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Republished from October 30, 2011 at The Stars Hollow Gazette

Samhain is one of the eight festivals of the Wiccan/Pagan Wheel of the Years that is celebrated as the new year with the final harvest of the season. It is considered by most practitioners of the craft to be the most important of the eight Sabats and one of the four fire festivals, Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh. Beginning at sundown on October 31 and continuing through the next day, fires are lit and kept burning to recognize the shortening of days and the coming of winter’s long cold nights.

Many of the traditions practiced in the US have come from Ireland, Scotland and Whales. The carving of gourds and pumpkins used as lanterns, the wearing of costumes and masks, dancing, poetry and songs, as well as some traditional foods and games can be traced back to medieval times and pre-Christian times.

Two Roman festivals became incorporated with Samhain – ‘Feralia’, when the Romans commemorated the passing of the dead, and ‘Pomona’, when the Roman goddess of fruit and trees was honoured. The Halloween tradition of bobbing for apples is thought to derive from the ancient links with the Roman fruit goddess, Pomona, and a Druidical rite associated with water.

It is also the time of the year that we reflect and honor our ancestors and especially those who have departed since last Samhain. According to Celtic lore, Samhain is a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead become thinner, allowing spirits and other supernatural entities to pass between the worlds to socialize with humans. The fires and the candles burning in western windows are believed to help guide the spirits of the departed to the Summerlands. Like all Wiccan festivals, Samhain celebrates Nature’s cycle of death and renewal, a time when the Celts acknowledged the beginning and ending of all things in life and nature. Samhain marked the end of harvest and the beginning of the New Celtic Year. The first month of the Celtic year was Samonios – ‘Seed Fall’.

The Catholic church attempted to replace the Pagan festival with All Saints’ or All Hallows’ day, followed by All Souls’ Day, on November 2nd. The eve became known as: All Saints’ Eve, All Hallows’ Eve, or Hallowe’en. All Saints’ Day is said to be the day when souls walked the Earth. In early Christian tradition souls were released from purgatory on All Hallow’s Eve for 48 hours.

We decorate our homes with candles, gourds and dried leaves. Meals are traditionally lots of veggies, fruit, nuts and breads served with wine, cider and hearty beer. We make a hearty stew that is served with a whole grained bread and deserts made with apples, carrots and pumpkin. One of the sweet breads that is traditionally served is barmbrack, an old Irish tradition. The bread is baked with various objects and was used as a sort of fortune-telling game. In the barmbrack were: a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring. Each item, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, “to beat one’s wife with”, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year. Today, the bread usually contains a ring and a coin.

What ever you believe or not, Samhain has meaning for us all since the Wheel turns for all of us. So light a fire or a candle and dance with us as the Veil Thins.

Blessed be.

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. These are their finds for October 22, 2013

(1): The other Chris Hayes;

(2) a Duggar flub;

(3) the one-legged skier, author and motivational speaker who has already won Halloween with his costume.

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

The night is coming earlier and the air is cooler, crisper. In many places the leaves have already fallen off the trees. It’s the end of the growing season, the final harvest is at hand and all those tomato plants are now starting to look a little rangy but are still laden with unripe tomatoes, green tomatoes. Don’t let them got to waste. Now is the best time for Fried Green Tomatoes, traditionally a Southern recipe but versions of the dish are also found in the more northern states. In Louisiana, fried green tomatoes are served with cold tart rémoulade sauce.

This is the basic southern version of Fried Green Tomatoes substituting vegetable oil in place of bacon fat.

Ingredients:

• 4 large, firm green tomatoes, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch slices
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 cup finely ground cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon paprika or pimentón (a Spanish smoked paprika, available at latienda.com)
• 2 eggs
• Vegetable oil

Preparation:

1. Sprinkle the tomato slices with the salt and pepper; set aside.
2. Combine the cornmeal and paprika in a shallow bowl. In another bowl, beat the eggs.
3. Cover the bottom of a heavy skillet with 1/2 inch of oil, then place it over medium-high heat.
4. Coat the tomato slices in the egg, then dredge them in the cornmeal mixture.
5. Fry as many tomatoes as fit comfortably in the pan until nicely browned, about 2 minutes a side.
6. Transfer them to a paper towel-lined platter. Repeat until all the tomatoes are cooked.

Now if you have some firm sandwich bread, toast it on one side under the broiler until golden brown. Fry up some bacon until crisp. Then take some fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices, a few washed and dried basil leaves, the crispy and several slices of the Fried Green Tomatoes and layer in the untoasted side of the bread. Slather you favorite sandwich dressing and top with another slice of the toasted bread, toasted side up. Voila! A Fried Green Tomato BLT.

If you want to go Creole, you can top it with a spicy rémoulade sauce that’s a favorite in New Orleans where the sizzling Fried Green Tomatoes are top with the sauce and chilled cooked shrimp. Rémoulade is a great substitute for tartar sauce. too.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons whole-grain mustard
• 1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
• 2 teaspoons drained tiny capers, chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 scallion (3 inches of green left on), very thinly sliced
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Combine ingredients in a bowl. Set aside, covered, in the refrigerator.

Makes one cup.

So get out there and harvest those green tomatoes.

Bon Appétit

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their [finds for October 14, 2013]

1)a Banksy pop-up;

2) Anthony Hopkins praises Bryan Cranston and the entire cast of “Breaking Bad”;

3) the average American male doesn’t stack up to his international counterparts.

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for October 7, 2013.

1 ) The government may be shut down but lucky for us, America’s sarcasm and wit is in full force.

2)  Resident bad boy of astrophysics, Neil deGrasse Tyson, took to Twitter this weekend to fact check the blockbuster “Gravity”. It was amazing.

3) Cat sees balloon, reacts:

The team of All In with Chris Hayes puts out a daily request on Twitter asking their followers to send them the things they find most interesting on the internet. This is their finds for October 4, 2013.

1. Sleepy Congressman. Aww.

2. Tweeter stock is up through the roof. Tweeter and Twitter are not created equal.

3. The seal keeps a beat.

Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette

New Rule: Conservatives Who Love to Brag About American Exceptionalism Must Come Here to California

Bill Maher, Huffington Post

New Rule: Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here to California, and see it in person. And then they should be afraid — very afraid. Because while the rest of the country is beset by stories of right-wing takeovers in places like North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, California is going in the opposite direction and creating the kind of modern, liberal nation the country as a whole can only dream about. And not only can’t the rest of the country stop us — we’re going to drag you along with us.

It wasn’t that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and saying it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whatever Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actually liked it, Jerry Brown.[..]

Since then, everything Republicans say can’t or won’t work — gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail — California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society — universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana — has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning it up.