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.