# Easter Bunny & Friends ...



## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

The Easter Bunny hopped his way into my 'Best Violinist' Thread & I realised that this is an American custom which has now found its way to the UK, like 'Trick or Treat'. When I grew up, I had Santa & the Sandman, but not the Bunny. I'm hoping TC members will share their stories of Easter Bunny, Santa etc.

Here's mine. At one point in my career I taught a class of seven-year-old boys at a Choir School and one day without thinking I said, 'Of course, fairies don't really exist.' There was a hurt silence, and then a chorus: 'Oh yes, they do, Miss. What about the Tooth Fairy?'
So of course, in a sheepish voice, I replied, 'Ah yes - thanks. I forgot about the Tooth Fairy...'


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

My parents didn't raise me to believe in any of them. However, I do remember arguing fiercely with one of my cousins on the question of Santa Claus. She was a firm believer.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Yes, Santa's a bit of a problem when you're teaching seven year olds. Half the class believed in Santa & half knew it was really their Dad. Their knowing looks would give them away & I'd take them aside at playtime and ask them not to spoil it for the others. I know there are parents who think it's wrong to encourage a false belief but fortunately I never faced this dilemma in my teaching career.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

The only game my family ever played was with the tooth fairy and sorta with the Easter bunny. Of course I knew they didn't really exist, but my mom and dad would put money under my pillow at night when I left a tooth there, and I did do easter egg hunts. In particularly my family didn't really do anything with Santa, I just knew the legends from media. In Finland/Scandinavia, Santa doesn't come in secret, he comes at night and delivers gifts personally to people. He also uses the reindeer sled the old fashion way, not flying.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

None of them are American.
The Easter Bunny Started in Alsace and has been around since medieval times.
The Sandman is a mythical character who brings sleep and is from North European folklore.
Santa Claus/St.Nicholas is a legendary figure from western culture.
The version with the red gear stems from the US and Canada in the 19th century.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Thanks for the info, Moody - I didn't know you cared! 
But I wasn't talking about 'origins' or 'American origins', was I? Just that the Easter Bunny wasn't part of British custom when I was growing up in the 50s & 60s. 
Now, assuming that your moods sometimes swing into the rubicund and jolly, have you a funny story or personal anecdote to share with us? I'd really enjoy that!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I grew up in York & Halloween at that time was rather low key, though I remember they sold grim masks at our corner shop. Our family also bobbed for apples & attempted, at the cost of sliced fingers, to hollow out turnips to make lamps. But we didn't have 'trick or treat' because in Yorkshire the older tradition related to November 4th, the day before Bonfire Night. This was Mischief Night when children went out in the early evening to play pranks, like removing gates from their hinges & knocking on doors before running away. Householders were just 'tricked', with no choice as to whether they cared to 'treat us'. I can't see them wanting to, mind you. As the old Yorkshire saying has it: 'See all - hear all - say nowt; eat all - sup all - pay nowt; and if ever tha does owt for nowt, allus do it for thysen!'


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Regarding Bonfire Night, November 5th, my brother was debarred from celebrating it as he went to Guy Fawkes' old school, St Peter's in York, and it was deemed disrespectful to an Old Boy.


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## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

I've got a kind-of-a-Santa story, Ingenue but it'll probably take me a bit of time to type it up. So, I might get round to posting it, sometime in the not-too distant future. But for the moment, thanks for the light-hearted post!


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Because I was raised in a cult religion that does not celebrate Christmas, birthdays, Easter, or life in general,  I grew up thinking people somehow lost all their marbles by the time they became adults. It was always adults that asked me in that too baby talk tone of voice, "What is Santa going to bring you for Christmas?" And people wonder why I grew up mumbling and disrespecting authority. 

Oh, I'm not trying to take the joy and magic out of these traditions. I just wish we would approach kids a little differently. Adults should treat children as intellectual equals because they are.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I certainly agree that adults should not talk down to children & that they should take their concerns seriously.


