New Year’s Traditions and Superstitions

With a New Year right on the horizon, we hope to conjure up the luckiest, healthiest, most prosperous one ever!  Fortunately, there are plenty of superstitions to help us along the way. If you’d like to know more about the weird stuff people all over the world do, read on! 

Want to get rich in the coming new year? Try eating some pickled herring at midnight on New Year’s Eve. This practice comes from Poland, Germany and Scandinavia. It is believed that the silver color of the fish, representing real silver, will help you acquire money.

Speaking of silver, another Slavic tradition holds that if you wash your hands with a piece of silver on New Year’s Day, you will be prosperous for the year to come. You can also fill the sink with coins and water, then wash your face with the coin saturated mix.

In Romania, it was believed that the object you have in your hand when the clock strikes midnight will indicate the most important plan of your life in the coming year.  Following this line of thinking, if you have money in your hand, you should be prosperous. If you are holding your loved one’s hand, the new year will see you happy in personal relationships. If you are toasting with a glass in your hand, your cup runneth over – it will be an all around joyful year.  If you are eating something yummy, you will never go hungry. This tradition should allow a lot of room for creativity — so pick something that is important to you personally — and grab it before midnight 🙂

The Romanians also believed that a wish you make at the stroke of midnight will most likely come true!

From the American South comes another food tradition — Hoppin’ John.  Originating from French, Caribbean and African influences, Hoppin’ John is a stew made with pork, black eyed peas and greens, said to bring good luck and prosperity.

Why is it called “Hoppin’ John”?  It is said this stew is so good that children, when being served, can’t sit still in their seats, and John “comes hopping” when his wife cooks it.  For a great Hoppin’ John recipe click HERE.

If you don’t have time to prepare the entire stew, at least take in some green food on New Year’s Day. Spinach, collard greens, kale, or green peas will do. All of them are said to represent money and ensure prosperity.

But New Year’s Eve is not all fun and games. There are many superstitions regarding bad luck as well.

On New Year’s Day, make sure nothing leaves your house. This means NOTHING, not even garbage. Putting things out of the house is indicative of rejecting possessions, so if you throw things out, you just may lose something dear to you.

It is bad luck to hang a new calendar on the wall before the new year actually begins, so wait until Jan 1^st to hang your calendar.

Also to be avoided – washing clothes and washing hair. It is believed you will ‘wash out’ important things or people in your life. I once heard a story about someone who did laundry on New Years Day and had a loved one die shortly after, so take heed!

It is definitely bad luck to take your Christmas tree down before January 6th, Feast of the Epiphany.  (During this time, our ancestors were practicing the Twelve Days of Christmas — receiving partridges in a pear tree and so forth…) So leave that tree up! On New Year’s Eve, take all the gold, silver and gemstones you own, and place them under the tree. Leave them there until January 2nd. This presentation of precious metals and jewels will ensure that you will be gifted and prosperous in the year to come.

Be careful about whom you invite into your home on New Year’s Day!  In Scotland, it was believed that the first person to cross your threshold after the stroke of midnight should definitely be a tall dark handsome man.  Blondes, redheads and women were considered bad luck.  Yes, it sounds biased…  However, this belief originated in Medieval times, when Scotland was susceptible to Viking invasions. The last ones they wanted showing up on their doorsteps were blonde Scandinavian savages, armed with blades and shields.

To make things even luckier, the Scots also hold that the dark haired man ought to bring coal, salt, shortbread and whiskey – all essential elements for prosperity.

Romania, too, believed that a woman should not be your first guest on New Year’s Day. Women were considered bad luck, but men ensured good fortune. (This probably originates from back when women were expected to have a dowry in order to be wed — and men collected the dowry.) So, invite the guys over!

In Brazil,  it is traditional to throw white flowers in the ocean. These are considered an offering to the water goddess Yemoja, who is said to control the seas. Offering her flowers will ensure her blessings for the coming year.

If you are looking to have a baby, Italians hold that wearing red underwear on New Year’s Eve will help. This is because the color red is a symbol of fertility. Not to mention, a pretty and sexy color too. So bring on the Victoria’s Secrets!

The Greeks have an interesting custom involving pomegranates. The pomegranate symbolizes fertility, life, and abundance. Just after midnight on New Year’s Eve, it is customary for Greeks to smash a pomegranate against the door of their house — and it is said that the number of pomegranate seeds that end up scattered is directly correlated with the amount of good luck to come.

