Lemuralia

Sometimes I think my blog should be retitled to something gothy, what with all the posts that denote ways of celebrating days involving death or the macabre. Take, for example, recent posts on Charles Addams or Friday the 13th or Edgar Allan Poe, just to name a few. Today is no different.

Lemuralia was a Roman festival celebrated on May 9, 11 and 13. Well, celebrated probably isn't the best word for it. More like participated. They were days designed to rid the home of malevolent or otherwise unwelcome spirits (lemures). It involved the head of the household getting up at midnight and walking barefoot around the house nine times while throwing black beans over their shoulder. A prayer or recitation commanding the spirits to leave was said while other family members banged on pots. It was hoped the beans would please the spirits and they would leave; the pot banging insured they would.

Interestingly, I learned that Pope Boniface IV designated May 13 as the first All Saint's Day. Pope Gregory III moved it to November 1, which coincidentally is the same day as the Celtic feast of Samhain.

It is said that Romulus started Lemuralia as a way to appease the spirit of his murdered brother Remus. Romans honored the lares, their benevolent deceased ancestors, but feared the lemures. A similar feast which honored both lares and appeased malevolent spirits was Parentalia and Feralia.

May was deemed by the Romans to be bad luck for marriages. The Irish, as well, have a saying about that: Marry in May and rue the day. I find this curious due to the practice of *green marriages* that happened on Bealtaine.

You can spend today, of course, walking around the house barefoot and throwing beans over your shoulder, or you can choose instead to eat those beans. I suggest Cuban black beans and rice.

Bang on some pots to be on the safe side. You never know...

Happy Star Wars Day!

The year was 1977. I remember my mom coming back from the theatre with  my younger brother and sister and telling me I really needed to go see this movie, Star Wars. It didn't really sound all that interesting at the time.

My boyfriend, now husband, concurred with my mom. I absolutely had to see it, he said. So I did.

And I was hooked.

Not only did I love the movie, but I remember late nights in Denny's after the Empire Strikes Back came out, discussing the implications of Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker's father. Was it true? Was Vader just messing with Luke's mind? Then came the long lines and repeated visits to see Return of the Jedi. Star Wars may have been a clever original, but Return of the Jedi still remains my favorite.

We won't discuss the three that came after. I'd rather pretend they never happened. Despite that, you absolutely must celebrate Star Wars Day!

A friend of mine posted this picture on Facebook, and I totally love it!

There is just no other way to celebrate today than sitting down for a movie watching marathon of the three original Star Wars movies. Not the later released original versions with added scenes, but the original theatrical releases.

I really wish I had a copy of these cookbooks:

The Star Wars Cookbook - Wookie Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes

The Star Wars Cookbook II - Darth Malt and More Galactic Recipes

and if you have younger kids, this one would be a fun addition to have:

The Star Wars Craft Book

Barring having any of these books, go pop some popcorn and set yourself up comfortably for a day (or evening) of pure sci-fi fun!

May Day

"April showers bring May flowers," or at least that is how the saying goes. And really, very appropriate, if you consider how many May Day celebrations involve flowers!

It starts with Floralia, the Roman celebration honoring the goddess Flora. Flora was a goddess of, wait for it, flowers and her celebration ran from about April 27/28 to about May 3. It was a celebration of new life and flowers. The typical seven day festival came to also be connected to fertility, which seems to be a running theme on most May Day celebrations worldwide.

Take Bealtaine, for example. Bealtaine (byal-tinn-uh or bel-tinn-uh) is the Celtic fire festival celebrated on or around May 1. Mara Freeman, in her book, Kindling the Celtic Spirit: Ancient Traditions to Illumine Your Life Through the Seasons, describes Bealtaine as a time that we celebrate "life, growth, love and sexuality." The custom of "greenwood marriages", where couples would disappear into the woods on the eve of May Day only to return the next morning with flowers they collected, so disturbed some religious communities that they tried to ban them. Apparently, they did not like what Rudyard Kipling poetically described:

Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,
Or he would call it a sin;
But we have been out in the woods all night,
A-conjuring Summer in!     

The flower theme is seen repeatedly. According to Alexei Kondratiev, in his book, Celtic Rituals: An Authentic Guide to Ancient Celtic Spirituality, Bealtaine marked the change of the year from the dark half, which began at Samhain, into the light half. Kondratiev writes that one of the themes associated with the day is that of the Flower Maiden. A common Catholic tradition on this day involved crowning statues of the Virgin Mary with wreaths made of flowers.

Other customs associated with May Day are:

- Collecting dew in the early morning. It is believed the dew collected on this day will make the skin younger and more beautiful.

- Building a bonfire. Many couples would jump over the dying flames to assure fertility during the year. Pasture animals were also driven between two bonfires for the same reason.