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## OboeKnight (Jan 25, 2013)

I was raised on all the legends. I don't really have any notable stories that would be different from anyone else's. I remember figuring out Santa wasn't real and then pretending to believe for a number of years for fear that I wouldn't get anymore presents :lol:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> Thanks for the info, Moody - I didn't know you cared!
> But I wasn't talking about 'origins' or 'American origins', was I? Just that the Easter Bunny wasn't part of British custom when I was growing up in the 50s & 60s.
> Now, assuming that your moods sometimes swing into the rubicund and jolly, have you a funny story or personal anecdote to share with us? I'd really enjoy that!


Well yes, you said the Bunny was an American thing but nevermind,
The only amusing happening was that when the kids were young I used to hide the mini-eggs around the garden for them to find,
One day my daughter said that she thought it was about time that I stopped this egg-hunt.
I answered: " That's a pity , why do you want to stop?". She replied, "Well,I am sixteen after all !" So I gave in.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Weston said:


> Because I was raised in a cult religion that does not celebrate Christmas, birthdays, Easter, or life in general,  I grew up thinking people somehow lost all their marbles by the time they became adults. It was always adults that asked me in that too baby talk tone of voice, "What is Santa going to bring you for Christmas?" And people wonder why I grew up mumbling and disrespecting authority.
> 
> Oh, I'm not trying to take the joy and magic out of these traditions. I just wish we would approach kids a little differently. Adults should treat children as intellectual equals because they are.


I agree with you in general,but intellectual equals ? No they are not.


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## MaestroViolinist (May 22, 2012)

OboeKnight said:


> I remember figuring out Santa wasn't real and then pretending to believe for a number of years for fear that I wouldn't get anymore presents :lol:


Lol! I did exactly the same thing. :lol:

One story would be I used to put out a little basket for my teddy bear for the Easter Bunny to put eggs into too.  Oh and also I think I used to be scared of the Sandman...


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

I believe in all these things and _no one_ is going to persuade me otherwise. 

I must flatter the legendary beings because they give me presents and chocolate and money.....


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

This thread is scarring me for life. Please close it.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> I grew up in York & Halloween at that time was rather low key, though I remember they sold grim masks at our corner shop. Our family also bobbed for apples & attempted, at the cost of sliced fingers, to hollow out turnips to make lamps. But we didn't have 'trick or treat' because in Yorkshire the older tradition related to November 4th, the day before Bonfire Night. This was Mischief Night when children went out in the early evening to play pranks, like removing gates from their hinges & knocking on doors before running away. Householders were just 'tricked', with no choice as to whether they cared to 'treat us'. I can't see them wanting to, mind you. As the old Yorkshire saying has it: 'See all - hear all - say nowt; eat all - sup all - pay nowt; and if ever tha does owt for nowt, allus do it for thysen!'


A Northerner, I should have known!!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

moody said:


> A Northerner, I should have known!!


Ey oop!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> Ey oop!


Trooble at mill !!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Easter Bunny has hopped off, but recently we had April Fool's Day - and for the first time in my life, I just didn't bother. Signs of growing old - or just finally growing up?

The most successful trick I was part of was when a priest we knew kept complaining at our student camp about the powdered milk we had to drink in our tea. So someone mixed the powder up with water & put it in an old clean milk bottle & then in the fridge. We made Fr Reg some tea, took the bottle from the fridge & poured in the milk and - yes, you've guessed it. Fr Reg smacked his lips: 'How wonderful to have real milk at last!' 

(P.S. If anyone has any April Fool's Day stories, they'd be much appreciated...)


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Way-hey-hey! Now that I'm getting nicely into my dotage, it's time to preserve some of Ye Olde Rhymes that circulated in Britain in the 1950s & before...

One fine day in the middle of the night,
Two dead men got up to fight.
Back to back, they faced each other,
Drew their swords & shot one another.

One midsummer's day in winter
When the snow was raining fast,
A barefooted boy with clogs on
Stood sitting on the grass.

Tell-tale tit, your mother can't knit,
Your father can't walk without a walking stick!

Very dated this last. Are there more modern American equivalents?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

And two of the feeblest jokes ever - not that there was much to laugh at in 50s Yorkshire...