I have heard of a custom similar to this, but the pomegranates can be scooped into your mouth, and the seeds spit out. Count your future blessings by the number of seeds you do not swallow!

Speaking of swallowing, the Russians have an unusual custom. Folks write their wishes down on a piece of paper, burn them with a candle, and drink the subsequent ashes in a glass of champagne. (Sorry Russia, this one doesn’t sound safe to me!)

Many Pagan traditions hold the custom of writing your desires on paper, burning them in a cauldron, then scattering them to the wind – thus putting all your desires out to the universe. Doing it right after the stroke of midnight is considered extremely powerful.

In Chile, necromancy takes center stage.  New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day Masses are held, not in churches, but in cemeteries. It is believed that this custom literally invites the spirits of the dead to join their families in festivities.

You may have tried kissing under the mistletoe, but in Ireland they take it one step further. It is customary for single women to sleep with a mistletoe under their pillow on New Year’s Eve. The magical mistletoe will cause them to dream of, and then find, their future husbands.

In my home town of Chicago, we have our own little tradition, called “The Polar Bear Plunge”. This is organized officially by the Chicago Polar Bear Club. Each New Year’s Day, they put on bathing suits and jump in Lake Michigan. Yes, our weather here is c-c-c-cold, and this tradition is c-c-c-crazy. However, Polar Bear Plungers do it for a good reason. Each swimmer recruits sponsors to pay him/ her money for this bravery, and then the money is given to people in need. Since its initial plunge in 2001, the Club has raised over $270,000!

Whatever you do this New Year’s Eve, have a safe, loving and healthy celebration!

Our Ancestors at Winter Solstice

On this, the longest night, they waited. Waited in the Scandinavian darkness for the return of the life giving sun. They burned bonfires with Jul logs, crisp and crackling.  The return of the sun brought hope that once again summer would come, the fields would ripen and food would be abundant.

Druid priests slaughtered a white bull and gathered mistletoe, believed to be a magical plant. Likewise, the people slaughtered the last of their animals. The meat was salted and stored, in hopes of warding off starvation for the remaining winter.

In what is now the United Kingdom, monuments had been built, by the ancestors or others that came before them, awe-inspiring and bold as they stand to this very day. Perhaps an ancient race of giants or aliens had dragged the megalithic rocks that would form Stonehenge and Newgrange. Somehow this ancient race had aligned the rocks perfectly to catch the rising of the solstice sun. It was here the Druid priests performed their rituals.

During the endless night of Winter Solstice, it was believed that spirits of the dead walked the earth. These were the restless and the lost who could not find peace in the afterlife. Our Germanic and Slavic ancestors honored their own loved ones who had passed in the previous year by whittling wooden dolls to resemble the dearly departed. These dolls were placed in the forests and the bone-yards as beacons, to help the spirits of family members find their way home, in case they got lost with the wandering dead.

Ancient Celtic tribes had a custom of traveling to the forests and fields, singing and shouting to drive away any evil spirits who might keep the land from prospering. They poured wine and cider on the ground to purify it.

In later years, this custom would evolve in a different form, called wassailing, popular in Victorian England. Instead of pouring the libation on the ground, they would drink it. Instead of singing to drive away evil spirits, they would sing Christmas carols. Neighbors would go to each others houses, drink a cup of ‘wassail’ punch, and bless their homes under the new sun.  In yet later years, they skipped the wassail punch altogether and this tradition became simply Christmas caroling.

In ancient Rome, the great feast of Saturnalia continued (having begun on December 17th.) There was much eating and drinking and debauchery. In the long, stir-crazy darkness, people ran wild in the streets, honoring Saturn, Capricorn and all things goat.

In later years, reminiscent of Saturnalia, the revelry continued. In England, in upper-class households, a common servant was elected as The Lord of Misrule. He held a place higher than the master of the house. For one night, all roles were reversed. The lords and ladies waited on their own servants. Servants insulted their masters. In this long, glorious night, there was much dancing, masking and merriment. Come morning, the working class returned to their lot, the lords and ladies once again in command. This custom continued in England until the early 20th century.

