SLow Month?

April's been "cruel", been busy with other priorities: a new job (full time), a big wedding which i was involved in, i almost had to move. so haven't been writing as much.

 ironic since  usually april's "my month", where i get a lot down, ideas, writings, music etc, since i like to get it done "before I'm (whatever age I'm turning, my birthday's at the end of the month)", for posterity etc, so i usually get a lot done but again this has been a tumultuous month.

Saint Patrick's day = Mardi Gras?

Irish genius 

walking in midtown Manhattan today observing the observers, the 2 holidays seem to becoming more similar in practice: 

• practitioners  dressed in beads and other idiotic apparel (beads seem to becoming more popular for St Pats)
• holiday for amateurs, phonies, drinking, yelling, fighting etc
•  carousing along a main street (5th ave in NYC) 
• loud music 
• some good food (even though corn beef/cabbage used to be white trash Irish food)

Mardi Gras=Halloween?

Carnival

i think a lot of us remember when Halloween was a kid holiday, adults didn't do much for it even when it fell on the weekends. eventually it "blossomed"  into a holiday of an adult nite equivalent to Vegas in psychological terms, where "what happens that night, stays in the past",  you go as you aren't, you could dress sluttier as a woman etc. 


i figure that Mardi gras/Fat tu/ Carnival could develop into something like that as well. days, or a night, for adults  to let loose, party like hell,  wear masks, beads whatever. kind of another "amateur night' in mid week like New years.  it's still more local in New Orleans, Rio, but seems to be growing. i remember a few years ago there didn't seem to be anything going on for it in NYC. now there's a list of events. 


also it's several days. you can party on fri, sat, fat tues. again i'm surprised that bars, beer companies etc haven't taken advantage of this more. or neighborhoods like Little Brazils. 

Biggest Bullshit Holiday

not to seem super bitter (wink), but Valentine's wins. at least Mother and Father's day are based on real people, deeds etc. Valentine's ain't. there were a couple of St Valentines but neither had anything to do with romance, love etc. that story about one of them getting the first Valentine's card is just that. 


astronomically same deal: nothing. some bs that birds start courting is just that. 


where it's real? as usual with holidays, commercialism, like greeting cards, gifts etc. guilt. chicks expecting more rings things blings etc. the capitalism of love (redundant). 

Calendar Revision, February 13, 14

fertility symbol maimed 

since calendars are very much man made (31/30 days, the "new year" starting in Jan), i think that we should alter the calendar so that every Feb, there's a fri the 13th, so that Valentine's then falls the day after. it's the way it should be: the unluckiest day falling right after what's ostensibly  the unluckiest day (haha). you can even add in there Lincoln's birthday Feb 12, our first president  to be killed in office unfortunately. 


not that im bitter about a fabricated holiday (wink). 

Half way Between Solstice and Equinox

great light and heat

is around this time now. so holidays have popped up thru human history, starting with Pagan ones of course like Imbolc, a time of the Sun returning more and purification. again we're half way between the Solstice, longest night oaf the year, and Equinox, equal light and dark. 


of course the Christians had to have a holiday to "replace"  the Pagan one, hence Candlemass. don't know where Groundhog day came from, don't care really. 


but obviously it's a time of strengthening of the SUn and light, coming back, warming, lightening the world etc. Northern hemisphere of course.

Some New Years' Pasts Shenanigans

"shud auld ...be forgot?"

in 10th grade, bringing booze to a pot luck girls party and being kicked out by the parents


hooking up with this big girl (kick ass) and fooling around on the floor where everyone walked in from NYC (and the dirty early 90s), with a curtain for a blanket


making an invitation saying "Open party!" several times,  at  the NY Hilton and getting kicked out  right near midnight


a friend of ours who went into the military later getting drunk out of his mind and passing out around 10


another friend getting so drunk at his own house, in our early evening "cocktail party" (my idea), then  going into the city and threatening several people  again in the rough and tough early 90s of NYC


another friend spotting a Woody Allen look alike down in the 50s and Broadway, and pouring champagne on him after midnight 


these are just a sampling, more where that came from 

the Birth of a Religion

as we all should know, the Christians took most of the traditions celebrated before them by Scandinavian pagans, Roman pagans etc and Incorporated (double meaning intended) into Christmas. most traditions were pre Christan: the tree, gifts, feast etc.

this time of year was the beginning of my entry towards Paganism in many ways. years ago  i started to wonder why a holiday like Christmas is celebrated like it is. why the tree, fire, incense etc.

i started to look into the origins of the holiday and others. i found that most holidays, especially American christian ones, have their roots (as far as the practices, celebrations) in pagan traditions.

Paganism started to make more sens to me, including practices like seeing the evergreen as a great symbol of the strong Earth (and the Solstice as the time of the  turn around of the SUn to stronger light), which led to stronger belief in the power of the Earth, environment etc. it meshed well with the facts of the strengths  of nature, the bounty of Earth etc.

and that's how much of it began for me. not with the birth of a a human savior, but in my mind,  great gods like the Earth and Sun, and ancestors that have given us all so much.

WHy DO YOu Write Holiday Cards?

burn before sending 

 so that  u get them back? you write them only so that you get some sent to you that year?  i do season's greetings to catch up with folks i've lost touch with over the year, folks that have been good to me, etc. not to hang up cards at my home  (many of which are just cards and  not personal messages, updates etc). well i guess it's typical of the holidays: those who end up with the most materials win eh?


of course i hate cards in general. paying some stranger to write some stupid, unfunny, non genuine words with a lame piece of 'art', and substituting this for sentiment to the people you care of the most. and paying for it. 


 but are holiday cards the worst? sending them out of politeness is nice, but  obligatorily, to get return? 