God made Man - Man made Walls - what did Walls make? (Sausages, or Ice Cream)
and
Ooh, you go to bed with Tony Chestnut! Yes you do: Toe-Knee-Chest-Nut!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> And two of the feeblest jokes ever - not that there was much to laugh at in 50s Yorkshire...
> 
> God made Man - Man made Walls - what did Walls make? (Sausages, or Ice Cream)
> and
> Ooh, you go to bed with Tony Chestnut! Yes you do: Toe-Knee-Chest-Nut!


You can't get much more feeble than that !
Also try to remember that most of your audience knows nothing of Walls and many other localised subjects.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

moody said:


> You can't get much more feeble than that !
> Also try to remember that most of your audience knows nothing of Walls and many other localised subjects.


Feeble, okay - but they brought you thundering over the hill! 

But I was hoping for some American childhood rhymes or jokes - or at least southern...


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> The only game my family ever played was with the tooth fairy and sorta with the Easter bunny. Of course I knew they didn't really exist, but my mom and dad would put money under my pillow at night when I left a tooth there, and I did do easter egg hunts.


Children often have no trouble believing two contradictory things at the same time. I knew full well Santa was just an uncle dressed in a Santa costume. And at the same time did not find the idea of Santa really existing all that incredible either.

The Christmas I remember most vividly was the one in which our parents, presumably tired of the game, told us that this year Santa had so much work he couldn't come see us personally, but he left us a big bag of gifts in the garden, and we had to go find it. Somehow not seeing him made him even more real. 



> In particularly my family didn't really do anything with Santa, I just knew the legends from media. In Finland/Scandinavia, Santa doesn't come in secret, he comes at night and delivers gifts personally to people. He also uses the reindeer sled the old fashion way, not flying.


My brother is quite thoroughly secular, and did not raise his children in any religion. But he has always thought the Santa thing is pretty cool, and he wanted his children to just once experience what it is like to fervently believe in something utterly absurd, so they all believed in Santa when they were kids.

As for the Easter Bunny, it is not a major tradition here, though people sometimes do indulge. Mostly on a small scale, like kids hunting for Easter eggs in their own gardens. Something similar happens with Halloween: there will be some Halloween parties, with teens or slightly twisted adults getting together in costumes, perhaps making a Jack o'lantern (colloquially known as a "pampoenspook" ("pumpkin ghost"), and in some suburbs of some cities, some kids will go trick-or-treating. But it is no big tradition here (which is a pity, because I think it's pretty cool.)


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

moody said:


> None of them are American.
> The Easter Bunny Started in Alsace and has been around since medieval times.
> The Sandman is a mythical character who brings sleep and is from North European folklore.
> Santa Claus/St.Nicholas is a legendary figure from western culture.
> The version with the red gear stems from the US and Canada in the 19th century.


The coloring and cut of this Santa's outfit ("American Santa") is a result of a professional commercial illustrator who was commissioned by the Coca-Cola company: this update is from 1931, and color coordinated to look well with the Coca-Cola Bottle and company colors 

www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/coke-lore-santa-claus















My family officially stopped subscribing or adhering to any formal religion five generations ago, so the Easter rituals I knew as a child were the externals, the egg-hunt, candies, etc. I don't think I realized this was a Holy Day for some until middle school. The participation in the other rituals were I'm sure simply because those were kid's activities, so those were included.

At a summer home, a tenant-farmed 20 acre fruit farm, I recall Easters with no bunny, but plenty of leftover rotten hard-boiled dyed eggs, with which my brother and four neighbor boys down the street would have fights in the open field. A kind of childhood (and guy) sort of fun.

The funniest Easter Bunny I ever saw was as an adult: an adult male on the street during Halloween was fully costumed in a bunny suit, carrying the basket of eggs, with *** ****, ******* **** *****, ******* *** **** * **** ** *** ******.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Just to remind you, in Shakespeare's time, Midsummer Day was celebrated on 23rd June, the eve of St John's Day, and if you gather fern seed on that night and scatter it upon yourself, it is rumoured that you can become invisible...