Weird Winter Solstice Coincidences

On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock. With the return of the sun, in the brutal New World, they went about setting up a place where they hoped to worship and live as they chose. Many died, but those that remained tilled the land, relied upon their faith and took advantage of what the rocky Eastern seaboard could offer. They faced hardship and political unrest. Their ideas, both good and evil, brought challenges. Yet their discovery was the beginning of the United States of America.

On December 21, 1898, Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie made her discovery of  radium, thus ushering in the atomic age. The discovery was bittersweet, as the element itself is both helpful and deadly. Nonetheless, Marie Curie won a Nobel Prize in Physics for her efforts.

On December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft launched. It was the first mission to the moon that included live astronauts. What followed was the Apollo 11 moon landing, “one small step for man, one giant step for mankind.” This too, however, was an event shrouded in darkness and mystery, as the US Government cancelled all further moon missions for mysterious and unknown reasons…

This holy day is a time of darkness and mystery, a time of ancestral communication and reverence. It is also a time of hope as we celebrate the return of the sun. Whatever you choose as your Winter Solstice ritual, have a merry time! And who knows, perhaps you will make a dark discovery of your own 🙂

Lussi Nacht

 

On the night of December 13th, the dark witch Lussi (counterpart to the benevolent  Santa Lucia) flies on her broom with the Wild Hunt of Odin.

Beware gentle humans! For if you encounter this merry band of hunters, they just may abduct you to the Underworld.

But hey, it might not be a bad thing…  🙂

In Norse mythology, the Underworld was known as ‘Hel’  or ‘Helheim’ (Hel’s realm.)  It was presided over by a goddess, also called ‘Hel’.  But don’t confuse the Norse Hel with the Christian concept of Hell. Although the names have the same  Germanic language roots, the two places have nothing in common. Nordic Hel was definitely NOT a place of eternal suffering.

In Hel, you’d get to hang out with Odin, eat, drink, fight, love, celebrate and practice magick. In the Norse underworld, life apparently continued in much the same way as it was known to Vikings on earth.

Nordic pagans had several different forms of the afterlife, including Valhalla, Folkvang (Freya’s realm) and the underwater abode of Ran. However, no afterlife community was a place of punishment, nor of reward. The afterlife was, in fact, teeming with actual life. The dearly departed would dwell there indefinitely.  Eventually they might be reborn as one of their own ancestors, or as an elf.

So if Lussi and her band of hunters do happen to carry you off tonight, have no fear.  It’s sure to be a win -win situation! (Cue diabolical laughter. Mwuah-ha-ha!)

Happy Lussi’s Night!

 

 

 

 

Time Traveler’s Day!

The lure and lore of time travel has long fascinated many people. From Marty McFly’s Back to the Future escapades, to Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, to Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander, the idea never ceases to intrigue. Who wouldn’t want the chance to fix our mistakes, change history, see the future or just explore some period we find interesting? On this day, December 8, we celebrate all that and more!

This holiday, invented in 2007 by an online group known as Koala Wallop, is technically called ‘Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day’.  Because it is all pretend and make-believe, right?

Is time travel really possible? If so, how would it happen? Would we need a machine, as suggested by H.G. Wells? Could we travel through rock formations like Claire Frazier? Jump across the Brooklyn Bridge like Kate and Leopold?  Or would hypnosis work, like Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time? 

According to Wiki: “Time travel to the past is theoretically possible in certain general relativity spacetime geometries that permit traveling faster than the speed of light, such as cosmic strings, transversable wormholes, and Alcubierre drive. The theory of general relativity does suggest a scientific basis for the possibility of backward time travel in certain unusual scenarios.”

Quantum physicists are making new discoveries every day. They have mathematically calculated the existence of eleven different dimensions, all of them involving the placement, misplacement, and elasticity of time.

There have been several weird incidents that suggest time travel has occurred. Fasten your seat belt and keep an open mind! Then decide for yourself what’s fact and what’s fiction…

1. The Time Traveling Hipster

This photo, taken in the 1941, seems normal enough upon first glance. But look closer. The young man in the center is dressed in modern clothes and definitely looks out of place.  Did he pop in from another era?

To be fair, some historians have debunked this, claiming that the sunglasses were indeed in style in the 1940’s, as was the single letter sweater. The camera he is holding would have been available also. But I still say the guy looks too hip for the scene he is in!

