Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Ancient Halloween Roots - Calendration - LexiLine Journal 467

In what has become an annual tradition, I carve our Halloween pumpkin each year in a new face and present that face to our internet readers. This year, our creation is Ms. Pumpkin, a bit of a bear or tiger or panther, as you wish, shown below in a photo taken in the darkness outside at night without flash this Halloween Eve. The differing colors result from the flickering red candle burning inside the carved pumpkin:

Halloween  2007 Pumpkin

Halloween has become quite popular here in Germany in recent years. We had a record 17 trick-or-treaters at our house in Germany this evening.

"Trick or Treat" is called "Süsses oder Saures" (Sweet or Sour) in German, i.e. "sweets or else".

When I was in my youth in the USA, my father used to give each trick-or-treater a Hershey bar - after having each visitor show his or her tricks first, of course. We carry on this tradition here on the Moselle River by giving each trick-or-treater a large chocolate bar. Some of the visitors this evening had Halloween costumes on, quite like those worn in the USA.

The Great LexiLine Pumpkin 2007 that you see pictured above measures about a half-a-meter across and is a real giant, the largest we have ever had.

The pumpkin mass that remained after our carving served as our meal this eve. We had pumpkin soup, in which the ingredients were mashed pumpkin, cream, milk, water, vegetable broth, ginger, salt and pepper. It was delicious.

We spread the pumpkin seeds on newspaper to dry out and will plant them early next year in egg shell halves filled with earth, where the seed can germinate before it is taken outside and planted in our garden.

It is rather remarkable to read that some religious and political figures and groups oppose the fun that is Halloween, among them:

- the American religious right wing
- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
- Moscow schools in Russia
- Muslims, orthodox Jews and Evangelical Christians
- Wiccan (Witch) religions

Did we hear something about birds of a feather flocking together?
You are known by the company you keep.

In fact, Halloween predates all of those religious and political groups and religions, and can be traced back to ancient practices of our forefathers:
"Halloween (Allhallows Even) was observed by some churches with religious services. However, most persons regarded it as a secular festival. In its strictly religious aspect, it is known as the vigil of Hallowmas or All Saints' Day, observed on November 1 by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

The festival of Halloween is based on a combination of the Christian commemoration of the departed faithful (All Saints' Day) with the pre-Christian Celtic feast associated with a celebration of the end of summer and the Celtic New Year. Celts who lived in what is now known as Ireland, Scotland and parts of Great Britain celebrated their new year that began November 1. Allhallows' Even was observed on the evening of October 31st. Around 800 A.D., the day became known among Christians as Allhallomas which eventually changed to All Hallow E'en, or Halloween.

Celtic peoples adopted Christianity quickly, easily, and strongly. The conversion of Celtic peoples did not, however, keep them from celebrating some of their old customs. Attempts to replace the year-end custom in the old Celtic calendar were only partially successful. Some of our Halloween traditions date back to these early times.

Summer's end and the celebration of a good harvest has always been an important event in the life of agrarian peoples. Samhain "Hallowday" or Samfuin (sam + fuin) summer's end, marked the end of the yearly cycle and was celebrated with both religious and agrarian rites. It was the period for threshing and of food preparation for the winter season. On that evening, so it was believed, present, past, and future became one. Celts gave thanks for the safe return of their cattle to winter quarters, and invoked their gods for prosperity and good crops for the coming year.

Samhain was both the "end of summer" and a commemoration of the dead. The spirits of the departed were believed to visit their kinsmen in search of warmth and good cheer as winter approached. It was a time when evil, as well as good, spirits returned to the living. Fairies were believed to migrate from one home to another, and Hallowe'en was the time when humans kidnapped by elfin folk could reclaim their lost loves or relatives.

Jack-O'-Lanterns were scooped out of turnips with skull-like faces carved into them. This may reflect the ancient custom of placing skulls around the tribal fire to keep evil demons away. "
Note well the people who are against Halloween. You will most likely see the faces of religious and political tyrants trying to impose their particular superstitions ON YOU. These are the evil demons that OUR pumpkin turns away.

Enjoy a blessed Halloween, wherever you are.

______________

Jeffrey I. Rose replied:

Many thanks for the Halloween wishes and protective pumpkin (as well as pumpkin soup recipe). I saw this article yesterday and immediately thought of you and your research:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/31/wpolynesian1.xml

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Shakira Studying History of Civilization - LexiLine Journal 466

Andis Kaulins wrote:

As the first "history of civilization" newsletter and discussion list on the Internet, we are gratified to see that the pop singer Shakira from Colombia recently enrolled at UCLA (University of California at Los Angeles) to study the History of Western Civilization. This news was first brought to our attention by an article in the German newspaper Trierischer Volksfreund (17 September 2007) and confirmed online at eFluxMedia, Boxnet, Showbuzz, PopWatch, USAToday, MSNBC, etc.

We have not had great success via the archaeologists of this world in getting the public to pay attention to our message. Perhaps we should turn to Hollywood!?
______________

Walter Cruttenden
Author, Lost Star of Myth and Time
replied:

It is good more people are studying history - now we just need to get our history right! Maybe Shakira should come to UCSD.
Ancient cultures around the world spoke of a vast cycle of time with alternating Dark and Golden Ages - Plato called it the Great Year. While it was the dominant view of history for thousands of years it died out with the rise of the Darwinian paradigm. But what if the ancients were right - and we just haven't figured out what causes the cycle?
This will be the topic of the "Conference on Precession and Ancient Knowledge" (CPAK) to be held this weekend at UCSD (in Peterson Hall), Oct. 6-7.
Andis, if you get a chance please feel free to come as my guest (just you - not everyone on the board). Graham Hancock, Robert Bauval, John West, Robert Schoch and others will be giving presentations. I respect your intellect on these matters and would welcome the chance to talk with you about this subject in depth.
For more info www.CPAKonline.com
Cheers
Walter Cruttenden
Author, Lost Star of Myth and Time

__________

Andis Kaulins replied:

Thank you for the invitation. It would have been great to meet some of the people whose materials I am of course very familiar with. If I were not so far away (Germany), I would definitely have attended the CPAK 2007 conference this weekend. The last time I was in San Diego was as a recruit for the United States Marine Corps when I was drafted into the military out of Stanford Law School in my first law school year. At the time that it happened, I regarded it is a bit of a disaster, but later I came to appreciate it as a worthwhile and enriching experience. Without that time in San Diego, I would certainly not be as confident and battle-ready against antiquated mainstream science as I am. Most established academics simply do not appreciate how academically subservient and weak they are, especially in the fields that you and I are involved in.

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