- Making May boughs and flower wreaths to adorn the home.

- Decorating the May bush. A shrub, either planted near the front door or one placed in a pot, is decorated with flowers, ribbons, even eggshells left over from spring celebrations. Kind of like the warmer season version of decorating a Christmas tree.

- Dancing around a maypole. I remember doing this as a child at school and had the pleasure of doing it once again as an adult while on a women's retreat.

But beware! This day is also associated with the active presence of fairies, and precautions must be taken! If you must go out alone, be sure to carry upon your person a piece of iron in your pocket. In parts of Ireland, according to Kevin Danaher in this book, The Year in Ireland, it is recommended that one not "dig, whitewash, bathe or sail on May Day," the reason given that these activities "might seem to have a magical purpose and on the other a feeling that danger was to be avoided at a time when ill-luck or evil influence might prevail." It is best, then, to appease the capricious fairies by leaving out offerings. Better safe than sorry!

Besides the suggestions listed above, other ways to celebrate are to have your own celebration with music and dancing and plenty of good food. Select a May King and Queen and let them wear a crown for the day. Most importantly, have fun! But don't forget to leave something for the fairies and make sure the kids are in bed and asleep before you indulge in your own private form of flower gathering.

The Night of the Witches

The wind is hushed, the starlight pales,
The dismal moon her features veils;
As magic-mad the hosts whiz by,
A myriad sparks spurt forth and fly.

So sets the tone for Walpurgis Night in Goethe's Faust by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe.

Think of Night on Bald Mountain from Disney's Fantasia and you'll get the feel for what Jacob Grimm described when he wrote, "There is a mountain very high and bare...whereon it is given out that witches hold their dance on Walpurgis Night!"

Walpurgis Night, or Walpurgisnacht, falls on April 30, the night before May Day. In many of the Scandinavian countries, it is akin to Hallowe'en in that kids dress up, pranks are played, and in many places, bonfires lit.

In the older, pagan version it was believed that on this night, witches mounted their brooms and flew to The Brocken, part of the chain of mountains known as the Harz in Germany.  They celebrated the beginning of summer (have you ever wondered why June 21 is called 'mid'summer?) with dancing and any variety of merrymaking.

The Vision of Faust by Luis Ricardo Falero, 1878

The night takes its name from Saint Walpurga/Walburga who was canonized by Pope Adrian II on May 1 (in 870 AD? The year is uncertain.) She is the daughter and sister to saints, St. Richard, her father, and Sts. Willibald and Winibald, her brothers. Her uncle was St. Boniface. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, on her way to Germany, despite starting the journey with clear skies, a terrible storm arose. Walburga kneeled on the deck and prayed, and "at once the sea became calm." She is considered to be the patron saint of mariners and sailors and often invoked during storms.

So what are some ways to celebrate Walpurgis Night? A bonfire. Always with a bonfire. Lacking that ability (darn suburban living!), light a fire in the grill and cook something.

- let the kids dress up in their Hallowe'en costumes. Get another use out of them!

- be noisy! To ward off the witches gathering on this night, the citizenry made as much noise as possible. Let the kids bring out their musical instruments, or make your own, and give them permission to bang and clang and toot away. Of course, do this only for as long as you can stand it, and preferably before the headache starts.

- dance. It is what the witches are doing, so why not join them? Put on some good dance music and move that body!

- sing! Are you getting the whole making noise theme here? Break out the karaoke machine. Don't have one? Put some tunes in the cd player and belt out the song right along with the cd. Sing campfire songs around the grill.

I haven't actually seen it myself, but stumbled upon this book, Night of the Witches: Folklore, Traditions and Recipes for Celebrating Walpurgis Night by Linda Raedisch, that might have more suggestions and ideas in it. I'm curious about the recipes!

Just have fun!

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes!

When I was 15 I decided that one of these days I would get married, and figured since I had no idea what my future husband would want to eat, I should collect every recipe imaginable.

Then I turned 16 and met my future husband and discovered he loved cheesecake, so I collected every cheesecake recipe I could find.

He told me later that he only liked cherry topped cheesecake, so that began a very long and slow process of eliminating, organizing and more eliminating and more organizing.

And then I became vegan.

You get the picture.

Anyway, long and agonizing story short, in recent years the clippings and copies turned into more than four boxes and several piles of recipes that needed to be, once again, sorted and organized into a usable system. My earlier filing systems had become unwieldy, and I found I wasn't utilizing what stood to be an amazing array of dining treasures. So I sat down and began the long and rather arduous task of plowing through those boxes and piles and files and turning what had become clutter into something infinitely more accessible.

Voila!

