Prof. Boerner's Explorations

Edited by Gerald Boerner

    
Commentary:

Halloween is finally here. Kids have been waiting with costumes in their closets, their bags or plastic pumpkins, and tummies ready for the immanent  feast of candy that they will bring home tonight. Parents have their first aid kits, flashlights, heavy coats, and bottles of water to take on the trek around their neighborhoods. The sun is sinking over the horizon and the kids dawn their cute little costumes, get their masks (or, even better, facial makeup), and grab their treat bags. They are ready!

Grab your camera, snap some pix BEFORE you leave the house, and start the rounds. As a parent myself, I always had fears when my kids went from house to house hoping that nothing terrible happens to them on their rounds. When they bring their candy back home, it’s time to check them out to try to find any tampering with the candy.

It’s a sad day when we have to worry about sex offenders abducting your kids, older kids beating up the smaller kids as they enjoy their Trick-or-Treating ventures, and about tainted candy. In fact, some local hospitals even provide X-ray services to check the candy for foreign objects. And finally, we worry about the kids eating too much candy and get sick. But such is the change from my childhood when these concerns didn’t even raise their ugly heads; it was a better time, I think!

But, now we need to proceed with this last installment of our HOLIDAY CELEBRATION series for this year. I hope that you have enjoyed these installments and perhaps even learned something new from them. Happy Halloween, once more… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 2387 Words ]
    

Quotations Related to Halloween:

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”
— Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

“Eat, drink and be scary.”
— Author Unknown

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
— Steve Almond

continue reading…

Edited by Gerald Boerner

    
Commentary:

Our celebration of Halloween is closely related to many of the Celtic Samhain traditions from medieval Ireland and Scotland. These traditions relate to the use of masks, carving vegetables (gourds), and other celebrations of the fall harvest. These pagan rights were cooped by the early Catholic clerics in these countries, and they have more recently been restored as part of Druid/Wicca groups. While they have little direct applicability to the Halloween celebration in the United States, but rounds our the background on Halloween traditions covered in this series.

We will just jump into our exploration of Samhain. Some of this information is somewhat detailed, so you can skip those part that deal with specific Gaelic traditions, as you wish… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 3478 Words ]
    

Quotations Related to Samhain:

“Corn and grain, corn and grain, All that falls shall rise again.”
— Wiccan Harvest Chant

“The Celts celebrated Hallowe’en as Samhain, the Feast of the Dead, when the deceased revisited the mortal world. This Oiche na Sprideanna (Spirit Night) marked the end of summer.”
— Bridget Haggerty

“Bittersweet October. The mellow, messy, leaf-kicking, perfect pause between the opposing miseries of summer and winter.”
— Carol Bishop Hipps

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Edited by Gerald Boerner

    
Commentary:

The Day of the Dead (El Dia de los Muertos) is generally celebrated in Mexico and much of Latin America on November 2nd. It follows the more widely celebrated All Saints Day which is celebrated on November 1st. It is a day in which families celebrate those who have passed on; it is celebrated by decorating their plots in graveyards and celebrating the events of their lives. It is also celebrated in many of the Catholic countries in Europe and in the Philippines. In the United States it is celebrated by regions with large Hispanic populations, especially those who have immigrated from Mexico.

The Mexican celebration was evolved from the Aztec Festival of Mictecacihuatl. The observance of this holiday in the United States is viewed by the general population as a novelty. Our culture does not understand this event, or, in that case, many of the holiday traditions that we celebrate.

Given the above, it might behoove us to investigate the origins of the various holidays that we celebrate. We would find that, while many appear to be related to observances by the Christian Church, especially the Catholic Church. we will find that these traditions are derived from pagan ceremonies and/or feasts celebrated in the lands brought under the control of the church. Let us become more aware of why we celebrate each of our holidays and decide for ourselves their validity for ourselves.

So, let’s dive into our exploration of the Hispanic tradition of The Day of the Dead together… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 2250 Words ]
    

Quotations Related to Halloween:

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.”
— Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

“Eat, drink and be scary.”
— Author Unknown

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
— Steve Almond

continue reading…

Edited by Gerald Boerner

    
Commentary:

Halloween is closely associated with the Catholic Church’s celebration of All Saints’ Day. It was evolved from a variety of pagan celebrations, especially as practiced by the Celts in Ireland. In the new world, it morphed into the celebration of the Day of the Dead. This latter celebration is related to All Souls Day, the first day in November; it celebrates those who have died and are living in a undefined state in the after life. In the United States, this religious observance has become the secular celebration of Halloween, which reflects a commercialization of this holiday.

