard of. In first week of January there is a holiday called Epiphany. I'd never heard of it and was curious. I'd heard of Passover, Ramadan, Yom Kippur, Chinese new year and a few others but I'd never really paid them much attention. I think it's about time.
     
     The idea sort of came to me from two sources. First, is the book i'm currently reading, The Year of Living Biblically. Basicaly it's about a guy who spends a year following every law in the bible as literally as possible. It started me thinking about how people who follow different religions act and what their lives are like. Second, I watched the movie Life In a Day. The director took footage (of everyday life on July 24, 2010) submitted by amateur filmmakers from all over the world and put it into a documentary. It's amazingly done and you really start to see how small you are in the world. Your normal is far from what millions of other people in the world would call normal.
      
     So I'm going to try to celebrate every major Government and religious holiday in my Christan/Catholic/Islamic/Pagan/Jewish calendar. If you google "Holidays that fall on_____(pick any day)" you will get many different results. For example there is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day (April 2), Positive Thinking Day (Sept 13), Tell a Fairy Tale Day (Feb 26) and a TON others. I'm not going to bother with these. Maybe next year. They are created by companies, local government and some are just plain made up. There isn't any way to verify them and the list is way too long, I'd be celebrating 10 "holidays" at the same time. 

The first holiday is New Years Day. I watched the ball drop, did the required kiss at 12:00:01 and went to bed. We had the traditional southern good luck dinner of collard greens and blacked eyed peas.

The next holiday I'll be celebrating is Epiphany (Jan 6 but traditionally celebrated in the US on the following Sunday, Jan 8). My very first one! But first I need to find out what it is.