An Irish Halloween

The picture above was painted by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833, inspired by a typical Irish Halloween party. (Click on picture for details.) It was called "snap-apple night." Here is the caption which accompanied the painting:

There Peggy was dancing with Dan/While Maureen the lead was melting,/To prove how their fortunes ran/With the Cards ould Nancy dealt in;/There was Kate, and her sweet-heart Will,/In nuts their true-love burning,/And poor Norah, though smiling still/She'd missed the snap-apple turning.

For the ancient Celts, November 1 was Samhain, their New Year's day. It is not necessary to detail some of the more gruesome pagan customs which accompanied the festivities in pre-Christian times, customs which eventually disappeared as the Faith spread and took hold. Nevertheless, on a more positive note, the Celts believed that on the day in question the veil between the worlds grew thin, and one could easily pass from world to world, from time into eternity.

As Christians, in celebrating the Solemnity of All Saints, the sacred liturgy permits us to glimpse the place where the blessed ones dwell in light. We are led to think of all the dead, of the awe-inspiring realties of death, judgment, heaven and hell. On All Souls' Day we recall those who are still undergoing purgation in the realm beyond time. We, too, through the Mass and through prayer, pass from world to world, for all are present to God.

Here is an article (via A Conservative Blog for Peace) which elucidates on the history of All Hallows' Eve, the pagan versus Christian aspects and how the Irish, French, Germans, and English brought it all to North America. To quote:

Halloween can still serve the purpose of reminding us about Hell and how to avoid it. Halloween is also a day to prepare us to remember those who have gone before us in Faith, those already in Heaven and those still suffering in Purgatory. The next time someone claims Halloween is a cruel trick to lure our children into devil worship, I suggest you tell them the real origin of Halloween and let them know about its Catholic roots and significance. (By Fr Scott Archer)

 More on Irish Halloween traditions HERE.

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Biden Calls Trump Supporters "Garbage"

 

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The Vanished Kingdom of Alt Clut

 I am listening to Vanished Kingdoms by Norman Davies and the second chapter is about the lost Pictish Kingdom of  the Rock or Strathclyde, also known by the Britons as Alt Clut. Some scholars think it might be the site of the legendary Camelot. St. Patrick probably came from there as well, as did my MacLachlan ancestors. From The History Files:

The tribe of the Damnonii were never fully conquered by Rome. Instead, at some point during the Roman occupation of Britain they seem to have created an independent kingdom of their own in the region of Scotland that is now known as Strathclyde. This kingdom quickly became known by the Brythonic name of its capital at Dumbarton: Alt Clut or Alclud ('Rock of the Clyde'), or Alcluith (an older version of the name). Centred on the Clyde headwaters and its capital of Dumbarton, the kingdom's borders can only be vaguely estimated. They seem to have stretched a little north of the Antonine line, then over to the ridge of the Campsie Fells (roughly between Lennoxtown and Balfron, and taking in the later county of Dumbarton), up towards Loch Lomond where two huge ice age stone deposits both bear names that possibly mark out a British border (see AD 711, below), and westwards to the head of Loch Long. Its southern border seems usually to have abutted that of Galwyddel (Galloway), while to the north it was bordered by Pictland, to the north-east and east by the Guotodin, and to the south-east by Caer Guendoleu.

Essentially re-established in AD 382 by Magnus Maximus, it may in fact have been much older. The original first century Roman conquest of southern Scotland did not include Alt Clut's British Damnonii territory, although there were periods when it later fell under Roman administration. For the most part, however, it seems to have remained independent. Certainly it was one of the few British kingdoms never to be conquered by the English or Normans, instead eventually being taken over by the Scottish crown. Its southern region of Cumbria was gained after the fall of North Rheged and a period of possession by Bernicia, and simply bore the name of its 'people of the same land', the Cymri, which is the same source of the name for Cymru (Wales).

Many of Alt Clut's kings are obscure or are only poorly attested. Only two stand out - Coroticus and Rhiderch Hael. Many of them are often only known by the Welsh or Irish versions of their names. Little of the Cumbric dialect of Brythonic which was used by the Britons between the walls was written down by them. Mostly their actions were recorded either due to Irish attacks on the coast or by Welsh storytellers who were remembering events from several generations away in time. Where both Alt Clut's British and later Welsh forms are known, the latter is always shown last. Edward Dawson suggests the theory that the somewhat mysterious Attacotti of AD 364 could be the Alt Clut Britons....(Read more.)

 

From English Monarchs:

The kingdom emerged after Roman rule was withdrawn from Britain at the beginning of the fifth century. Its capital was Dumbarton Rock, a 240 feet high twin-peaked volcanic rock with the River Clyde on one side and the River Leven on two more, 'the Fortress of the Britons', known as Alt Clut in brythonic Celtic. A Celtic settlement on Dunbarton Rock was first recorded in a letter of St Patrick to King Ceretic, the British King of Strathclyde in about AD450. In which he complained about a raid the Britons had made on his Irish converts.

