Culture

Giving Thanks to Our Troops

We often think about and pray for our troops across the globe. And our efforts go beyond just thoughts and prayers since we routinely support charities such as Wounded Warriors, Soldiers Angels and the USO. Please, if you are able, send our troops a little support as a way of saying thanks for what they do. Keep it going all of this holiday season if you are able.

You should also keep the families of these wonderful men and women in your thoughts and prayers, since they will be celebrating without their loved ones.

Neil Cavuto of the Fox News Channel offered this poignant and insightful thought about those serving in our defense:

Giving Thanks to Our Troops

By Neil Cavuto

I cannot imagine eating Thanksgiving dinner in a mess hall. In a foreign country. In a hostile foreign country. Away from family. Away from friends. Away from all I hold dear.

I cannot imagine wondering whether this meal might be my last. Or the buddy sitting next to me won’t always be with me.

I cannot imagine going through what our soldiers go through every day. But especially “this” day. When we should all give thanks. But they barely have the time to eat. Before they’re back on the line. Back protecting us.

We who debate their role. Some of us who even mock their cause. This isn’t about a war. This is about those who fight it. And endure it. And live through it. In a place we forget. On a day we should not.

I am very lucky to have this day with my family. My creature comforts are secure precisely because theirs are not. It’s not fair. It’s not right. It just is.

They are due our thanks every day. Our prayers all days. But they are due both, especially this day. It’s amazing to me that those paid so little, give so much. Never complaining. Always giving. So that we can sit down in peace. While they stand guard, in war.

May God bless and protect all of our men and women in the armed forces.

They’re Killing South Park – You Bastards!

The little beach town of Hermosa Beach, on the south Santa Monica Bay in California, is having an image problem with their recreational facility known as “South Park.” The Women’s Club in HB offered to provide a new sign for the park, but tied a name change to the deal. It seems they are offended by the stigma attached to the name itself.

Is it just me or are these do-gooding stiffs just a little too insecure with themselves? I hope that Matt and Trey will offer an episode dedicated to these pinheads.

Continue reading…

Samhain

Today is the autumnal cross-quarter day. Like equinox and solstice, a cross-quarter day identifies a place in the Earth’s orbit. Cross-quarters occur at the midpoint between solstice and equinox.

Image: Diagram of solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter events. (Courtesy Archaeoastronomy.com — Click for an animated version)

Ancient Celtics celebrated cross-quarter days as significant events in their calendar. Samhain marked the end of the harvest and the end of summer. Samhain is the word for November in the Irish language. The same word was used for a month in the Celtic calendar, in particular the first three nights of this month, with the festival marking the end of the summer season and the end of the harvest. A modernized version of this festival continues today in some of the traditions of the Catholic All Saints’ Day, the secular Halloween, and in folk practices of Samhain itself in the Celtic Nations and the Irish and Scottish diasporas.

Archeoastronomy.com is an interesting site to visit. Go there and read about the ancient peoples celebration of celestial events. Also visit Old News and read about the possibility that ancient Native Americans may have been influenced by the Celtic calendar! Fascinating stuff.

Halloween 2006

Halloween Greetings

Once again, the leaves are falling and the pumpkins in the patch are ripe. It’s the time that all restless spirits set forth in their annual ritual of calling on the living – and demanding treats.

Halloween is known and loved today as a time to wear costumes, go door to door asking for candy, and watch monster movies. But the holiday’s origins go back centuries to the enactment of All Saints’ Day, a Christian holiday. Along the way, it has also picked up traditions from Samhain, a Celtic festival celebrating the start of winter.

We’re looking forward to the visitations of all the little goblins and spirits at our door tonight. We plan on posting some spooky pictures here tomorrow.