2. Mike Tyson’s Boxing Match

The year was 1995. The smart phone obviously had not yet been invented And yet! Caught on tape, there is a man recording the match, seemingly on a smart phone.  Take a look at this video. The device does look like a smart phone. A comparison is shown to other recording devices available at the time, and none of them match what is being used.  What do you think?

3. The Charlie Chaplin Time Traveler

In 1928, Charlie Chaplin made a silent film called The Circus. He used several extras/ unknowns as pedestrians. Watch closely in this one scene, where a woman appears to be talking on a cell phone! The video repeats and zooms in so you’ll get a closer look. You’ll see that she even pauses and hesitates, clearly talking into the device.  If this woman is a time traveler, she was smart to get herself in a Chaplin film. Maybe she knew he would become an acclaimed star and millions would see this footage.

4. The Massena Company Woman

Speaking of cell phones, this footage was taken in 1938, at the Massena Aluminum Company in New York. A woman appears to be chatting on — yes, a cell phone! Her companions take it in stride. Could the whole group be time travelers? (Imagine how strange a cell phone would have looked in 1938. Remember the old days when if you heard someone walking down the street chattering you thought they were mentally ill?)

** I should note that hand-held walkie-talkies were being developed in around 1937, but they did not look like this. They were far clumsier! Plus, civilians did not have access to them, as they were used mainly for the military.  (And you thought cell phones of the 1990s were cumbersome? 🙂 )

5. The Teleportation Angel

This is perhaps the strangest one of all. Could a time traveler come in as an angel and perform a heroic act?  The following footage was caught on a surveillance camera in China. Watch closely, about 15 seconds into the film. The biker nearly gets hit by the truck, but a mysterious hooded figure saves him. The frantic driver gets out of the truck to investigate, and they are both gone! (Yes, it could be fake, but this looks very realistic.) Decide for yourself 🙂

5. Andrew Basiago and the Gettysburg Address

Andrew Basiago is an American lawyer.  From his videos he appears to be a normal guy, reasonably intelligent, and not a complete crackpot.

Basiago claims that between 1962 and 1972, the U.S. government (specifically the CIA and DARPA) ran a top secret operation called ‘Project Pegasus’. This program led to the  development of many highly advanced technologies — stuff like teleportation, contact with extra-terrestrials, and yes — time travel.

According to Basiago, when he was a child, he was selected from a “psychically gifted group”  to become a time traveling liaison. He was sent to meet historical and future dignitaries, as well as various extra-terrestrial entities. He says he was sent to meet Abraham Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address. There is a picture to prove it.

This photo is from The Library of Congress, taken at the Gettysburg Address, 1863.  Basiago says he is the child in the picture.  He also says he had stepped into a “plasma confinement chamber in 1972 New Jersey, and hopped back to 1863 Gettysburg.” Somewhere along the way, he lost his shoes. He was given a new pair, obviously too big.

Far fetched? Maybe so. But keep in mind this operation is allegedly created by the CIA — they are known for their astoundingly unethical and secretive operations.

In this video, Basiago explains more. (Running time is about 1 hour 30 minutes.) Could he be telling the truth?

Whether you are a believer or not, have a fantastic Time Traveler’s Day! Just remember, Kate met Leopold through time travel. And all she had to do was challenge her own cynicism, accept his strange mannerisms, be open to possibilities, then leap over the Brooklyn Bridge — according to mathematical calculations that designated a break in the fabric of the time-space continuum…

May all your other-worldly dreams come true 🙂

Happy Birthday Christina Rossetti

 

She was the sister of that somewhat roguish and notorious Pre-Raphaelite painter, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and she often seems to be left in the shadows, both in life and death. But Christina Rossetti was an accomplished Victorian poet in her own right. Born on this day, December 5, 1830, she is best known for her collections of romantic and devotional poems.

Christina Rossetti was born in Charlotte Street in London, to Gabriele Rossetti, a poet and a political exile from Vasto, Abruzzo, and Frances Polidori, the sister of Lord Byron’s friend and physician, John William Polidori. With a pedigree like that, perhaps the Rossetti children were destined for greatness  

Christina was home schooled and by all accounts was a bright and lively child. She took  an early interest in poetry, especially that of John Keats, Sir Walter Scott and Anne Radcliffe. The family situation, however, was not always stable and they suffered extreme financial difficulties. In the 1840’s, her father had to leave his teaching position at King’s College due to health problems. Christina’s teenage years seem to have been clouded by isolation, poverty, depression and mental illness. (All of which are the fuel of great poetry!)

