Good morning crew, enjoyed a good sleep, Friday morning here so off to the shopping plaza to do the weekend shopping. Well pushing the trolley for Mrs.D.
Congrats on job Missy. I am sure you will be a good "mum" to all the littlies. Just found out that daughter's new baby due in March is a girl so we are all madly thinking "pink" things. Good morning Dutchy - see you are out and about.
Crazy days. Glad to have made it back to the ship. Lots of catching up to do.
0 Replies
alex240101
1
Reply
Thu 30 Oct, 2008 04:12 pm
Good day Ms. Izzie. In your absence, I picked out a halloween costume for you.
Congratulations to Mismi and Devriesj on their new adventures.
Mismi.When my sisters twins were old enough to start school, she claims getting a part time job, was one of the best things she did.
One day of freedom left.
Three dog night tonight. A sleeping bag for sure. A balmy thirty nine degrees in my bedroom last night. No roof. Stargazing. Yes, the house is only four years old. Long story.
Everyone have nice days.
Alex - thank you . I think it will be. I am a little concerned about you sleeping with no roof. Can you give us some details please? We sleep with our windows open even when it's below freezing outside. But that's different - we are really quite protected. No roof makes me think you are t-t-t-too c-c-c-cold. SENDING WARM THOUGHTS YOUR WAY!
You're right Beth - this weather is crazy - I can't remember the last time it got down to freezing down here BEFORE Halloween. Brrrr
Hi F/Q, have a great day in London. Happy and sad memories from there but must say I love the place. Haven't seen Izzie around, you must have worn her out last weekend and she is still recovering. Talk to you soon.
No worries Rock... won't let the crew down hun. Thanku darlin'. Nite xxxx
Congratulations dev, mis and indeedee " so pleased for you all " much love. x
Alex requested a party for the crew... so...as a celebration for the good news and for those who enjoy a trick and treat...
SO CLIMB ABOARD......
and go get changed....
costumes for the girlz:
costumes for the boyz:
Halloween
From Wikipedia,
Also called: All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Eve, Samhain, Hallowed End
Observed by Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Japan, Bahamas, United States, sometimes Australia,Sweden, and many Latin American countries where it is known as Noche de las Brujas (Night of the Witches)
Halloween (or Hallowe’en) is an international holiday celebrated on October 31. Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, ghost tours, bonfires, costume parties, visiting haunted attractions, carving jack-o'-lanterns, reading scary stories, and watching horror movies. Irish immigrants carried versions of the tradition to North America in the nineteenth century. Other western countries embraced the holiday in the late twentieth century. Halloween is celebrated in several countries of the Western world, most commonly in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and occasionally in parts of Australia. In Sweden the All Saints' official holiday takes place on the first Saturday of November.
History
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (Irish pronunciation: [ˈsˠaunʲ]; from the Old Irish samain).[1] The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture, and is sometimes [2] regarded as the "Celtic New Year".[3] Traditionally, the festival was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and slaughter livestock for winter stores. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, now known as Halloween, the boundary between the alive and the deceased dissolved, and the dead become dangerous for the living by causing problems such as sickness or damaged crops. The festivals would frequently involve bonfires, into which bones of slaughtered livestock were thrown. Costumes and masks were also worn at the festivals in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or placate them.
History of name
The term Halloween is shortened from All Hallows' Even (both "even" and "eve" are abbreviations of "evening", but "Halloween" gets its "n" from "even") as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day",which is now also known as All Saints' Day. It was a day of religious festivities in various northern European Pagan traditions,until Popes Gregory III and Gregory IV moved the old Christian feast of All Saints' Day from May 13 (which had itself been the date of a pagan holiday, the Feast of the Lemures) to November 1. In the ninth century, the Church measured the day as starting at sunset, in accordance with the Florentine calendar. Although All Saints' Day is now considered to occur one day after Halloween, the two holidays were, at that time, celebrated on the same day. Liturgically, the Church traditionally celebrated that day as the Vigil of All Saints, and, until 1970, a day of fasting as well. Like other vigils, it was celebrated on the previous day if it fell on a Sunday, although secular celebrations of the holiday remained on the 31st. The Vigil was suppressed in 1955, but was later restored in the post-Vatican II calendar.
Symbols
The carved pumpkin, lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols in America, and is commonly called a jack-o'-lantern. Originating in Europe, these lanterns were first carved from a turnip or rutabaga. Believing that the head was the most powerful part of the body containing the spirit and the knowledge, the Celts used the "head" of the vegetable to frighten off any superstitions. The name jack-o'-lantern can be traced back to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer. He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night with the only light he had: a candle inside of a hollowed turnip. The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America, where pumpkins were readily available and much larger, making them easier to carve than turnips. Many families that celebrate Halloween carve a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark. In America the tradition of carving pumpkins is known to have preceded the Great Famine period of Irish immigration. The carved pumpkin was originally associated with harvest time in general in America and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.