Strathclyde covered the area from Loch Lomond to the Celtic kingdom of Rheged around the Solway. At the head of Loch Lomond in Glen Falloch a great boulder, known as the Clach nam Breatann, the Stone of the Britons marked the northern reaches of Strathclyde.

It was bordered to the north by Pictland, to the north-east and east by the Goutodin, and to the south by Caer Guendoleu, and Galwyddel. the kingdom's southern region of Cumbria was acquired after the demise of North Rheged and acquired its name from its people, the Cymri, or comrades, from which same source the Welsh people referred to themselves as Cymru. (Read more.)

From Sean Poage:

Alt Clut, as part of what the Welsh called “The Old North” is full of fascinating history and legend and likely the longest-lived of the Brythonic kingdoms. Their imposing citadel at Dumbarton was never taken until the year 870, when the defenders ran out of water after a four month Viking siege. The king, his family and hundreds of Britons were taken as slaves to Dublin.

This finally gave the Scots their chance and it appears that Alt Clud becomes a mixed Gaelic and Brythonic kingdom, known as Strathclyde. This means “Valley of the River Clyde”, the center of power of the region. The Scots would fully take over Strathclyde by the mid eleventh century, controlling as far south as Cumbria until the end of the eleventh century. (Read more.)

From Kings and Queens:

Ceretic Guletic was king of Alt Clut in the 5th Century AD. He was identified with Coroticus a Britonnic warrior mentioned on a letter by Saint Patrick. One of the letters is addressed to the warband of the Coroticus people. The letter mentions the enslavement of newly Christianised Irish and the sale of Christians

‘Soldiers whom I no longer call my fellow citizens or citizens of the Roman saints, but fellow citizens of the devils, in consequence of the evil deeds; who live in death after the hostile rite of the barbarians; associates of the Scots and Apostate Picts; desirous of glutting themselves with the blood of innocent Christians, multitudes of whom I have begotten in God and confirmed in Christ.’

In the letter Patrick announces that he has excommunicated Coroticus’ men. The connection between Coroticus to Ceretic Guletic is based largely on the 8th Century AD gloss to Patrick’s letter. It has been suggested that sending the letter provoked the trial Patrick mentions in the Confession. The ‘Apostate’ Picts are the southern Picts that were converted by Saint Ninian and ministered to by Palladius who subsequently left Christianity. The Northern Picts of Flortriu were later converted by Saint Columba in the 6th Century AD. As they were not yet Christian they would not have been called Apostate.

From using the above you would be able to date Ceretic in the 5th Century AD. Ceretic also appears in the Harleian genealogies of the rulers of Alt Clut. This lists his father as Cynloyp, grandfather as Cinhil and great-grandfather as Cluim. It is from this source we get the nickname Guletic which means land-holder. In the Book of Armagh he is called ‘Coirthech rex Aloo’ or Ceretic, King of the Height (of the Clyde). (Read more.)

A site both pixilated and interesting. From Land of the Fae:

I subsequently found out that this whole area is tied up with the earliest myths of King Arthur and Merlin. I believe that when Britons migrated from Strathclyde to Wales and Corwall that they carried the stories of King Arthur and Merlin with them and transfered the stories to places that were more familiar to them.

Arthuret is the site of the Battle of Arderydd that was fought in AD 573 between the pagan king Gwendollau and the Christian kings Riderch, Peredur and Gwrgi. Riderch was the king of Alt Clut (Dumbarton). Gwendollau was defeated and his court magician Myrddin (Merlin) went mad with grief and fled to the woods of Celidon where he lived on wild food and became a prophet. (Read more.)

For further reading, go HERE.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend:

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Halloween Etiquette

Some tips (from Miss Janice, of course.)

Also, a brief history of Halloween in America from Edwardian Promenade. Recta Ratio explains the origins as well. Share

Panicked Media Getting More Hysterical

 

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Meawhile, in Talbot County...

 From The Easton Gazette:

Republican parties across the State host Lincoln Reagan Dinners every year to help fundraise for campaigns. Usually they are attended by local, state and national political figures and a guest speaker is often invited as part of the attraction to the event. Donors pay different amounts to participate. Over 100 were in attendance in the Tabot County Republican Lincoln Reagan Dinner October 24th.

Rarely do these dinners provide the excitement that the Talbot County Republican Party event supplied on Thursday. The guest speaker was Ivan Raiklin, former Green Beret and Lawyer, known as the "State Marauder" on "X" where he has over 200,000 followers. Raiklin speaks on a variety of constitutional topics but is best known for his support of President Trump and concern about the deep state's role in elections. Raiklin has been on Tucker Carlson's blog and Alex Jones' Info Wars.

