Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Up Helly Aa

Always the Last Tuesday in January

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Spittacular

Watermelon Thump Begins Today With the World Champion Seed Spitting Contest

Now some great watermelon pics:

Friday, June 24, 2011

It’s Midsummer: Let’s Burn Stuff!

Today Marks Midsummer

Half Way to Christmas Day

Back in the days when the Christian church was trying to covert the heathen masses, pagan holidays were rolled wholesale into Christian holidays.  The pagans had to give up blasphemy, adultery and child sacrifice; they got to keep gluttony, mistletoe, Santa Claus and Easter eggs. 

One of the pagan holidays that merged with a Christian holiday was the Midsummer holiday, on June 24.  It is the approximate time of the Summer Solstice, but it is also the approximate birth date of St. John the Baptist, who according to the Bible was born six months before Jesus (even though the Bible does not establish Christ’s exact birth date).  Since Christmas is celebrated on December 25, the nativity of St. John the Baptist was established as June 24.

Traditionally, Midsummer bonfires were lit to protect against evil spirits that were believed to roam the Earth as the sun shifted southward. 

Many European cultures still celebrate the Midsummer, or St. John’s holiday; in Latvia and Estonia it is still a public holiday.  In Ireland Midsummer is celebrated with carnivals, fairs, concerts and fireworks.  In Spain, parties are held on the beaches with bonfires.  In Poland, girls in traditional dress throw flower wreaths in the water; the celebration starting at 8 PM and lasting until sunrise. 

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Pagan for a Day

Grab Your Sunglasses and Set your Christmas Wreath on Fire!

Today is Summer Solstice, the Longest Daylight Day of the Year

Got any pig roasts or wreath burnings on your agenda today?

This year you, yes you, can celebrate Summer Solstice like a Pagan.

Summer Solstice is sometimes also called Midsummer, Litha, or St. John’s Day, and is the longest day of the year and the beginning of Summer. It has been a grand tribal gathering time since ancient times, all over the earth.

You want to celebrate like a Pagan, but what if you are currently tribeless?

Thankfully, today you can designate your own tribe.  Your tribe can be your friends, family, neighbors, or any combination.  Gather your tribe, and celebrate with a Spirit Gathering.  Keep a “sacred fire” (aka BBQ grill) burning throughout the gathering.  Make a pledge to Mother Earth that you will do something to improve the environment (compact fluorescents?  Reusable grocery bags?), and then do it.  And our favorite part; burn your Yule wreath in the sacred fire (gotta remember to save the wreath next Christmas). And no, not a plastic wreath. 

Of course there should be a communal feast, music, some “mead” and maybe even some ecstatic dancing to drums around the blazing Weber (there’s a Matthew McConaughey naked bongo joke in there somewhere). 

Now, where are the bongos…

Monday, June 20, 2011

Lizzie Borden Took an Ax… Oh No She Di’int!

And Gave her Father 40 Whacks

Lizzie Borden Found Innocent of the Murder of her Father and Stepmother this Date in 1893

She looks a little crazy, doesn’t she?

Lizzie Borden, spinster daughter of Andrew Borden was accused in the ax murder of him and his wife in Fall River, Massachusetts.  The slayings and subsequent trial-by-media-circus are on par with anything that O.J. could imagine.  After all, O.J. does not have his own jump-rope rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took and ax
And gave her father 40 whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her mother 41

In reality, Dad got 11, Stepmom, 18 or 19. 

She was acquitted of all charges, and no one else was arrested or tried.  There is still speculation as to whether Lizzie was in fact guilty or not.  Apparently the Bordens were not very popular with the locals in Fall River, including the house maid, who was forced to wash windows in their large house the day after recovering from food poisoning.