HALLOWEEN MYTHS AND FROLICS
By Henry Frederic Reddall
Every one knows that All-Hallow Eve, or Halloween, falls on the last day of October, and that the day following, the first of November, is set apart in honor of saints and martyrs by the Western Churches"whence comes its name, All Saints' Day.
This feast was kept in the Greek Church as early as the fourth century, though it did not become common in the West till the beginning of the seventh century.
The setting apart of one day sacred to the memory of these saintly departed ones arose from the fact that the number of saints multiplied as the Church grew and prospered, and it was found too burdensome to devote a feast-day to each. Indeed, so great was the number of the canonized, that there were "scarce hours enough in the year to distribute among them all." So it was decided to commemorate on one special day those who had no particular days of their own. In the English Church the day is sometimes called All-Hallowmas. But it is the eve of the festival that we write about.
In the seventh century the Pantheon, the Roman temple dedicated to all the pagan gods, was consecrated to the worship of the Virgin and the Martyrs. The new festival was held at first on May 11th in each year, but later it was shifted to Nov. 1st.
Halloween was thereby made to fall on the same day as did an ancient festival among the Druids, those strange priests of a stranger religion who were scattered over many portions of northern Europe before Christianity became its creed. They had many strange ceremonies. For instance: three times in each year -- on May 1st at the time of sowing; at the June 21st summer solstice for the ripening of the crops; and on October 31st at the harvest season -- these priests built fires on the hill-tops in Britain, Ireland, and in France, in honor of the sun-god.
At the latter festival the Druids, for miles round, gathered in snow-white robes at the altar of stones on some hill. Here rested an emblem of the luminary they worshiped, and on the altar was the sacred fire which bad been carefully kept alive during the past year. The Druids grouped themselves around it, and at a given signal quenched it, amid absolute silence on the part of the assembled people.
Then a new fire was kindled on the cairn, a mound of stones, as the multitude raised a mighty shout, and from every eminence for miles around other fires blazed into view. The same night the fire was put out in every cabin and farmhouse, only to be rekindled with embers from the sacred fire of the priests, which was believed to protect each homestead from peril as long as it remained burning.
In those days faith in the existence of fairies and goblins, witches and sprites, was very strong, and as the Druidic faith faded before the advance of Christianity the heathen festivals lost much of their old grandeur and former significance, and took on a lower character. So, on the night of October 31st, the simple country-folk believed that the fairies came out of their grottos while witches and goblins gathered in forest glades, or plotted against mankind in the shadows of ruinous castles and keeps.
By a very natural transition the Halloween fire came to be looked on as a charm against these sprites. As a result, late as the seventeenth century, it was customary for farmers to make the circuit of their fields with a lighted torch in hand, to protect them from harm during the year, chanting or singing a doggerel rhyme the while.
Because these unseen magic powers were deemed to be so near at this season, Halloween was thought to be the night of all nights on which to pry into the secrets of the future, and thus arose all those simple ceremonies by which it was claimed that one's fate might be learned. Of course, no sensible person now believes that by cracking nuts, ducking one's head in a tub of water for apples, dropping melted lead in a goblet, pulling kale, or eating an apple before a mirror, anything supernatural or ghostly will be seen or heard; but the pleasant fireside revelries survive, though they have lost their superstitious significance.
In England, Scotland, America, and even in far-off Australia " wherever, in fact, the Saxon tongue is spoken " these Halloween festivities are kept up by young and old. But it is in the two first-named countries that Halloween frolics are seen at their best. Great bonfires are still kindled in many places, around which the villagers join hands in a merry dance. Then, as the flames subside into a pile of glowing embers, the real fun begins.
The first ceremony in Scotland consists in "pulling the kale." Kale is a sort of cabbage. Lads and lasses go out in couples, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first head of kale they touch. The fact of its being crooked or straight, large or small, is said to be emblematic of the height and figure of the coming husband or wife. If any earth clings to the roots, that means money; while the sweet or bitter taste of the heart of the kale denotes the dis¬position of the prospective life-partner.
BURNING NUTS
Burning nuts is another equally famous charm. Two hazelnuts are placed in the fire, having been previously named for the particular lad and lass about to try their fortune. Accordingly as they burn quietly side by side, or crack and sputter and break apart, will be the result of the wooing. Says Burns:
The auld gudewife's weel hoarded nits
Are round and round divided,
And monie lads' and lasses' fates
Are there that night decided.
Some kindle, couthie, side by side,
And burn thegither trimly;
Some start awa' with saucy pride,
And jump out-owre the chimlie.
In England the following charm is frequently tried: Three dishes are taken; one is empty; one is filled with clear water; and the third with dirty water. A boy is blindfolded and led to the hearth where the dishes are set in a row. Then he dips the left hand in one of the dishes " if in the dish with clean water his wife will be a maid, if in the dish with the foul water she will be a widow, if in the empty dish he will remain ''a horrid old bachelor." The trial should be made three times, meanwhile the dishes should be shifted about.
