Food & Culture

“LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD” Wow! February! Lovey dove time for couples to share flowers, chocolates, dinner, special gifts, and of course, intimacy! But let me blow your mind with some facts. Until 450 BC, this was originally the last month of the year and still marks the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It celebrates Canada’s national flag day, President Lincolns birthday, and initiates African American History Month. But what I found interesting was FEBRUALIA; the Roman Empire’s month-long community festival, an orgy celebrating purification and atonement. Can you imagine that still happening today? The Roman festival involved drunk young men running through the streets naked, women being smeared in animal blood, and unusual fertility rites.  Men literally hit on women by whipping them with the hides of the animals they had just sacrificed. Women willingly participated believing this would make them fertile. After having their names drawn from a jar, couples would lie together during the festival with hopes to conceive. Thus, the dating phrase of women “being hit on?” Although much of the marriage and fertility traditions from the old ways persisted, when the Roman Empire became “Christianized,” the festival (renamed Lupercalia), came to eventually honor Valentinus, a priest martyred into sainthood for defying Emperor Claudius II (soldiers were prohibited to marry). It being a way to spare young men from war, Valentinus secretly married couples until imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded. Legend has it that before his end, he befriended, healed, and signed a letter to his jailer’s daughter Julia; “From your Valentine.” It’s also said that the jailer’s family members and servants came to believe in Jesus and were baptized; that because Valentine wore a purple amethyst ring (hinting he may have been a bishop), it became February’s birthstone; that Julia, the jailer’s daughter, planted a pink-blossomed almond tree near his grave. Today, the almond tree remains a symbol of abiding love and friendship. Around the 6th century, the church designated February to celebrate the “Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary” (in Jerusalem) and later associated it with the “Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.” But it wasn’t until the 14th and 15th centuries that Valentine’s Day was romanticized.  The Parliament of Fowls (1382) honored the engagement of England’s 15-year-old King Richard II to Anne of Bohemia in a dream vision portraying birds (doves) choosing their mates. It became an annual community celebration when Charles VI of France introduced The Charter of the Court of Love: Lavish festivities where members of the royal court enjoyed amorous song and poetry competitions, jousting and dancing. Amid these festivities, the attending ladies would hear and settle disputes between lovers: Marriage Counseling? Today, Valentine’s Day is a major, worldwide, source of economic activity. In 2020, Americans alone, generated an estimated revenue of $50 billion. But consider Tina Turner’s song: “What’s Love Got to Do With It?” For many, surviving the remaining 364 days should make Pat Benatar’s song a reality: “Love Is a Battlefield.” So don’t celebrate this day without sharing the many victories you overcame along the way: TOGETHER. Continue to read all my columns, by visiting: https://2bspoken.blogspot.com/ Read More From This Writer All Post Food Government Health Interviews Lower West Side Business & Economic Development Peace People “LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD” February 17, 2022/No Comments POST TITLE (CAPITAL) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus Read More FOR WHAT’S ANOTHER NEW YEAR January 17, 2022/No Comments FOR WHAT’S ANOTHER NEW YEAR The New Year is a worldwide celebration mainly full of parties, costumes, drinking and resolutions Read More OH NOEL! December 17, 2021/No Comments OH NOEL! Oh Noel!   I’ll “Not Tell” of; I’ll “Not Dwell” on past spells of discouragement and disappoints. This Read More Load More End of Content. Meet Our Columnists / Writers

FOR WHAT’S ANOTHER NEW YEAR The New Year is a worldwide celebration mainly full of parties, costumes, drinking and resolutions (life changing pledges such as getting in shape, quitting/starting habits, learning new skills, etc.) that tend to fizzle within a few months. However, it has fascinating historic purposes (cultural, religious, and economic) with variations ranging from carefully coordinated rituals (underwear, specialty meals, and music), to setting lots of stuff on fire. For 4000 plus years many cultures, such as the Babylonians, celebrate the New Year as an agricultural event during May or the March vernal equinox (1st full moon). Adding debt repayment and returning borrowed farm equipment, their massive religious festival, Akitu (Sumerian word for barley), involved eleven (11) days of different rituals, celebrated the mythical victory of the sky god Marduk over the evil sea goddess Tiamat, and served important political purposes (New kings crowned; current rulers’ divine mandates symbolically renewed). Throughout the Middle East and Asia, the Persian “Nowruz” (New Day), a 13-day part of the Zoroastrian religion, is still celebrated among an estimated 300 million people. Monarchs hosted lavish banquets dispensing gifts among their subjects: Commoners parading statues of gods to cleans the earth would pretend to be king for several days before being “dethroned” near festivals end.  Imagine that happening worldwide today! Egypt’s year began with the festival Wepet Renpet (opening of the year), during the annual flooding of the Nile which helped ensure farmlands remained fertile, coincided with the rising of the star Sirius (the brightest star in mid-July), and honored the myth of Sekhmet (a war goddess who had planned to kill all of humanity until the sun god Ra tricked her into drinking herself unconscious). The Chinese New Year occurred with the second new moon after the winter solstice where their planting season and legend of Nian (a bloodthirst creature preying on villagers who frightened it away with red trimmed decorated homes and burning bamboo) ignites a 15-day festivity with fireworks, debt settling, and 12-months of zodiac animals (rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig). Point!  Civilizations have historically developed increasingly sophisticated calendars, typically pinning the first day of the year to random agricultural or astronomical events until the Roman Empire and its church. Seeking to correct its calendar imbalance, sustain the celebration of Janus (a two faced, look back/look ahead deity), and the vernal equinox (the periodic journey of the Earth around the Sun symbolizing spiritual darkness/death and light/life): Astronomers and mathematicians helped Julius Caesar add January and February; thus, permanently establishing the current 12-month Gregorian Calendar worldwide. Eventually: AMERICA was also CENTER STAGED! Beating the dropping pickles in Pennsylvania (possums in Georgia), the New York annual descending ball (originally a 700-pound ball of wood, iron and 100 illuminating lightbulbs) has been a world-famous celebration since 1904 (The New York Times relocated into then known Longacre Square, and with the publication’s elaborate annual parties full of  fireworks, convinced the city to rename it “Times Square”). Now, an estimated worldwide one billion people follow the near 12,000-pound ball of electronic wonder: An annual event even COVID can’t stop! Be not forgotten the Scottish folk song “Auld Lang Syne” (days gone by). Translated by poet Robert Burns, Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadians traditionally cemented it during New York’s Roosevelt Hotel radio broadcast (1929) asking “auld acquaintance” should “be forgot” as a call:  LEST SINS OF FATHERS VISIT FUTURE CHILDREN, REMEMBER PAST EXPERIENCES! Continue to read all my columns, by visiting: https://2bspoken.blogspot.com/ Read More From This Writer All Post Food Government Health Interviews Lower West Side Business & Economic Development Peace People FOR WHAT’S ANOTHER NEW YEAR January 17, 2022/No Comments POST TITLE (CAPITAL) Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus Read More OH NOEL! December 17, 2021/No Comments OH NOEL! Oh Noel!   I’ll “Not Tell” of; I’ll “Not Dwell” on past spells of discouragement and disappoints. This Read More THE HOUSING TREE November 17, 2021/No Comments THE HOUSING TREE “If you don’t use it – You lose it!” There are dangerous implications and consequences when the Read More Load More End of Content.