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> Just to remind you, in Shakespeare's time, Midsummer Day was celebrated on 23rd June, the eve of St John's Day, and if you gather fern seed on that night and scatter it upon yourself, it is rumoured that you can become invisible...


I'd like to try that with a few of our honourable members.


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)

Ingenue said:


> Just to remind you, in Shakespeare's time, Midsummer Day was celebrated on 23rd June, the eve of St John's Day, and if you gather fern seed on that night and scatter it upon yourself, it is rumoured that you can become invisible...


Does anyone remember the show, possibly British, where a character believed he had discovered invisibility and went naked into a bar (I believe) and would walk up to people believing they could not see him?


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)

BlazeGlory said:


> Does anyone remember the show, possibly British, where a character believed he had discovered invisibility and went naked into a bar (I believe) and would walk up to people believing they could not see him?


I found out what it was. It was from an American movie called Amazon Women On The Moon.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

BlazeGlory said:


> I found out what it was. It was from an American movie called Amazon Women On The Moon.


Now we know your taste in movies.


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## BlazeGlory (Jan 16, 2013)

moody said:


> Now we know your taste in movies.


Yes sir. As you can see, I fit right in here.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

For Monday, 15th July, St Swithin's Day - meteorologists agree that there is some truth in the idea that the weather pattern can be 'fixed' for a month or so at this point in the summer. (What summer?  )
As the folk rhyme has it:

St Swithin's day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain;
St Swithin's day, if thou be fair,
For forty days t'will rain nae mair.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Halloween approaches...

When I was a child, the most that happened was nearly severing one's fingers trying to hollow out a turnip lamp, plus a few weird masks on sale at the corner shop. Some kids played pranks, knocking on doors and running away, but we lived in an orderly neighbourhood. In any case, those sort of tricks were usually saved for Mischief Night, November 4th, the eve of Guy Fawkes' Day, a uniquely North-of-England custom.

But now the American habit of trick or treat is well entrenched, though only in its nastier British version. No cute kids being given pumpkin pies at neighbours, but gangs of youths working off scores by egging people's windows and cars or each other. Many of these youths are seventeen or eighteen or older, and our local police just keep out of their way. 

At the same time, a fascination with the occult has become fashionable - self-proclaimed 'pagans' flourish - adults speculate about their 'dark side' - dressing up kits are sold in supermarkets - Halloween has become a marketing opportunity, maybe even more than Easter these days, who knows...

So, Halloween approaches, and so does an attack of curmudgeonliness. I would like to re-apply Scrooge's words about Christmas to this new end-of-October Darkfest - 'Bah, humbug!'

There. A burst on the banjo always does me good. But do chip in with soothing cello music if you think that Halloween rocks!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> Halloween approaches...
> 
> When I was a child, the most that happened was nearly severing one's fingers trying to hollow out a turnip lamp, plus a few weird masks on sale at the corner shop. Some kids played pranks, knocking on doors and running away, but we lived in an orderly neighbourhood. In any case, those sort of tricks were usually saved for Mischief Night, November 4th, the eve of Guy Fawkes' Day, a uniquely North-of-England custom.
> 
> ...


We should start an occult group on TC there are many likely types and quite a few undead.


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

Halloween isn't celebrated here 'officially' - only some minor parties and so forth are held. Vandalism avoided, spirit reclaimed.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Cheyenne said:


> Halloween isn't celebrated here 'officially' - only some minor parties and so forth are held. Vandalism avoided, spirit reclaimed.


Cheyenne - where is your 'here'? I think I'm going to emigrate!


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## Cheyenne (Aug 6, 2012)

The Netherlands :tiphat:


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Cheyenne said:


> The Netherlands :tiphat:


You have The Great Cheese Spirit night I believe.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Taggart has just noted on the 'On this day' thread that Elizabeth I acceded to the throne on 17th November. That rang a bell...