I had accumulated various binders over the years as a result of my own college attendance and then homeschooling my kids. Then an acquaintance gave me two large boxes of binders when his company underwent a name change. Add to this several unopened packages of loose leaf paper and two boxes of page protectors, I was off and running. Or sitting, as the case may be. I read, clipped and sorted my way through my stacks until I had completed my task.

I won't even mention the numerous bags of recyclable paper that my husband toted to the local recycling bin.

When the dust cleared (not really) and the stacks were gone and the recipes sorted, I had reduced what was once unsightly into several labeled and tabbed binders that put all of these eagerly awaiting to be used recipes at my fingertips. And it has paid off! I now sit down each week and select recipes from the binders and am preparing delicious recipes, just the way I've always liked to.

No muss no fuss.

The Tradition of the St. Joseph's Day Altar

The place was Sicily. The drought was killing the plants and the animals, and the people were suffering. They pleaded to St. Joseph ("San Giuseppe" in Italian), their patron, for relief from the famine that gripped the island. At last the skies opened, sending down the life-giving and life-saving water. The people rejoiced, and to show their gratitude, they prepared a table with a special assortment of foods they had harvested. After paying honor to St. Joseph, they distributed the food to the less fortunate.

And so began the tradition of the St. Joseph's Altar.

The ultimate purpose of the altar is generosity. The traditional St. Joseph Altar is constructed in the shape of the cross, with three levels honoring the Holy Trinity and the three members of the Holy Family; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. This format has varied greatly over the years, but generally includes a statue or picture of Joseph, often seen holding the baby Jesus. This stands at the center of the highest tier with flowers surrounding him, typically lilies. Candles are another item often displayed. Often the colors of red, white and green (the colors of the Italian flag) are displayed. Most altars have a basket where visitors can place written petitions.

The main attraction on the altar is food of every kind, which flavors the celebration of the saint, with the exception of meat, because it was forbidden in observance of Lent. Each food on the altar has some traditional significance. Breads are baked in the shapes of ladders, saws and hammers, the carpenter tools, and so forth. Hard-boiled eggs are embedded in baked bread to symbolize the rebirth of spring and the coming of Easter. The breadcrumbs represent the sawdust of the carpenter. Wine recalls the wedding feast at Cana.

In front of the altar, tables were filled with traditional homemade Italian dishes, pastas, eggplant parmesan, cannoli, fig cookies, meatless lasagna and casseroles. There is no meat, because those who survived the famine had little meat to put on their altar of thanksgiving, according to tradition.

The fava bean, which was the only crop that survived the drought and saved many from starvation, is called the lucky bean. The legend goes if you carry a fava bean or lucky bean in your pocket or purse you will never be without money, and the pantry with a fava bean in it will never be bare. Bowls of dried fava beans are often set on the altar and visitors are encouraged to take one.

A palm branch outside the building or house of an altar is an invitation to come in.

Many families believe that having a St. Joseph Altar can bring good fortune. It is common to hear stories about favors received (a loved one’s recovery from an illness, for example) which are in turn attributed to the family’s dedication to St. Joseph. But whatever the reasons, people became involved in the St. Joseph Feast. One of the special customs calls for the selection of children to portray members of the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Angels and favorite saints may also be introduced into the ritual which begins with the “saints” going door to door to seek aid until finally reaching the place where the altar is on display.

After the Holy Family has eaten, guests may partake of the meal. Most of the foods presented on the altar are acquired through begging, a symbolic gesture that represents what the poor of Sicily were forced to do. When the feast is over, the remaining food and whatever money has been collected are given to the poor.

Visitors to St. Joseph Altars are given small paper bags containing a few blessed items from the Altar. The bags usually contain a holy card and a small medal. Various cookies or small breads may also be in the bag. Every goodie bag will have a fava bean inside.

Although there are perishable foods on the altars, a large portion of the breads, cookies and cakes are wrapped so that they may be given to charities after the altar is broken. All of the items on the altar -- food, candles, medals, holy cards and fava beans -- are blessed by a priest in a special ceremony the afternoon before an altar is broken.

The altar is broken after a ceremony which reenacts the Holy Family seeking shelter. The ceremony is called Tupa Tupa which in Italian means Knock Knock. Children dressed in costume knock at three doors asking for food and shelter. At the first two they are refused. At the third door, the host of the altar greets them and welcomes them to refresh themselves.

In some communities it is traditional to wear red clothing and eat a Sicilian pastry known as a zeppola on St. Joseph's Day. Sweets are popular because St. Joseph is the patron saint of pastry chefs.

On the Sicilian island of Lipari, The St. Joseph legend is modified somewhat, and says that sailors returning from the mainland encountered a fierce storm that threatened to sink their boat. They prayed to St. Joseph for deliverance, and when they were saved, they swore to honor the saint each year on his feast day.

