May Day = A Day of Many Causes

April 30, 2007

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?

As the month of May arrives, it offers far too many events in the first week to adequately cover in a weekly format. Therefore, I took the simple approach and started researching the first day of the month – May Day, which has been picked as a day of celebration through the ages for the following causes:

• Spring fertility – In ancient India and Egypt early May was a time for rebirth – celebrating fertility
• The renewal of life – The Druids of the British Isles used May 1 for the festival of Beltane (god of fire), and by the setting of new fire it was thought to lend life to the burgeoning springtime sun.
• Floralia festival – The Romans brought to the British Isles the rituals of the festival, where the beginning of May was devoted primarily to the worship of Flora, the goddess of flowers.
• The coming of summer – By the Middle Ages every English village had its Maypole celebration, and intense competitions evolved between the local villages. 
• International Workers Day (Labor, socialists, etc.):  It was first openly celebrated on May 1, 1917 in the Soviet Union.  There was much active participation from both the working class as well as the soldiers who joined them.
• Lei Day (May 1^st) in Hawaii was envisioned by a newspaper columnist and a poet in the 1920s.  Subsequently, the event was adopted by state and local government in 1927, and it has taken on a sense of general spring celebration in Hawaii.
• Catholic Feast Day – In response to the “May Day” celebrations for workers sponsored by Communists, Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955.

For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting. As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Did you find the posting informative?

2) How would you improve this posting?

3) Can you provide a better “Moment of Zen?”

Jim C Quiz – May Day.pdf

Earth Day = A Grassroots Call for Action

April 23, 2007

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?

Some of the more interesting aspects of Earth Day (first held in 1970) are that two people claim to have originated the term in 1969 and that the event is celebrated on two different days – one on March 21 (first day of spring) and one on April 22. This split still exists today.

Regardless of the timing, Earth Day was the result of a very strong grassroot effort on the part of both originators. This effort culminated in the day of celebration in 1970, when literally millions of Americans took to the streets and parks to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable global environment.

Earth Day represented a forum for concerned citizens to tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause. The leaders effectively generated a demonstration that forced this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but it worked.

The twin effort produced sufficient political pressure to force the U.S. Congress to legislate meaningful new and continuing environmental laws for cleaner water, better protection of federal lands, expansion of federal parks, and better conservation of our oceans.

For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting.

As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Did you find the posting informative?

2) How would you improve this posting?

3) Can you provide a better “Moment of Zen?”

Jim C Quiz – Earth Day.pdf

Chocolate = America’s Favorite

April 16, 2007

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?

When I started researching the April calendar of events, I was surprised to learn that April was also National Chocolate Eater’s Month and National Smile Month – what a wonderful and natural combination.

Naturally, having a sweet tooth for chocolate, I immediately gorged on every tidbit of information on the topic of chocolate, which was found in 1520 by Cortez, who took the cocoa bean back to Spain for introduction to European society. Just like the Americas, chocolate was actually existed way before the “discovery” by Cortez.

Chocolate is derived from the Theobroma (‘food of the gods’) cocoa tree, which originated in the Amazon or Orinoco basins of South America. Cocoa beans were a domestic crop grown by the Olmec Indians as early as 1500 BC.

The Aztec Nahuatl word xocolatl (xococ “bitter” + atl “water”) was first published in the 1604 English translation of the Spanish History of the Indies. However, chocolatl does not appear in Nahuatl until the mid-18^th century, which means that the term may have been derived from another language such as Mayan.

One of the other key research aspects turned out to discovering the vast number of evolutionary steps required to turn the bitter cocoa bean into the confectionary delights that we have today. The basic process consists of harvesting, blending, conching, tempering, and storing; however, the texture and taste produced took centuries to perfect.

For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting. As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Did you find the posting informative?

2) How would you improve this posting?

3) Can you provide a better “Moment of Zen?”

Jim C Quiz - Chocolate.pdf

Easter Bunny = Merged Pagan/Christian Symbol

April 9, 2007

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?

The Easter Bunny is typically thought to be a non-religious symbol, but the research into its origin leads you down a very different path. It appears that even the word Easter is taken from “Eostre,” a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility.

The one clear association reflected in this research is the timing between Spring, the Jewish Passover, and the Christian celebration of Easter. According to R.K. Bishop, “The early development of the celebration of Easter and the attendant calendar disputes were largely a result of Christianity’s attempt to emancipate itself from Judaism.”

In 325 AD the Council of Nicaea resolved that problem for the early Christian church by adopting the Sunday following the full moon after the vernal equinox for Easter Day. This clearly placed Easter as a Sunday celebration and separated it from Passover, but linked it very closely to a variety of pagan springtime rituals.

This gets us back to Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, who had a rabbit/hare as a sacred companion. The magic hare was known to deliver gifts, including brightly colored eggs, for the spring festival to the children. The early Christian church found that they could more easily attract new converts if some of the pagan rituals could be incorporated into the Christian festivals. Thus colored eggs and bunnies were folded into Easter.

For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting. As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Did you find the posting informative?

2) How would you improve this posting?

3) Can you provide a better “Moment of Zen?”

Jim C Quiz – Easter Bunny.pdf

April = National Poetry Month

April 2, 2007

HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW A WORD, IDIOM OR PHRASE ORIGINATED IN THE AMERICAN LANGUAGE?

The word April is typically defined as the fourth month of the calendar year.  However, even preliminary research into its origin provides a broader perspective. 

Since April is also the national month of poetry, it seemed fitting to use a little verse to help us better understand this term.

For more detail, please read the attached pdf posting. As always, I hope this stimulates your own research, and I would appreciate your feedback.

1) Did you find the posting informative?

2) How would you improve this posting?

3) Can you provide a better “Moment of Zen?”

Jim C Quiz - April.pdf