Holiday = A Time Away From Work

August 5, 2007

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

The month of August is now upon us.  Despite the fact that August has no legal holidays, one of the biggest events of the month for the vast majority of Americans is taking a holiday (vacation) from work.  In researching the origin of the word holiday, it quickly became evident that the term related almost exclusively to religious events.

The term holiday is a merger of two words, “holy” + “day.” 

However, just as the two words were merged for convenience, the new joint word began to be used less and less to signify a religious event.  As early as the 16^th century, celebrations began to show up on the calendar not as “red letter” days (red letters were used in olden times to denote church festivals), but as secular events.

This is a very good example of how the meaning of a word or phrase can be changed over time.  We, the people, make the word or phrase adapt to the times.  Observe and adapt is an age old axiom, which applies just as well to our lexicon as to all living things. 

Slowly, but quite steadily, the definition of the term became to mean “a day for celebration when many people are allowed to stay away from work or school.”  In fact, in Canada and Britain the definition of holiday is synonymous with vacation.

Please read the attached pdf posting on the origin of holiday to see the results of my research.  Of course, I also 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 - Holiday.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

Lent = Fasting, Reflection & Preparation

February 26, 2007

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

Once the Carnival Season ends on Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), it is followed on the very next day by Ash Wednesday, which starts the Lenten period. Originally, I thought that the Carnival Season and Mardi Gras were developed to counterbalance the fasting required during Lent.

However, most historians think that ancient rituals of fertility performed by different tribes were the roots of Carnival/Mardi Gras, and/or that these celebrations were a reward for surviving harsh winters and welcomed spring’s arrival. Therefore, these “fun” celebrations appear to have an origin long before Lent.

At first the word Lent simply meant Spring; then the Church sense of “period between Ash Wednesday and Easter” was developed and that sense of the word is peculiar to English.

After researching several Catholic sponsored web sites, I found that the timeline for Easter and the Lenten period was not established until 325 A.D., when the Council of Nicaea determined that Easter should be celebrated the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring.

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

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 – Lenten Season.pdf

Mardi Gras = Last Day To Party

February 19, 2007

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

The Carnival Season is one of the unique events celebrated in the month of February, and the famous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro always starts on Saturday and ends on “Fat Tuesday” (Mardi Gras), which is the day before Ash Wednesday.

Just as with Carnival Season, you can quickly find a multitude of details by searching the internet, where most of the sites confirm that Mardi Gras has been celebrated for thousands of years. Some historians think that ancient rituals of fertility performed by different tribes were the roots of Mardi Gras. Other historians believe these celebrations were a reward for surviving harsh winters and were rituals to welcome Spring’s arrival.

Once again, one of the most interesting aspects of researching Mardi Gras was to find that the early Christian Church sanctioned the pagan-like celebration to help counterbalance Lent, which required fasting and religious rigors for the 40 days. Apparently, the early Church routinely incorporated long standing pagan celebrations into appropriate Feast Days in order to attract more people to Christianity.

One other interesting piece of information was that the colors of Mardi Gras are purple, green and gold. There is no real meaning of the choice of colors, but it is generally accepted that purple stands for justice, green for faith and gold for power.

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

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 – Mardi Gras.pdf

Carnival = Letting Go; A Time To Party

February 5, 2007

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

One of the unique events in the month of February is the Carnival Season, which concludes just before the start of Lent. The infamous and famous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro always starts on Saturday and ends on “Fat Tuesday” (Mardi Gras), which is the day before Ash Wednesday.

You can quickly find a multitude of details about Carnival by searching the internet, where most of the sites will confirm that the Carnival festivities originated in Italy and then spread to other European countries during the Middle Ages.

The most fascinating aspect of these lively and gluttonous festivities appears to be that the early Christian Church somewhat sanctioned Carnival as a counterbalance to the fasting and religious rigors required for the 40 days of Lent.

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

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 - Carnival.pdf