Some villages like Belmonte Mezzagno used to burn wood and logs in squares on the day before St.Joseph, as thanksgiving to the Saint. This is called "A Vampa di San Giuseppe" (the Saint Joseph's bonfire).

In Italy March 19 is also Father's Day.

St. Joseph's Day is also the day when the swallows are traditionally believed to return to Mission San Juan Capistrano after having flown south for the winter.

Even if you are not Catholic, or even Christian, this is a good day to think of and do something for the poor. Food pantries are often overwhelmed with donations around Christmas, but the rest of the year many struggle to keep their shelves stocked. Host a dinner for your friends and family and invite all participants to bring with them a canned good or other non-perishable item to donate to your local food pantry. Investigate how you can help Meals on Wheels or other similar local organizations. Volunteer to help out at a food kitchen.

This is a day of thanksgiving as well as generosity. Count your blessings today by sharing with those less fortunate.

And carry a fava bean.

Shamrocks and Snakes

Today people all over the world are celebrating St. Patrick's Day. It is the one holiday when everyone wants to be Irish. I'm pretty lucky - I am Irish. Well, okay, not full blooded born in Ireland Irish, but my Irish ancestors immigrated here in the early 1800s and stayed. Where I'm from, the annual parade claims nearly 500,000 spectators. So the day has been kind of a big deal for my family since I was a wee lass.

So who was this St. Patrick? For starters, the real St. Patrick wasn't even Irish. He was born in Britian around A.D. 390 to an aristocratic Christian family with a townhouse, a country villa, and plenty of slaves. He wasn't even really Christian. At 16 he was kidnapped and sent overseas to tend sheep as a slave in the chilly, mountainous countryside of Ireland for seven years. Somewhere during that time, he had a conversion experience.

As the story goes, a voice came to Patrick in his dreams, telling him to escape. He found passage on a pirate ship back to Britain, where he was reunited with his family. Then that same voice told him to go back to Ireland. He gets ordained as a priest and goes back and spends the rest of his life trying to convert the Irish to Christianity.

He died on March 17, 461, and was largely forgotten. Slowly, mythology grew around Patrick, and centuries later he was honored as the patron saint of Ireland.

And herein lies much debate.

One of the biggest stories about Patrick involves how he drove the snakes out of Ireland. The problem with this story is there aren't, and pretty much never were, snakes in Ireland. The waters around the island are too cold to allow a snake to migrate there. So, if there weren't any snakes, how did this story come about?

The snake is associated as a pagan symbol, and it is believed that the snakes referred to in the St. Patrick mythos are not meant in the literal sense, but refer to pagans, especially druids. Druids were said to carry staffs with snakes carved on them. So when they say St. Patrick drove out all the snakes, what they are really saying is he drove out paganism and replaced it with Christianity.

Another widely known tale is how Patrick explained the trinity using a shamrock. The shamrock had been seen as sacred in the pre-Christian days in Ireland. Due to its green color and overall shape, many viewed it as representing rebirth and eternal life. Three was a sacred number in the pagan religion. This is more indicative of his taking something already known and associated with a spiritual belief and incorporating it into his own. A common practice at the time.

Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17. Interestingly, however, the first parade held to honor St. Patrick's Day took place not in Ireland but in the United States. On March 17, 1762, Irish soldiers serving in the English military marched through New York City. Along with their music, the parade helped the soldiers reconnect with their Irish roots, as well as with fellow Irishmen serving in the English army. The parades became a way to honor the saint but also to confirm ethnic identity and to create bonds of solidarity.

In 1962 the show of solidarity took a spectacular turn in Chicago when the city decided to dye a portion of the Chicago River green.

In Savannah, Georgia, every fountain within the city limits is dyed green in a ceremony that dates back more than 100 years.

The day is associated not just with parades, but with lots and lots of beer. On any given day 5.5 million pints of Guinness, the famous Irish stout brand, are consumed around the world. But on St. Patrick's Day, that number more than doubles to 13 million pints.

While you are likely to see a lot of *wearin' o' the green* on this day, many modern pagans view the day not as a day of celebration, but of mourning. They choose instead to wear the traditional mourning color of black, or red for the blood that was shed. Many have renamed the day All Snakes Day instead, and wear snake symbols.

In my family, it is a day to play. We often try to catch the annual parade, even if it is largely just a means to advertise local businesses. And mostly, I always try to whip up something Irish-y to eat. Some suggestions include Tempeh with Cabbage and Potatoes or perhaps an Emerald Isle Pot Pie. Whatever you do, make it your own kind of celebration, and have fun with it!