In the country districts of Scotland much faith is reposed in this formula: Go to a south-running stream, and dip your sleeve in it at a spot where the lands of three lands come together. Then go home, hang the wet garment before the fire, and go to bed in full view of it. Keep awake, and sometime near midnight you will be rewarded by seeing an apparition, bearing an exact likeness to the future husband or wife, come and turn the sleeve "as if to dry the other side of it."
Doubtless many an American girl of English or Scotch ancestry has heard of, or tried, the "looking-glass spell." The curious one must go, candle in hand, to a mirror, eat an apple while standing before it, and in due time the face of her destined husband will be seen reflected in the glass across her shoulder.
There is a mirth-provoking game played in England on Halloween " perhaps in America too. A hoop from a flour-barrel is taken, and around it is fastened alternately at regular intervals apples, cakes, candies, and candle-ends. The hoop is then suspended from the ceiling and set to revolving. The players gather in a circle round it, and each in turn tries to bite one of the edibles. The boy or girl who is so unfortunate as to seize one of the candles pays forfeit.
In England and in America, Halloween frolics are nowadays mere harmless sports. Although in Scotland they still retain a more or less superstitious character, it is clear that, in being repeated from year to year as simple holiday merrymakings, the mysteries of Halloween have arrived at their final stage; and perhaps, as more years have flown they will perchance be forgotten. Written by Henry Frederic Reddale.
Published in the “Christian Advocate” in 1884.
Edited by Rebecca Haug
An extremely modest man was in the hospital for a series of tests, the last of which had left his system upset. Upon making several false-alarm trips to the bathroom, he decided the latest was another, and stayed put. He suddenly filled his bed with diarrhea and was embarrassed beyond his ability to remain rational.
Losing his presence of mind, he jumped up, gathered up the bed sheets, and threw them out the hospital window.
A drunk was walking by the hospital when the sheets landed on him. He started yelling, cursing, and swinging his arms wildly, which left the soiled sheets in a tangled pile at his feet. As the drunk stood there staring down at the sheets, a security guard who had watched the whole incident walked up and asked, “What the heck was that all about?”
Still staring down, the drunk replied: “I think I just beat the cr*p out of a ghost!”
So here's some treats...
and a trick of the eye... concetrate on the image...
then have a drink!!!!!!!
so grab a glass...
And help yourselves to a drink
madeye martini's...
Did you know:
The devil provides the light in a jack-o'-lantern
Another thing you didn’t know about Halloween, but that you should be aware of, is the fact that lighting the candle inside your carefully carved pumpkin is doing nothing less than introducing your porch to the fires of hell compliments of Satan, the original Red Menace.
According to legend, a fellow named Stingy Jack twice played tricks on the devil, managing in the process to cut deals with him. The second of these deals was that he would not take Jack’s soul when he died.
Wow, what an effort Izzieliz. Definitely put us in Halloween frame of mind. Dutchy yes almost finished November Big (hey what we going to do for the rest of the month??)
Thanks Izzie, now I've learnt all about Halloween, and that explains all the funny faces I saw in the shopping plaza this morning.
DDXX, the Colossus will be out next week, besides I signed up for the Pockets Cryptics today, I really start to like them.
Izzie......that was awesome! Thank you. You put a lot of work into that. SWEET! So ummm.......... since there is a halloween party here, does that mean the crew is posting halloween pics of themselves dressed in silly costumes?
Missy....... great news on the job! And working with babies, yet to boot. Now how sweet is that! Yeah! I'm so happy for you and Dev! Dev? You gooo girl! This is just the beginning for you! Awesome!
OOo i want all all of them just brooke - they are sooo cuutee!
Mismi - Im really glad for you! Guess what thats one cuute job uve got! Ud enjoy more than you work coz it will be raining kiddos there Do post some pics and let us know of their so curious "serious" questions of life
Deedee - Congrats I wish i could search for pink when I actually start searching for one
Izzie - Missing you. Hope all is well. Its been long since i talked to ye!
Halloween info was great! knowing many things for the first time
and hey il party off wen i reach home!
Brooke what have you started, we'll soon have a generation of a2k baby boomers, if you don't be careful.
Don't party to wild verbivore or you'll be the first cab of the rank.
![http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2024/1809244882_798b5327b2.jpg?v=0[img]
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists,[10] and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, owls, crows, vultures, pumpkin-men, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons.
Treats...
[img]
http://buffalogamebuffsblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/halloweentreats1_large.jpg](http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2024/1809244882_798b5327b2.jpg?v=0[img]
The imagery surrounding Halloween is largely an amalgamation of the Halloween season itself, nearly a century of work from American filmmakers and graphic artists,[10] and a rather commercialized take on the dark and mysterious. Halloween imagery tends to involve death, magic, or mythical monsters. Traditional characters include ghosts, ghouls, witches, owls, crows, vultures, pumpkin-men, black cats, spiders, goblins, zombies, mummies, skeletons, and demons.
Treats...
[img]
http://buffalogamebuffsblog.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/halloweentreats1_large.jpg)
__________PM.jpg)
