Waxing Poetically: Addressing Culture with a Twist of Poetry

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Ah, yes, Halloween when you your friend’s. your children or your friend’s children dress up in silly, shabbily constructed costumes, beg for candy from strangers and proceed to give that candy to small children in the hopes they will enjoy it and leave the rest of us alone for a week… and of course you pretend that it’s all very normal. But I digress, all joking aside, how did October 31 come to this? Would you guess the Catholic Church had a hand in this diabolical plot to promote silly costume wearing, candy corn eating, apple bobbing and unabashed pumpkin disembowelment? Would you also believe that in Mexico the Church promote hanging out in cemeteries and partying the night away with food and drink in honor of the deceased? Well it’s true - at least in part.

While culture’s in the West think of Halloween as a time of fun, candy-filled costume parades and tricks and treats, the tradition actually is a combination of “Pagan” and Catholic rituals. One taking its cue from Celtic druids, the other from Aztec priests. They are the holiday known today as Halloween and Day of the Dead (or in Spanish “Dia de los Muertos.” Each has its own story to tell.

Part 1: Halloween

The European Halloween has its origins in Celtic Ireland, though the word “Halloween” itself comes from the Catholic Church. The word ‘Halloween’ is a linguistic mash-up of “All Hallow’s Eve”, the day before ‘All Saint’s Day’ (the Catholic day of recognition for the saints) on November 1. “All Hallows Eve” was eventually contracted and shortened to “Halloween.” All Hallows’ Eve coincidentally fell on the eve of the Celtic New Year when it was believed that time and space were halted so that the souls of dead may possess the living. To stop this particularly grim notion would dress up in ghostly garbs and howl and chant to mimic the ghouls they hoped to avoid. The Church keenly observed this and in an effort to convert the Celts to Christianity combined this practice to All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day (a day of remembrance for the soul’s in Purgatory) with a practiced called “begging for soul cakes” which has been transformed into today Trick-or-Treat tradition. The tradition told that if a person received many cakes, those cakes would translate into prayers for their deceased loved ones.

Today, while we have Trick-or-treat and the Catholic Holy days of both All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Halloween has greatly lost its religious significance with the Protestant Reformation and the cultural and religious diversity with on exception of some modern forms of Wicca which celebrate in a more traditional form with some added emphasis on natural religion and animistic beliefs. Halloween is today, really a day of silliness, fun and role playing. One person might be a pirate, another a prince, another Frankenstein’s Monster or even Barack Obama. Children look forward to candy each year and movie fans watch their favorite scary movies. But to think the West may still owe it all to the Catholic Church.

Bonus: The Irish-Catholic Fable of Jack-o-Lantern

Jack, the Irish say, grew up in a simple village where he earned a reputation for cleverness as well as laziness. He applied his fine intelligence to wiggling out of any work that was asked of him, preferring to lie under a solitary oak endlessly whittling. In order to earn money to spend at the local pub, he looked for an “easy shilling” from gambling, a pastime at which he excelled. In his whole life he never made a single enemy, never made a single friend and never performed a selfless act for anyone.

One Halloween, as it happened, the time came for him to die. When the devil arrived to take his soul, Jack was lazily drinking at the pub and asked permission to finish his ale. The devil agreed, and Jack thought fast. “If you really have any power,” he said slyly, “you could transform yourself into a shilling.”

The devil snorted at such child’s play and instantly changed himself into a shilling. Jack grabbed the coin. He held it tight in his hand, which bore a cross-shaped scar. The power of the cross kept the devil imprisoned there, for everyone knows the devil is powerless when faced with the cross. Jack would not let the devil free until he granted him another year of life. Jack figured that would be plenty of time to repent. The devil left Jack at the pub.

The year rolled around to the next Halloween, but Jack never got around to repenting. Again the devil appeared to claim his soul, and again Jack bargained, this time challenging him to a game of dice, an offer Satan could never resist, but a game that Jack excelled at. The devil threw snake eyes—two ones—and was about to haul him off, but Jack used a pair of dice he himself had whittled. When they landed as two threes, forming the T-shape of a cross, once again the devil was powerless. Jack bargained for more time to repent.

