Last updated: September 29, 2024 The word Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, which means “arrival” and is also related to the words ad venire, that translate as “to come.” Since Advent has a number of moving parts, it is good for us, as pilgrims, to ask each year, “How do we Advent?” One answer of “how” relates to our journey in this season of waiting, where paradoxically we move and grow, but at the same time are called to sit waiting in stillness. Every year, we re-read the ancient prophesies, celebrate the joy of now, and look forward...
I am always so fascinated with learning about the origins of the customs we observe and holidays we celebrate and how they evolved and became secularized, especially as they were romanticized on a large scale in the US, during the 19th-century. You can find my blog post about Saint Valentine’s Day here. And a blog post with a bit of food history related to Halloween here. And another on the origins of the New Year’s Eve tune Auld Lang Syne. But today is the feast day of Saint Nicholas, and I am digging into the origin of our present day,...
Last updated: February 7, 2024 I’m always fascinated about how certain holidays come into being and what their roots are, before they end up being commercialized and trivialized into oblivion, a shadow of what was intended originally. So what’s up with Valentine’s Day? You might have an idea that it is associated with a Saint Valentine, and you would be right. The feast days of saints are often holy-days that are celebrated annually on the anniversaries of their deaths. So here’s how Saint Valentine’s life and martyrdom led us to associate it with romantic love and how it morphed so...
Last updated: August 10, 2023 Every year on New Year’s Eve, most Americans (at least those of us who don’t go to sleep early) sing Auld Lang Syne just after the champagne is popped and the clock strikes midnight. But – go ahead and fess up, do you actually know all the words? Like most everyone, I didn’t, so I decided to find out and let you know too, so that you can impress your sweetie on NYE…. I also checked up on the history of this tune – since the new year is almost upon us and mostly because...
I’m a few days late, but I wanted to share with you a piece of what I have learned this year about the origin of Halloween and the tradition of something called soul cakes. Soul cakes, sometimes referred to as souls, are the precursor to Halloween trick or treating that dates to medieval England and Ireland. On All Hallows Eve , All Saint’s Day or All Soul’s Day, soul cakes were set out with glasses of wine as an offering for the dead. Then children and the poor, would go “souling” door-to-door, singing and asking for soul cakes in return...