During his speech, Raiklin said, "Everybody who is in attendance here has courage." He outlined plans to deal with whatever election results come in November, including how County Sheriffs and Attorney Generals could be involved if there are issues. He also spoke about how social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Google, colluded with the Biden Administration to shut down alternative viewpoints on a variety of topics, including the elections.

Early in Raiklin's presentation, a protester, Ferdinand Joseph Ricci, broke into the room, physically assaulted the speaker, and began yelling alledging that Raiklin was being "paid by Elon Musk." Immediately, Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble stepped between Ricci and Raiklin and had the man arrested and charged with assault. Ricci was transferred to the Talbot County Central Booking facility for processing and an initial appearance before a District Court Commissioner. Ricci was held pending further action by the court.

Raiklin's presentation, and the evening, continued. (Read more.)

 

From WBOC:

Despite the strong start, Maryland’s early in-person voting numbers are lower than at this point in the 2020 election. Statewide, 10.4 percent of eligible voters have cast ballots in the first four days of early voting. However, the Eastern Shore has outperformed this rate, with 12.4 percent of eligible voters turning out so far.

Nearly every county on the Eastern Shore has exceeded the state average, with Talbot County setting the pace at 16.7 percent – the highest turnout in Maryland. Only Dorchester County falls below the state average for early voting on the Shore.

Bruce Robson, of Salisbury, praised the high turnout, calling it a reflection of civic pride and engagement. “It shows voter engagement, and gosh knows the more of that the better, no matter the party you are and who you're voting for. I’m proud of the Eastern Shore for that.”

Mail-in ballots are also playing a big role this election. Of the nearly one million Marylanders who have already voted, more than half have done so by mail.

Thursday, October 31 is the last day to vote early, in-person. You can do so between the hours of 7 a.m. and 8 p.m at your county's designated early voting sites which can be found here. (Read more.)

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Restoring the Catholic Roots of Halloween

 From The Liturgical Arts Journal:

In my previous articles on the liturgical roots of Halloween, I have examined some of the customs of the Vigil and how they might be adapted to the present day. This year, I thought it might be useful to distill these disparate musings into a convenient list of ways that individuals and families can restore the spiritual and liturgical heart of Halloween. 
1. Reading the Mass and Office for the Vigil of All Saints. As the vigil of All Saints was unfortunately suppressed in 1955, later Missals and Breviaries will not have it. But thanks to the Internet you can easily find the texts online. In 2021, Halloween falls on a Sunday (Christ the King in the traditional Missal), so we will all be honoring the day with Holy Mass. You may want to bring along a pre-1955 Missal or print out the Introit and Collect for private prayer during Mass.

2. Attend or Say First Vespers. First Vespers of All Saints are sung on the evening of Halloween, and this is the only liturgical tradition proper to the day that still survives everywhere. If you are lucky enough to have public Vespers in your area, this would be a great way to reconnect with that ancient liturgical tradition. Otherwise, you can always pray Vespers together with friends or at home.

3. Pray “Black Vespers”: This is a popular name for Vespers of the Dead, said in black vestments. Although it is not officially on the Roman liturgical books for Halloween, it was a popular custom to pray it at the cemetery in Brittany and other places, and it harmonizes well with the idea of freeing souls from Purgatory that is so characteristic of the day.

4. Sing the Hymns. There is indeed sacred music appropriate for Halloween! Most important is the Vespers hymn Christe Redemptor Omnium, conserva tuos famulos (also known as Placare Christe Servulis). This hymn gave rise to English versions like Caswall’s O Christ Thy Guilty people spare and, O Christ, Thy servants deign to spare from the Brébeuf hymnal. Michael Haydn (1737-1806) composed a setting of the gradual of the Halloween Mass, Exsultabunt sancti in Gloria. And generally hymns for both All Saints, like Ye watchers and ye holy ones, and All Souls, like Help Lord the Souls, are very appropriate for the day. There are various recordings of Souling Songs by Peter Paul and Mary and other folk groups; we also greatly enjoy the organ-accompanied rendition by Kristen Lawrence.

5. Fast. Vigils were traditionally fast days, and the Vigil of All Saints was specifically mentioned in the Baltimore Manual of Prayer (1888) as an obligatory day of fasting in the USA. (Read more.)

I think the saints' costumes are lovely and a good idea for children during Hallowtide. But my daughter had fun running down the street on Halloween pretending to be a pirate with a glow-in-the-dark sword. From Crisis:

The value of any tradition lies in its pedagogical power; but that pedagogy must often be consciously or creatively applied in the work of restoring Christian culture. The implication of Halloween is that death precedes the possibility of saintly glory and the redemptive suffering of Purgatory—and it delivers this earthly message with winks, chills, and some candy. Like a good-humored rendition of Dante’s Inferno, Halloween can and should recall the darkness of error as well as the soul’s fulfillment in Christ.