He kept thinking he’d get around to repentance later, at the last possible minute. But the agreed-upon day arrived and death took him by surprise. The devil hadn’t showed up and Jack soon found out why not. Before he knew it Jack was in front of the pearly gates. St. Peter shook his head sadly and could not admit him, because in his whole life Jack had never performed a single selfless act. Then Jack presented himself before the gates of hell, but the devil was still seething. Satan refused to have anything to do with him.

“Where can I go?” cried Jack. “How can I see in the darkness?”

The devil tossed a burning coal into a hollow pumpkin and ordered him to wander forever with only the pumpkin to light his path. From that day to this he has been called “Jack o’ the Lantern.” Sometimes he appears on Halloween!

Source URLs:

http://www.americancatholic.org/features/Halloween/jack-o-lantern.asp

http://nacnet.org/assunta/dead.htm

http://halloweenstories.us/

http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/activities/view.cfm?id=308

Wax lips and Snickers bars to you and yours!

PBS’ Charlie Rose talked Tuesday night with Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker magazine. Mankoff discusses The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker Special Issue and the niceties of human laughter. Mankoff, with his befitting background in experimental psychology, reminds Rose that laughter is not only entertainment but it is also a coping mechanism for a people’s individual and collective response to the joys, horrors, tragedies and triumphs of their moment-by-moment experiences.

Charlie Rose airs weeknights and afternoons on PBS. Check your TV listings for air times.

Wax cartoonishly!

Whatever your views, please watch the video and comment.

From The New Yorker’s interview segment of Letter from Alaska:The State of Sarah Palin on September 22, 2008:

Palin: “And Alaska—we’re set up, unlike other states in the union, where it’s collectively Alaskans own the resources. So we share in the wealth when the development of these resources occurs.” And she said, “Our state constitution—it lays it out for me, how I’m to conduct business with resource development here as the state C.E.O. It’s to maximize benefits for Alaskans, not an individual company, not some multinational somewhere, but for Alaskans.”

That does in fact characterize Socialism.

Reporter Philip Gourevitch: Alaska is sometimes described as America’s socialist state, because of its collective ownership of resources—an arrangement that allows permanent residents to collect a dividend on the state’s oil royalties. It has been Palin’s good fortune to govern the state at a time of record oil prices, which means record dividend checks: two thousand dollars for every Alaskan. And because high oil prices also mean staggering heating bills in such a cold place—and because it’s always good politics to give money to voters—Palin got the legislature this year to send an extra twelve hundred dollars to every Alaskan man, woman, and child.

(Read the full piece here).

Wax for the truth.

Herb Brooks’ story inspired the 2004 film Miracle.

“You know, Willie Wonka said it best: ‘We are the makers of dreams, the dreamers of dreams.’ We should be dreaming. We grew up as kids having dreams, but now we’re too sophisticated as adults, as a nation. We stopped dreaming. We should always have dreams. I’m a dreamer.” - Herb Brooks, 1980 US Hockey Gold Medal Coach (Click here for more).

This law of life has been known by every great thinker throughout time - simply that that which is in a person’s heart makes up every atom, cell, fiber and muscle of who that person is. Some readers today may have a dream unrealized in the time they thought it would be. Some may be working long hours at a job totally unsuited for them - why? It may be that those people have lived another person’s vision. They read this today and ask themselves what their purpose is in this life. Yet, it is often said as a general maxim that the righteous need only look on what is imprinted on their hearts and whatsoever it is shall be achieved.

Wax a waxy dream!

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Priceless and waxy.

Video by YouTube member dcali1

Leave a comment and keep it waxy!

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Oh how things remain the same the more they change, ay? I wrote the post below back in April in my first ever post at Today.com and I fear it must be revisited:

From April 25, 2008

Writer’s note: The following is [an] unapologetic rant in the name of free speech for you, the readers to dissect as you wish… enjoy.