I studied Elizabethan history at A-level & remember that Accession Day was celebrated throughout her reign and quite a long time afterwards with bonfire parties - i.e. *before* Guy Fawkes. Coincidentally, in November an important Celtic festival to celebrate the start of winter was held - Samhain. It marked a boundary between our world and the land of the dead and spirits and of course we have Halloween & All Saints. But Samhain was celebrated with special bonfires. 

Towards the end of Elizabeth's reign, the Accession Day bonfire festival became a protestant festival where effigies of the pope etc could be burned. Again, *before* Guy Fawkes. At Lewes, in Sussex, Guy Fawkes Night is still celebrated in this way.

So - it looks as if *Guy Fawkes* saw & took advantage of *a niche in the market*! 

(My brother went to his old school in York, btw, and they were never allowed to celebrate Bonfire Night - disrespectful to an old boy.)


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

_Christmas Lore_

I find it fascinating that many traditions about Christmas come not from the Bible but from the 'apocryphal gospels', early writings about Jesus that were not accepted into the canon by the Church Councils.

That Jesus was born between an ox and *** comes from Pseudo-Matthew, a book of the sixth or seventh century. An even older work, c 145 AD, the Protevangelium or Infancy Gospel of James, has the traditions of Jesus born in a cave and the parents of Mary being Joachim and Anna. Also in the Protevangelium is that at the birth of Christ, the heavens stood still for an instant, which I believe is an ingredient of the lovely carol 'Silent Night'.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

February was also a time of festivals in the ancient world and some of these 'pagan' festivals now have a Christian overlayer.

For example, February 1st was 'Imbolc' in pre-Christian Ireland, with a link to the sun returning and a fertility goddess; later this was overlaid with legends about St Brigid of Kildare, and this day became her Feast Day. You can see that the 'St Bridget's Cross' has links with fertility (made of rushes or stalks of corn) and with the sun (like that other famous sun symbol, the swastika, a Hindu emblem before the Nazis stole it).

St Brigid's Cross:









The second day of February now celebrates the presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Mary & Joseph; but it is also Candlemas, a festival of lights, and St Blaise's Eve, when people have their throats blessed, so the links with the sun and health are still there.

Candlemas:


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Ingélou said:


> Regarding Bonfire Night, November 5th, my brother was debarred from celebrating it as he went to Guy Fawkes' old school, St Peter's in York, and it was deemed disrespectful to an Old Boy.


!!! That is as fantastical as it is hysterically funny  !!!


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Cheyenne said:


> The Netherlands :tiphat:


...where _"act normal; that is already crazy enough."_ is a sort of social national motto


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

moody said:


> You have The Great Cheese Spirit night I believe.


Ah but you've overlooked that large but covert cult of those who worship 
_The Most Sacred and Splendid Tulip Bulb_.


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## lupinix (Jan 9, 2014)

hm the tooth fairy and easter bunny have never made much impression to me, and I don't think many people ive known have ever believed in them. I did at first believe in Santa Claus but soon learned, at least before I was 4, he wasnt real and it didn't bother me much, probably because theres not so big fuss about him here. Of course I knew him as the joly bearded man from the north pole with the reindeers, and I had seen many american christmas films but I guess I mostly saw him as just a nice story. I should add that I mainly knew him as the Kerstman "Christmas man", probably because santa claus sounds too much like Sinterklaas/Sint-Nicolaas, the figure and celebration in the netherlands, belgium and I believe also some parts of germany, which was also largely the inspiration for santa claus, and which is here much bigger and everybody knows him. I remember my father telling me he wasn't real when I was about 7 and I was really surprised and confused, I nearly told my much younger sisterout of confusion.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

I had several books about flower fairies when I was a child, and I just found them so poetic & beautiful. One of them said that if you really really believed in fairies, and held your hand out, and counted to ten with your eyes shut, then by the time you'd finished and opened your eyes, you'd find a fairy standing on your hand.