More than other aspects of Halloween, All Saints’ Day is celebrated differently by the Western churches and the Eastern Orthodox churches. By and large, the eastern observations have maintained a closer observance to the religious traditions than in the western cultures. Read more about these differences in body of this posting.

So, let’s get into an exploration of All Saints’ Day. As you read the following material, think about both the religious and secular observances to draw you own conclusions about these celebrations… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 1918 Words ]
    

Quotations Related to Halloween:

“They are not all saints who use holy water.”
— Proverbs quote

“For death is no more than a turning of us over from time to eternity.”
— William Penn

“God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.”
— Soren Kierkegaard

continue reading…

Edited by Gerald Boerner

    
Commentary:

Halloween is a big time for kids. They dress up in costumes ranging from ghouls, ghosts, goblins, and other other-worldly creatures to popular movie characters to Disney characters. And, of course, pirates are an old tradition in this country. The long tradition is for kids to go from door-to-door around their neighborhoods, ringing doorbells, and shouting “trick-or-treat”. In most cases, the only consequence is the distribution of candy and other sweet confections. Seldom does the homeowner require his little visitors to perform a trick!

Even back in my youth, kids quickly learned where the best treats were to be collected. But few kids strayed outside our own neighborhood. Today, unfortunately, we find that groups of kids are driven into the better neighborhoods from outside the area to collect their goodies. This has led to many couples, especially older couples without children at home to leave their lights off, indicating that that house is not giving out “goodies”.

Pranks have been a long time tradition of this holiday. Some of us even have taken to storing out automobiles in garages or behind fences to discourage vandalism. Of course, the standard prank of teenagers is to “paper” the houses of friends or enemies, creating quite a cleanup task for the homeowner. On the whole, however, the pranks are much less severe and don’t lead to either property damage or personal injury. But parents must maintain close supervision of their brood so they will exhibit good behavior while trick-or-treating and restrict the consumption of the sweets collected.

So, let’s start our exploration of the tradition of trick-or-treating, its origins, and how it is practiced in various areas of the U.S. and western Europe… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2011 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 1885 Words ]
    

Quotations Related to Halloween:

“Clothes make a statement. Costumes tell a story.”
— Mason Coole

“Ghosts, like ladies, never speak till spoke to.”
— Richard Harris Barham

“Halloween is huge in my house and we really get into the "spirits" of things.”
— Dee Snider

continue reading…

Edited by Gerald Boerner

Edited by Gerald Boerner

     
Commentary:

Halloween is an exciting time of year, especially for children. They get to don costumes that make them into pirates, princesses, zombies, and other fantasy or horror film characters. These days these costumes have almost gotten out of hand, in that we have teenagers dressing up (or dressing down, as the case might be) in costumes ranging from pimp and ho outfits to who knows what else. Stores are even catering to costumes for adults, presumably to attend “adult” costume parties.

Not only the costumes getting out of hand, but too often foreign objects are found in the trick-or-treat candies collected by our kids. It has gotten so bad that parents need to take the haul of candy to local hospitals that offer X-ray services to determine if pins, razor blades, or other foreign objects are have been embedded in these goodies.

This posting links to a series of posting first written two years ago. We will be rerunning those posting over the next several days so that you can learn what is behind all the traditions that we still celebrate. Please enjoy this information and let us know what you think of the info and what additional info you might want in the future… GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2010 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 1460 Words ]

Quotations Related to HALLOWEEN:

“Where there is no imagination there is no horror.” 
— Arthur Conan Doyle, Sr.

“Eat, drink and be scary.”
— Author Unknown

“Nothing on Earth so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night.”
— Steve Almond

continue reading…

Edited by Gerald Boerner

Commentary

Due to injury, this commentary will be added later. Please check back. Thank you.  GLB

These Introductory Comments are copyrighted:
Copyright©2010 — Gerald Boerner — All Rights Reserved

[ 3655 Words ]

Quotations Related to ORSON WELLES

“At twenty-one, so many things appear solid, permanent, untenable.”
— Orson Welles

“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.”
— Orson Welles

“A good artist should be isolated. If he isn’t isolated, something is wrong.”
— Orson Welles

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