Marja-Leena Rathje

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by Marja-Leena

Happy Halloween

12:07 am in Culture, Folk Legends & Myths by Marja-Leena

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(photo – EKR)

Tonight is Halloween and all the little boys and girls will be out trick-or-treating. Our granddaughter is coming over to visit a few houses, then help answer the door in her “ghost princess” costume and scare the callers! Little children with their excitement in role play make Halloween special for me, not the whole commercialization of an ancient custom (as I complained a year ago).

Leslee of Third House Party wrote a lovely post, along with fabulous photos, about pumpkins and the annual Pumpkin Festival in the town of Keene, New Hampshire, USA which currently holds the world record for the most lit pumpkins in one location. And Amy of “ever so humble”, also in New Hampshire, defines lanterns.

Finnish readers will enjoy reading Anna Amnell’s posts on the tradition of Halloween and adult Americans’ super early Halloween craze as a form of escapism from the stresses created by a media mix of murders and trivia (“Horrible-Beautiful Breakfast Mix”). She finishes with a link to James Joyce’s The Dead which reveals that for Irish and Anglo Americans Halloween is really about the acceptance of death.

This sounds to me rather like the Day of the Dead in Mexico.

More interesting seasonal links can be found at Samhain, Halloween & Day of the Dead. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

UPDATE Nov.3.05. An interesting article in National Geographic on how Mexicans celebrate Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead.

5 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Halloween

8:29 am in Culture by Marja-Leena

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Happy Halloween! Be safe, little ones!
All about Halloween
All about pumpkins
All about Samhain, Day of the Dead, All Souls, All Saints
Halloween 2005
Halloween 2004 and a complaint about commercialization

6 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Kekri and Samhain

11:00 am in Canada and BC, Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena

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It’s the last day of October and Halloween tonight. With our children grown up and the grandchildren in England this year, I have made no effort to celebrate this occasion here at home. Erika, now living at home again, did carve a pumpkin and I still have a small tabletop display of fall squash, ornamental corn and colourful leaves from Thanksgiving.

I’m the Halloween grinch I guess, and I’m feeling grinchier than ever as I get older (and my knee is bugging me). I dislike the commercialism and all that cheap candy and junk food that is expected as handouts. There are not many trick-or-treaters in our neighbourhood anymore so that the the doorbell rings at rare and long intervals over a three hour period. The late ones are teenagers coming from other neighbourhoods who should not even be calling at their age! So, we turn off all the lights, except in a couple of rooms in the back of the house where we sit at our computers, read and chat. (The current events, especially the US elections are stressing us out, and we’re not even able to vote!) End of rant.

Yet, I enjoy reading about the history of many of our traditions. That history sounds far more interesting than today’s version and I have written a little about those in the past. Something relatively new to me is the ancient Finnish tradition of Kekri:

In ancient Finnish religion, a feast day marking the end of the agricultural season that also coincided with the time when the cattle were taken in from pasture and settled for a winter’s stay in the barn. Kekri originally fell on Michaelmas, September 29, but was later shifted to November 1, All Saints’ Day. In the old system of reckoning time, Kekri was a critical period between the old and new years when the ancestor spirits came to visit their former homes. The living accordingly held feasts honouring the dead. Food and drink were left for the spirits, the sauna was heated, and the dead were referred to as “holy men.” The feast was generally restricted to the members of the family, but in some areas the occasion was also marked by the common sacrifice of a sheep by the men of the entire village.

To me, Kekri sure sounds like Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Samhain, Day of the Dead, all rolled into one. It fascinates me how many of the old folk customs in different countries are so similar, and I’ve merely touched on the surface of the European ones only. As we all know, Christianity came along and changed some of the dates and many traditions, as finally did the influx of the American Halloween customs so that now they are even more similar.

So, my little Halloween token to you all is this deliciously scary poem that my long-time blog friend Anna of Self-Winding shared in a comment last year (thanks again, Anna!):

Here’s a witchy poem for you, one my uncle used to recite to us when we were little:

One moonlit night on Halloween

The foulest witch you’ve ever seen,
Came riding a broom between her knees,

Over the silver fields and trees.

I hailed the witch,

I heard her shout

Her laugh was wild as she turned about..

”I’ll tell you feee and I’ll tell you fooo,

I must have salt for my devil’s brew,
And the salt shall come from the tears you’ll shed
When I tell of the day when the world is dead.

Then he’d send us out to get wood from the shed in the dark!

P.S. My Finnish readers may be interested in some more in-depth discussion of kekri, with links, at Taivaankannen takojat, an interesting blog about the old Finnish beliefs.

14 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Halloweeeeen Apples!

9:45 am in Canada and BC, Culture by Marja-Leena

skeleton.jpg

That’s what we, in our childhood, called out as we rang neighbours’ doorbells, dressed in inexpensive home-made costumes. Today it’s “Trick or Treat” and often some pretty sophisticated costumes that Mom bought! Treats most desired by the little goblins are mini chocolate bars and candies – no more candy apples or homemade goodies after some bad tricks with hidden razors. Lots of carved and candlelit jack o’ lantern pumpkins line every doorway, then lie smashed on roads the next morning after the older goblins have made their rounds.

This type of Hallowe’en is predominantly a North American phenomenon, though originating in the British Isles. Immigrant parents reluctantly allowed their children to go join in this strange new form of “begging”.