Gawd, the time I wasted..... ! :lol:


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Yesterday was also Groundhog day in US. I guess it has its European roots, but it's pretty attached to American tradition here unlike the ones that Ingelou just mentioned yesterday. They say the Groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter this year, but it's uncommon for that _not _to be that prediction. It's just a cute tradition that actually rarely has been unusually correct:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/groundhog-day.php


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Thanks, Huilu. :tiphat: Who would be without Groundhog Day? Not me, for one, after watching that fabulous film over & over (as you have to)!


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

One of the big dates in Easter Bunny's Year.* Happy Valentine's Day!*

According to Wiki, St. Valentine's Day began as a liturgical celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. Several martyrdom stories were invented for the various Valentines that belonged to February 14, and added to later martyrologies.
The day was first associated with romantic love in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished. In 18th-century England, it was a day in which lovers expressed their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as "valentines").







- A Valentine's Postcard from 1910

As a teenager, I hated Valentine's Day. I never got a single one. And I don't bother about it now, because for me, living with Taggart, *every day is Valentine's Day*.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

*Happy St David's Day*









Saint David (Welsh: Dewi Sant; c. 500 - c. 589) was a Welsh bishop of Menevia during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. He became renowned as a teacher and preacher, founding monastic settlements and churches in Wales, Dumnonia, and Brittany. St David's Cathedral stands on the site of the monastery he founded in the Glyn Rhosyn valley of Pembrokeshire. He rose to a bishopric and presided over two synods against Pelagianism: the first at Brefi around 560 and the second at Caerleon (the "Synod of Victory") around 569.

http://www.amielandmelburn.org.uk/collections/soundings/11_188.pdf -

This is a link to one of my favourite poems, *Miracle Upon St David's Day*.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Shrove Tuesday today - the last day before Lent, time to be shriven & use up all your rich food. Cue for Pancake Races & Mardi Gras Parades worldwide.









Will you be having pancakes today? Just don't toss them too high and slather the ceiling.


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## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

Ingélou said:


> I had several books about flower fairies when I was a child, and I just found them so poetic & beautiful. One of them said that if you really really believed in fairies, and held your hand out, and counted to ten with your eyes shut, then by the time you'd finished and opened your eyes, you'd find a fairy standing on your hand.
> 
> Gawd, the time I wasted..... ! :lol:


I don't believe that's a waste of time at all. So there.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

*29th May - Oak Apple Day*:

This was established as a holiday by parliament in 1660; it was Charles II's birthday, so the holiday honoured the Restoration of the Monarchy, and the title commemorates Charles' escape from the Battle of Worcester by hiding up an oak tree. The roundhead helmet, with its long nape-piece, precluded a parliamentarian soldier from being able to look upwards easily.

When my mother was a child in the 1920s, people (and especially children) wore sprigs of oak to honour the day, and sang a song, 'Oak Apple Day, Oak Apple Day - if you don't give us a holiday, we'll all run away.' And it was in fact a half-holiday; but in the morning, Mum had to go to school, and alas, no oaks grew near her home. She'd run very fast, but not fast enough to escape the waiting children, who, seeing that she sported no oak leaves, were allowed to whip her legs with stinging nettles, and got much joy from doing so.

Mum is 93 now, but has never forgotten this injustice.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Today - Sunday - is the Feast of Corpus Christi. For most of my life as a Catholic it has been on a Thursday, as it was in the Middle Ages, when it was a huge public holiday where various English cities - York, Wakefield, Coventry & 'N-Town', either Lincoln or Norwich - put on religious plays performed by the various craft guilds or Mysteries on pageant wagons moved about the city. I grew up in York, and a couple of years ago went to see the best Mystery Plays I've ever seen, in the grounds of St Mary's Abbey.

Post-reformation, there were still lots of Catholics in sixteenth-century York, and the Mystery Plays were a huge tourist draw and an economic money-spinner for the city, so the Mayor risked government wrath, but they were finally suppressed in about 1570.

To honour this wonderful feast, I post the mystical medieval Corpus Christi Carol:


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## Taggart (Feb 14, 2013)

Wakes Monday is the first Monday in September celebrated as a holiday in parts of Northern England.

The most famous celebration is at Abbots Bromley:


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