Christina served as an artist’s model for her brother Gabriel on several occasions. The most famous of these portraits  is Ecce Ancilla Domini (Latin: “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord”), or The Annunciation, in which she portrays the Virgin Mary.

Christina Rossetti’s poems began to receive recognition in 1848, when she was just 18 years old. She published several sonnets and ballads, and wrote for literary magazines. In 1862 her most famous work,  Goblin Market and Other Poems, was first published.  It received widespread recognition and was praised by literary giants Alfred Tennyson and Gerard Manly Hopkins. Christina was considered one of the best female poets of her time.

The title poem, Goblin Market, has been interpreted in various ways. Upon first glance, it may appear to be a children’s poem about misadventures with goblins. Two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, hear the call of the goblin men, selling fruit in the market:

Morning and evening 

Maids heard the goblins cry: 

“Come buy our orchard fruits, 

Come buy, come buy: 

“Figs to fill your mouth, 

Citrons from the South, 

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye; 

Come buy, come buy.”

However, upon closer look we see that this is no children’s poem. It is a complicated work, full of double entendre as well as dark, erotic imagery.

“We must not look at goblin men, 

We must not buy their fruits: 

Who knows upon what soil they fed 

Their hungry thirsty roots?” 

“Come buy,” call the goblins 

Hobbling down the glen.

As the poem continues, the girls succumb to the temptation of the goblins and their fruit: We are told they’d “never tasted such before… She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more, fruits which that unknown orchard bore, She sucked until her lips were sore.”

 

Some critics have interpreted the poem as an allegory about temptation and salvation. It has also been seen as a commentary on Victorian gender roles — the girls being forbidden from the market in much the same way Victorian women were forbidden from many aspects of life. Others say it is a work about erotic desire and social redemption. Christina was a volunteer worker from 1859 to 1870 at the St. Mary Magdalene “house of charity” in Highgate, a refuge for former prostitutes. Some historians and critics have suggested Goblin Market may have been inspired by the “fallen women” she came to know.

In the scary world of Victoriana, with dangers lurking all about, Jack the Ripper on the loose and the daily horrors of poverty and the industrial revolution, The Goblin Market can be seen in many disturbing ways.

But don’t take their word for it! Decide for yourself…  Read the entire poem here.

In her lifetime, Rossetti supported several social causes. She spoke out against slavery, advocated for animal rights, and opposed the exploitation of young girls forced into prostitution. (She had, no doubt witnessed a good deal of this exploitation during her volunteer days at Mary Magdalene.)  Rossetti was a strong voice for women of the repressive Victorian Era.

She remained single throughout her lifetime, turning down three proposals of marriage. One was from the Pre-Raphaelite painter James Collinson, a colleague of her brother Gabriel. Another was from the linguist Charles Cayley. The third offer came from another painter, John Brett, whom she also turned down. This would have been pretty outrageous, considering the fact that most Victorian women had the “life style choices”  of wife, nun or whore. Yet Christina somehow managed to establish herself as a writer and poet.

In later life, Christina suffered from Graves Disease and breast cancer. She died in Bloomsbury December 29, 1894 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

The poet leaves us with these words:

When I am dead, my dearest,
         Sing no sad songs for me;
Plant thou no roses at my head,
         Nor shady cypress tree:
Be the green grass above me
         With showers and dewdrops wet:
And if thou wilt, remember,
         And if thou wilt, forget.

I shall not see the shadows,
         I shall not feel the rain;
I shall not hear the nightingale
         Sing on as if in pain:
And dreaming through the twilight
         That doth not rise nor set,
Haply I may remember,
         And haply may forget.

Happy Birthday Christina.

 

 

 

December (a sonnet)

 

We welcome in the season’s dazzling whites

Snow falls like polished pearls upon the land,

When days are short and oh so long the nights

Jack Frost gives warnings with his icy hand.

White faeries dance upon the frozen pond

Their ballerina footsteps soft as lace

The Snow Queen with her mirror now makes a bond

a lonely wish that binds the human race.

The world, now shrouded in December’s mist

With sun no hope, its rays like shards of snow.

But in the velvet blackness we are kissed

by silver guidance from the moon’s bright glow.

 

On this December’s night begin your sleep

Of  dreams fulfilling all desires deep.