Increasingly commercialized, Hallowe’en now ranks third in consumer spending in Canada, behind Christmas and the back-to-school season. And this is ironic…according to the Telegraph:

“thanks in part to a vigorous drive by supermarkets to import America’s Hallowe’en traditions and rituals to Britain, it has become the second biggest seasonal event after Christmas.”

I guess I’d qualify as a Scrooge for only buying two pumpkins and about $25 worth of the mini chocolate bars for the neighbourhood kids (and the at-home “kids”).

So, if you are out trick-or-treating tonight with your young ones or attending various fireworks (apparently a Canadian tradition!) or parties, have yourself a fun and very SAFE Halloween!

Links: some history of Halloween
Stanley Park’s Hallowe’en Ghost Train, a popular Vancouver family event.

Thanks to Erika for the skeleton drawing!

Update Nov.1.04 (All Saints’ Day): Thanks to Mark at Wood s Lot for finding this fascinating site about Halloween, Samhain, Day of the Dead, All Souls, All Saints at Mythology’s Myth*inglinks

1 Comment »

by Marja-Leena

frights and feasts

8:55 am in Being an Artist, Culture, Current Events by Marja-Leena

As you are out tonight chasing ghosts and goblins, watch out for what may be underfoot.

bones1.jpg

Or when the lawn
Is pressed by unseen feet, and ghosts return
Gently at twilight, gently go at dawn,
The sad intangible who grieve and yearn….

– T.S. Eliot

Looking up, Windy Willlow writes:

A howling welcome to all you tree lovers… this is the Halloween edition of The Festival of Trees’. What spooky trees and snippets of poetry to put us into the spirit of Samhain! If you need a little calming after all this, go down to part two and see ‘the breathtaking colors of leaves and fruit in this colorful season.

Fright to feast, have a Happy Halloween.

(Thanks, Amy, for reminding me of Eliot’s words.)

4 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

scrunched

10:09 am in Being an Artist, Photoworks, Textures by Marja-Leena

scrunched.jpg

scrunched3.jpg

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…. some play with torn and crumpled printed paper

And, wishing a spooky yet safe Halloween, weather and storms permitting. The link has my favourite image for this day.

11 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

elsewhere

10:34 pm in Art Exhibitions, Books, Other artists, Rock Art & Archaeology by Marja-Leena

With low energy and needing to catch up with other things, I want to just quickly share several exciting-to-me links I’ve been enjoying this week, on the subjects of archaeology, art and story writing:

1. Lascaux’s Picassos – What prehistoric art tells us about the evolution of the human brain. A gorgeous slide show and many great links on a favourite subject of mine, and something I’ve written about a few times before.

2. Cuts that heal: Barbara Hepworth’s hospital drawings. I love her sculpture. Now seeing her fantastic drawings in the provided slide show puts her in the class of the Renaissance artists in my book! The second work Concentration of Hands II is my favourite. I had many of the same thoughts as Jonathan Jones mentions in his review (link on the side). How I wish I could go see this exhibition.

3. Margaret Atwood joins the zombie craze:

Just in time for Halloween, Canada’s most decorated literary doyenne – Margaret Atwood – has co-written a serialized zombie novel with a promising British author that will be posted chapter by chapter at the Canadian-based story-sharing website Wattpad.

I’m not into zombies but curiousity sent me to check out Wattpad and The Happy Zombie Sunrise Home where the first three parts are up. I read, I laughed, I will be back.

8 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

November reds

1:42 pm in Home, Nature, Photoworks by Marja-Leena

JapaneseMaple_Nov2015

JapLeaves84

JapMapleLeaves86

HydrangeNov

Already the eleventh month of the year and the colours of fall continue to change daily. Leaves fall, the winds blow, sometimes gently sometimes stormy. Lovely days, rainy days, and everything in between. Some snow on the mountains on the Halloween weekend but no frost yet down here near the sea. The sun is lower in the sky, the shadows lengthen, the march of the seasons mark the passage of time.

18 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

Happy 5th Birthday

2:25 pm in Being an Artist by Marja-Leena

Lael.jpg
To Lael, our lovely little grand-daughter! We love your costume – are you the Ice Queen? You look very happy in the photos that were taken on Sunday at your Birthday-Halloween party with your little friends. We really look forward to the family celebration this evening! See you soon, Love from Opa and Mummi!

2 Comments »

by Marja-Leena

November/Marraskuu

2:30 pm in Culture, Finland, Estonia & Finno-Ugric by Marja-Leena

AcerPalmatum.jpg

whiteHydrangea.jpg

Ah, the calendar page turns to November. This morning’s too-brief sunshine drew me outdoors. I could not resist taking the camera to capture some of the last of fall’s beauty in our garden.

Curious about the source of the name, I learned that in Latin, ‘novem’ means nine. November was the ninth month in the Roman calendar.

I also learned, to my great surprise, that ‘marraskuu’, the Finnish name for this month, means ‘month of the dead’. But wait, it may not be like Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead as celebrated in Mexico. It’s thought to come from the earth being ‘martaana’ or in a state of death. Yet, coming right after Halloween and on or near All Saints’ Day, a Christian holiday in many countries in Europe, I can’t help wondering if it might be referring to the ancient traditions of honouring one’s ancestors at the same time. Curious, isn’t it?

redberrycreeper.jpg

9 Comments »

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