SUNDAY INFORMATION DAY.
Posted by russ on Nov 2, 2008
Sorry to say this but I will not be posting for awhile. In the mean time the links are very good. Check back every once in awhile on Sunday for update.
Check out the ORB.
The Ghost of Bolton Notch
by Sue Gorton
An Indian maiden named Wunnee
Was in love with a Bolton man.
Folks cried “Miscegenation!”
And said “Your wedding is banned!”
So maid and lover ran away
Pursued by the biased lot.
They fled to the east and lived in a cave
In the hills at Bolton Notch.
The man was wounded by the crowd
(I think that he was shot.)
She nursed him with skill but still he died
In the cave at Bolton Notch.
The maiden was never seen again
Though long the crowd did watch.
They say she’s still there to this day
In the cave at Bolton Notch.
She does come out from time to time
With revenge for the wedding they botched.
She isn’t mean, just troublesome.
That Ghost of Bolton Notch.
The ghost is seen on Hallowe’en
In the graveyard on the hill.
Doc Olmsted across the road just might
Draw shades and write his will.
Kris was working on a quilt
With her fabrics divided by swatch.
All her blues were turned to pinks
By the Ghost of Bolton Notch.
She took Grant’s hammer up a tree
And hid it in a crotch.
This is the sort of mischief done
By the Ghost of Bolton Notch.
The Mannings we know are singers,
Both Tom and Marilee.
The Ghost has been known to hide their books.
They must sing from memory.
Ray Halsted disassembled
A precious antique watch.
One of the gears just disappeared
With the Ghost of Bolton Notch.
Sue was doing calligraphy when
The ink fell out in a blotch!
This catastrophe could only be
By the Ghost of Bolton Notch.
She went to a party at the Dooleys’.
Changed all the wine to scotch.
BOMARCO then was plastered by
The Ghost of Bolton Notch.
SMILEY SATURDAY
Posted by russ on Nov 1, 2008
Snow Days
A heavy snowstorm closed the schools in one town. When the children returned to school a few days later, one grade school teacher asked her students whether they had used the time away from school constructively.
“I sure did, teacher,” one little girl replied. “I just prayed for more snow.”
Calendar Picture for February.
Superstitions-HAPPY HALLOWEEN
Posted by russ on Oct 31, 2008
Halloween has always been a holiday filled with mystery, magic and superstition. It began as a Celtic end-of-summer festival during which people felt especially close to deceased relatives and friends. For these friendly spirits, they set places at the dinner table, left treats on doorsteps and along the side of the road and lit candles to help loved ones find their way back to the spirit world.
Today’s Halloween ghosts are often depicted as more fearsome and malevolent, and our customs and superstitions are scarier too. We avoid crossing paths with black cats, afraid that they might bring us bad luck. This idea has its roots in the Middle Ages, when many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats. We try not to walk under ladders for the same reason. This superstition may have come from the ancient Egyptians, who believed that triangles were sacred; it also may have something to do with the fact that walking under a leaning ladder tends to be fairly unsafe. And around Halloween, especially, we try to avoid breaking mirrors, stepping on cracks in the road or spilling salt.
WitchcraftVideo: Witchcraft: Persecution, spawned from the black death hysteria, the inquisition was formed to punish witches and other non-believers.
Video: Witchcraft: The Salem Witch Trial, fourteen women and five men would be hanged on the gallows hill.
But what about the Halloween traditions and beliefs that today’s trick-or-treaters have forgotten all about? Many of these obsolete rituals focused on the future instead of the past and the living instead of the dead. In particular, many had to do with helping young women identify their future husbands and reassuring them that they would someday–with luck, by next Halloween!–be married.
In 18th-century Ireland, a matchmaking cook might bury a ring in her mashed potatoes on Halloween night, hoping to bring true love to the diner who found it. In Scotland, fortune-tellers recommended that an eligible young woman name a hazelnut for each of her suitors and then toss the nuts into the fireplace. The nut that burned to ashes rather than popping or exploding, the story went, represented the girl’s future husband. (In some versions of this legend, confusingly, the opposite was true: The nut that burned away symbolized a love that would not last.) Another tale had it that if a young woman ate a sugary concoction made out of walnuts, hazelnuts and nutmeg before bed on Halloween night, she would dream about her future husband. Young women tossed apple-peels over their shoulders, hoping that the peels would fall on the floor in the shape of their future husbands’ initials; tried to learn about their futures by peering at egg yolks floating in a bowl of water; and stood in front of mirrors in darkened rooms, holding candles and looking over their shoulders for their husbands’ faces.