For most writers, as a general rule, they stay on top of societal trends, opinions, changes and any random informational breeze that may blow capriciously onto their desks on a given day. For me, this chaos is quieted by focusing on a particular kind of news, be it, public affairs, business, arts and entertainment and the like. This is also the logic behind the labor divisions of any newsroom or print medium. The business editor does her thing. The arts and entertainment staff does their jobs and so on and so forth and various ideas are mingled only where necessity calls for collaboration. So in keeping with the same principle I find it annoying and completely naïve and constricting that the television news media has put such a grand importance for the past year on an election that we won’t actually be finished with for another eight months! Every time I see news, whether it’s a morning talk show, a late night newscast, local news The O’Reilly Factor, The Today Show, The View, CSPAN, Hardball, Frontline, Dateline, Nightline, 20/20, Anderson Cooper 360 or 60 Minutes, these shows seem to be fixated on some aspect of Barack Vs. Hillary or John McCain’s health or Barack’s pastor or Bill Clinton’s infidelity, the Black vote, the White vote, the Latino vote, the illegal Latino vote and on and on… and on! Seriously, Folks, I’ve estimated both in the of my own casual skimming of TV as well as my more intense viewings that 90% of current Television news is gluttonously gobbled up by the 2008 race for the White House. All of it can only lead a viewer to wonder, “What else might actually be happening on Planet Earth?”

…. Until next time, this is Michael LaPenna reminding you to keep your minds waxed!

Now I ask you…. How much has really changed?

I wax my case.

“The Spontaneous Picnic Dress” is brought to you by the fun folks at likecool.com.

Hey, Friends! Today I thought I’d go a bit of a different route and I thought I’d pose a challenge. We as humans get into habits and rituals very often just because we can. So today (or when ever you should read this post) I’m proposing a break from habitual rituals so typical. (C’mon that was some good rhymin’ - was it not?) I’m not advocating putting you life or livelihood in danger by playing cops and robbers with the state police or making an unsupervised attempt a knife juggling - no. But I will you give some loose suggestions to assist you in getting that great, big neurochemical ball of consciousness rolling.

1. Learn a new word and use it when appropriate. Merriam-Webster Online’s word of today is manticore • \MAN-tih-kor\ • noun

: a legendary animal with the head of a man, the body of a lion, and the tail of a dragon or scorpion

Example Sentence:
The book, a collection of fantastic tales, has on its cover a vivid illustration of a wild-eyed manticore chasing a hunter.

Did you know?
A mythical creature of ancient fables, the manticore keeps company with the better-known unicorn, dragon, and griffin. Descriptions of the manticore’s features sometimes differ (some accounts mention porcupine quills or poisonous spikes, for example; others depict the tail as having a serpent’s head), but the animal is by all accounts a dreadful beast. The word “manticore” came to English through Greek and Latin, and is probably ultimately of Iranian origin. Etymologists think it is related to an Old Persian word for “man-eater.” (Visit the Word of the Day homepage).

2. When cooking or ordering your food tonight, add something you never thought to before. Can you imagine that first person who said, “I want to put blueberries in these pancakes?” There had to have been a first time - right?

3. Read an audio book while cleaning the house. I’ve gotten quite the unofficial doctoral degree just from clicking around the internet. (See the “Brain Food” section to the right of this blog for more information).

4. Dance, sing, and be generally weird for just a few minutes for no reason at all! You will thank me!

5. Skip your favorite TV show and google a topic you’ve always want to learn about or do. You’ll thank me again very probably!

Enjoy! and wax spontaneously!

Shakespeare did say that a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet but did he ever consider the cultural meaning of that name? Sure names in their essences are arbitrary as is all language. Yet once given a meaning, a name can carry with it great weight and value. My name for instance is Michael. It’s Hebrew for “One who is like God” and my surname LaPenna (La Penna) actually translates to either “the pen’ or “the writer” in Italian - I kid you not. Look it up. It’s pretty tough for me to hate it But as comedian Russell Peters notes, the wrong name may just be a kiss of certain death.

Video by YouTube member xDarkGuisex

Wax with a good name!

As many of you know, my spirituality is very central to my daily and shall I confess momentary life functions. I believe as I have stated several times that God, in my personal view is not knowable in simple mathematical terms of 2 + 2 = 4 or E = MC (squared) but is rather a consciousness in all human beings to do what seems common good while the Devil represents an innate temptation to do evil. I do not espouse any kind of mythical man on a thrown in farthest space (though I am the type to think all things are possible while many are not very probable) and while I feel both of the arguments put forth in this video are not 100% compatible with my personal theology, I do feel both arguments to be enriching of free thought. Please watch the video at your leisure and comment as you see fit.

Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi Shmuley Boteach debate the existence of God at New York’s 92nd Street Y. This presentation is provided via the 92nd Street Y’s not-for-profit YouTube channel.

Wax with a free mind.