Seasons of GIving and THanks

still in love 

im not sure about Thanksgiving being in late NOv, after so many harvest festivals that are in most of the Northern hemisphere,  Aug (Lughnassad), Harvest Moon, etc.

however it's perfect timing with gift giving of the Solstice (Xmas): at Thanksgiving, i begin to think about the year past, who has been nice not naughty, who i should maybe give a token (gift of appreciation) to, and you have a whole month to get it and give it. so good timing.

the Solstice makes sense in biological terms: times of darkness and cold, so  time to get together with folks, joy, gift giving etc. So looking backwards, Thanksgiving in late Nov makes sense.

is that how Lincoln et al decided upon it? don't know. also not sure if there is any history in it being at that time (Pilgrims etc). have a feeling  they did it nearer to more astronomical harvest times mentioned above.

Darker Holidays, (short) Text

Halloween: half way between Equinox (equal dark and night), and Solstice (darkest)= darker days= more spirituality begin. (begin. Celtic year, Samhain, All Souls, Christmas etc)

Thanksgiving: harvest, think of who to thank, what etc ur thankful for, non naughty/nice list, gifts at holidays

please go to below pod cast

Souls, Ancestors, the Season etc

world's best mausoleum

this time of year  obviously there's more darkness. we're past Equinox where the Equator  lines up with the Sun, and the Southern hemisphere is getting more Sun, us less. so this brings on Halloween. it roughly  marks the half way point between Equinox and Solstice, sort of the begin. of the darkest days of year, hence belief in the supernatural, the "other world" active and  coming to Earth, but also spirituall belief in contact respect, thanks etc for ancestral spirits. this continues on to the Solstice (Xmas etc). 


as usual with original Pagan holidays, the Christians "adopted' the holiday, probably couldn't and can't stamp it out, and turned it into their "all saints, souls" or whatever. thankfully it's survived as Halloween but of course much of the commercial  superficial aspects survive, less the spiritual with US (this is one case where our "invading' friends from down south, Mexicans, can help us maybe in learning to pay more respect to passed loved ones etc.)


as many of you know, i think there should be times to celebrate, remember, give thanks etc to our passed loved ones, and this is a major time for such practice, with the dark days, spend. time  indoors, spending the holidays  unfortunately without them.  i think it  should be a time to remember them, welcome them back to our souls (or minds at least). small sacrifice, small energies, large thanks, large respect. 

Half, Monthly Birthdays

leftovers? 

wonder if many celebrate, note  these. i know whenever the day comes on the calendar that matches my actual birthday (the day's number, so let's say you're born the 11th, then the 11th of every month), i try to  keep it in mind: am i making progress? is the year wasted? etc. don't usually think of it much, i'm usually busy doing crap, but still. 


 i used d to list  goals etc every month and check them on that day. im not sure if it worked after a while so i got rid of it;. still have monthly goals though, to do lists etc so i guess it wasn't all in vain. 


of course it's another reason that the calendar year, Jan to Dec, is bs, in that it's not really the age of anything (the Earth's year is more precisely dated from Solstices and Equinoxes of course), except those born  around jan 1. it's almost just another  reminder, like a clock,  that time is passing by. we're  getting older etc. . but you can look at it in the converse: the calendar year is gone, but you have maybe  months left til you turn another year older. 

Oneday Sunday Funday: Numerology

i don't know how much relevance is really in it but im into numerology a little, think it's interesting at least. 


i wonder if we should have special activities  for days of the week that line up with their numbers. . e.g. the first, one day: Sunday or Mon. the 2nd, twos day--Tuesday. 3rd day, Thursday. you can also maybe go with 11th, 22nd, etc.


  should we be pathologically  obsessed with that number on  that day like 2 Face in Batman? or like  someone with ocd (not my type) that does everything once,  twice etc? for the hell of it? should we play a bunch of lottery numbers with those numbers  in them?   we already have special days like Friday the 13th.


of course all these days have real meanings that are different: , Monday means  moon day: should we check out the moon those days? on Thursday, Thor's day , should we work with hammers? 


i didn't make this method up really:  in the show Friends, Joey remembers the days of the week similarly: Monday one day, Tuesday 2s day etc. 

Beltane/May day

it's celebrated around the world in most regions, either as a Spring festival or a time of celebrating labor rights etc.. im focusing on the spring.

between the Equinoxes and Solstices (the days that the sun is directly lined up with the Equator or Tropic lines), are half way points. usually around the 7th but usually celebrated around the 1st, i suppose to keep the calendar neat. so they're more like movable feasts. some of these days are still celebrated much like the above, Samhain (halloween), Imbolc gives way to ground hog day, candlemass. there's also aug 1, Lughnassad. these are all Celtic names, and pre christian Pagan festivals.

anyway around now is the half way point where the Sun is really becoming more prominent in the Northern hemisphere. the Earth is more tilted towards it in the Northern hemisphere. more day light, warmth. celebrated with spring celebrations, fertility, hence marriage (i won't go on an argument against it for once), flowers, youth etc. lovely time, and of course time to send thanks, energy, sacrifice (like prayer and worship) to the Sun for all of the life it gives (most of life on Earth), and the Earth itself for the same reasons. thanks be to the Sun and Earth for giving us this most precious gift of life.