Other rituals were more competitive. At some Halloween parties, the first guest to find a burr on a chestnut-hunt would be the first to marry; at others, the first successful apple-bobber would be the first down the aisle.
Of course, whether we’re asking for romantic advice or trying to avoid seven years of bad luck, each one of these Halloween superstitions relies on the good will of the very same “spirits” whose presence the early Celts felt so keenly. Ours is not such a different holiday after all!
PICTURES HERE!
Halloween-Todays Traditions
Posted by russ on Oct 30, 2008
History of Halloween - Today’s Traditions
The American tradition of “trick-or-treating” probably dates back to the early All Souls’ Day parades in England. During the festivities, poor citizens would beg for food and families would give them pastries called “soul cakes” in return for their promise to pray for the family’s dead relatives.
The distribution of soul cakes was encouraged by the church as a way to replace the ancient practice of leaving food and wine for roaming spirits. The practice, which was referred to as “going a-souling” was eventually taken up by children who would visit the houses in their neighborhood and be given ale, food, and money.
In the 1932, George Peters works on these Halloween masks.
Photo Credit: CorbisThe tradition of dressing in costume for Halloween has both European and Celtic roots. Hundreds of years ago, winter was an uncertain and frightening time. Food supplies often ran low and, for the many people afraid of the dark, the short days of winter were full of constant worry. On Halloween, when it was believed that ghosts came back to the earthly world, people thought that they would encounter ghosts if they left their homes. To avoid being recognized by these ghosts, people would wear masks when they left their homes after dark so that the ghosts would mistake them for fellow spirits. On Halloween, to keep ghosts away from their houses, people would place bowls of food outside their homes to appease the ghosts and prevent them from attempting to enter.
HALLOWEEN PICTURES HERE!
Halloween in America
Posted by russ on Oct 29, 2008
History of Halloween - Halloween Comes to America
As European immigrants came to America, they brought their varied Halloween customs with them. Because of the rigid Protestant belief systems that characterized early New England, celebration of Halloween in colonial times was extremely limited there.
It was much more common in Maryland and the southern colonies. As the beliefs and customs of different European ethnic groups, as well as the American Indians, meshed, a distinctly American version of Halloween began to emerge. The first celebrations included “play parties,” public events held to celebrate the harvest, where neighbors would share stories of the dead, tell each other’s fortunes, dance, and sing. Colonial Halloween festivities also featured the telling of ghost stories and mischief-making of all kinds. By the middle of the nineteenth century, annual autumn festivities were common, but Halloween was not yet celebrated everywhere in the country.
Halloween: Pumpkins on stepsIn the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland’s potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today’s “trick-or-treat” tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors.
In the late 1800s, there was a move in America to mold Halloween into a holiday more about community and neighborly get-togethers, than about ghosts, pranks, and witchcraft.
At the turn of the century, Halloween parties for both children and adults became the most common way to celebrate the day. Parties focused on games, foods of the season, and festive costumes. Parents were encouraged by newspapers and community leaders to take anything “frightening” or “grotesque” out of Halloween celebrations. Because of their efforts, Halloween lost most of its superstitious and religious overtones by the beginning of the twentieth century.
By the 1920s and 1930s, Halloween had become a secular, but community-centered holiday, with parades and town-wide parties as the featured entertainment. Despite the best efforts of many schools and communities, vandalism began to plague Halloween celebrations in many communities during this time. By the 1950s, town leaders had successfully limited vandalism and Halloween had evolved into a holiday directed mainly at the young. Due to the high numbers of young children during the fifties baby boom, parties moved from town civic centers into the classroom or home, where they could be more easily accommodated. Between 1920 and 1950, the centuries-old practice of trick-or-treating was also revived. Trick-or-treating was a relatively inexpensive way for an entire community to share the Halloween celebration. In theory, families could also prevent tricks being played on them by providing the neighborhood children with small treats. A new American tradition was born, and it has continued to grow. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country’s second largest commercial holiday.
HALLOWEEN PICTURES!
