St. Patty's Day

Saint Patrick was born in 387 A.D. in Britain as Maewyn Succat. His father Calphurnius was a Roman official. Saint Patrick was kidnapped at age 16 and sold into slavery in Ireland, according to his autobiography .He escaped by boat to Britain after six years of captivity and traveled to St. Martin's monastery in Tours, France, where he studied under Saint Germain of Auxerre and became a priest. In 431 A.D. Pope Celestine I named him Patricius and sent him on a mission to Ireland.

In 432 A.D he arrived in Ireland and successfully converted the island from Druidism (pron. DREW-id-ism) to the Christian faith. He wrote The Confession defending his life of service and also wrote A Letter to Coroticus attacking slavery and denouncing British King Coroticus for kidnapping and enslaving his converts. These works are the only documents to have survived the fall of Rome and are in the Bibliothèque National in Paris. Saint Patrick became primatial bishop in 455 A.D. at Ard Macha, a hill away from Emain Macha (pron. EV-n MA-ha), seat of the Ulster (pron. ULL-stir) Kings. Saint Patrick died on March 17th 461 A.D. The date of his death is disputed between March 8th and March 9th, so they were added together.Today Saint Patrick is revered by many christian denominations and he is the official saint of the Church of Ireland. Many people go to sacred wells, mountains, and placenames in his honor throughout the year.

When St. Patrick's Day rolls around, it seems there's a wee bit o' the Irish in most of us. Parties, get-togethers, and family dinners wouldn't be complete without corned beef and cabbage and traditional Irish and Irish-American dishes.

Bealtaine/ May Day History - Bealtaine (pron. BYELL-ten-uh) is a fire festival that celebrates the coming of spring and the arrival of the sun. It is celebrated on May first in Europe.

The Celts, a race of people who lived from 800 B.C to 500 A.D, lit two sacred fires and drove cattle between them. All fires were extinguished and an oak wheel called The Wheel of the Sun was set on fire. Trees were considered sacred objects and prayed to for sunshine, rain, and harvest.

National Tartan Day is on April 6th in Canada and America and July 1st in Australia and New Zealand. It celebrates the heritage of the Highland Scots, people descended from a race of people called the Celts; an Indo-European civilization who migrated from Russia in 1050 BC to cover Europe. Tartan Day was established in 1991 in Canada in response to action initiated by the Clans & Scottish Societies of Canada, and in America on March 20th 1998, by US Senate Republican majority leader Trent Lott (Senate Resolution 155).

Gentlemen - The Tartan! Here's to it!
The fighting sheen of it,
The yellow, the green of it,
The white, the blue of it,
The swing, the hue of it,
The dark, the red of it,
Every thread of it!

The fair have sighed for it,
The brave have died for it,
Foeman have sought for it,
Heroes fought for it,
Honour the name of it, Drink to the fame of it,
The Tartan!

by Murdoch MacLean

The Festival of Sukkot begins on the fifth day after Yom Kippur. The holiday commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert. Sukkot is also a harvest festival. In honor of the children of Israel in the wilderness, people dwell or at least eat their meals in temporary shelters. This shelter is called a sukkah. The sukkah has at least three sides and a partially open roof covered with greenery. Part of the fun of sukkot is decorating the sukkah with fruits and, in the United States, autumn vegetables like corn and squash.

Another observance during Sukkot involves what are known as The Four Species or the lulav and etrog. The lulav consists of a palm branch, a myrtle branch, and a willow branch bound together. The etrog is a citrus fruit native to Israel and is held separately. With these four species in hand, one recites a blessing and waives the species in all six directions (east, south, west, north, up and down).

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APRIL'S FOOL DAY - In sixteenth-century France, the start of the new year was observed on April first. It was celebrated in much the same way as it is today with parties and dancing into the late hours of the night. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, and the new year fell on January first. There were some people, however, who hadn't heard or didn't believe the change in the date, so they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April first. Others played tricks on them and called them "April fools." They sent them on a "fool's errand" or tried to make them believe that something false was true. In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d’Avril!" (April Fish!)

Today Americans play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on the first of April. One common trick on April Fool's Day, or All Fool's Day, is pointing down to a friend's shoe and saying, "Your shoelace is untied." Teachers in the nineteenth century used to say to pupils, "Look! A flock of geese!" and point up. School children might tell a classmate that school has been canceled. Whatever the trick, if the innocent victim falls for the joke the prankster yells, "April Fool!"

The "fools' errands" we play on people are practical jokes. Putting salt in the sugar bowl for the next person is not a nice trick to play on a stranger. College students set their clocks an hour behind, so their roommates show up to the wrong class - or not at all. Some practical jokes are kept up the whole day before the victim realizes what day it is. Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The most clever April Fool joke is the one where everyone laughs, especially the person upon whom the joke is played.

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year." - American humorist Mark Twain