I believe in the Chaucerian principle that part of the process of overcoming evil is to laugh at it—but that means allowing evil to retain its identity for the sake of our exultant ridicule. And that requires a bold Catholic attitude that looks the fearful in the eye fearlessly—and, at Halloween, the fearful take the form of vampires, werewolves, zombies, and witches. Catholics should laugh at these as symbols of overthrown evil and encourage children to enjoy their silly spectacles, even though they may be a little scary. Again, the character (or caricature) of evil should not be lost in calling out its defeat.

For this reason, saints shouldn’t replace spooks on Halloween. There is, I think, something unimaginative in All Saints dress-up parties that miss out on the significance of ghost and goblin in Catholic iconography and festivity. There is a day for the celebration of all the saints on November 1st, but Halloween is for the imps whose overthrow made way for saints to exist. Such pious costume parties are popular as a counterbalance to the often overwhelming and unfortunate horrors and obscenities of the season; and they do, of course, encourage a traditional awareness and attitude by turning the minds and hearts of children toward eternal things. But these celebrations miss out on some of the potential and delight in the Church’s liturgical poetry. (Read more.)

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General Milley, John Kelly, and the Coup Against President Trump

 From Dr. G's Briefing:

Kamala Harris stood there at the podium with the Seal of the Vice President in front of her residence at the Naval Observatory. It was a very unusual location. As was the “urgent” nature of her announcement which had been trumpeted across the media. Was she going to resign and be replaced by Gavin Newsom? Had Biden decided to vacate the Oval Office and make her President before the election? No. 

Harris stood there in front of an entrance that looks very similar to the entrance to the West Wing, behind an emblem that looks almost exactly like the Great Seal of the President, to call Donald J. Trump a Fascist. Again. 

Despite being told at the Convention - which confirmed her anointing as her party’s candidate without one American have voted for her as the nominee - that this was to be a campaign of “joy” and #vibes, despite all the giggling “interviews” on heavy political shows like the “Call Her Daddy” podcast and Oprah, Kamala's message has rapidly reverted to the refrain we have become so familiar with over the last nine years, from Hillary to Biden, to Maddow and Scarborough: “He’s Hitler!” “He’s a threat to Democracy!” “He’ll be a dictator!” So much for joyous vibes. 

Without wanting to sound overly cynical and inured to the mendacity of the Democrats, such behavior is only to be expected from the likes of career politicians for whom lying comes as easily as breathing. 

Hillary doesn’t even blink as she still says today that the Russians “stole” the 2016 election from her, the “best candidate.” Joe Biden still maintains that he knew nothing about his son’s business dealings with shady characters from Ukraine, China, and elsewhere, despite the fact that we now have photographs of then-VP Biden hanging out with Hunter’s “business associates.” (Read more.)

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Rashida Tlaib is Putting Terrorists Before Americans

 From Right Flank:

Towards the end of September, Tlaib took to X, decrying the US government’s decision to send arms to Israel. Branding Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “war criminal,” the congresswoman said America has failed to advance peace due to aiding Israel’s self defense. 

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. Here’s the reality: Tlaib and others like her don’t want peace. They just want Israel to be completely wiped off the map.They want terrorist organizations like Hamas to win in the Middle East before forcing the rest of the world to abide by the tenets of Sharia Law. (Read more.)

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Marie Antoinette: the Last Queen of France

A relatively accurate summary of the Queen's life from History Extra:

At her first official public appearance, the Parisian people clamoured for a glimpse of the reportedly beautiful young princess. Unfortunately, popular favour was not won by beauty alone. Her fondness for fashion and lavish entertainments was already attracting attention, and she became entangled in court rivalries that not only endangered her own reputation but that of her home country. There were also whispers about her husband’s weakness – as a potential ruler and in the bedchamber.

Three years of marriage showed no sign of producing a much-needed heir. Conscious of her daughter’s delicate position, Maria Theresa bombarded her with advice about influencing people, and sought secret updates about her behaviour from the ambassador in Paris – he didn’t gush with enthusiasm.

On 10 May 1774, Louis XV died, making Marie Antoinette queen at just 18. Her future seemed secure, but the nation was squirming with unrest. Just weeks after her husband’s coronation in June 1775, parts of the country flared up into riots about the cost of bread. Years of heavy taxation and failed fiscal policies were leaving the people hungry. (Read more.)

My biography of the Queen is HERE.
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MSG isn't NAZI

 From Tierney's Real News:

People know in a country that has been taken over by a leadership class that actually despises them and their values and their history and their culture and their customs, really hates them to the point that it’s trying to replace them, they know someone who actually has affection for them, and that’s Donald Trump.

It’s requited. It’s real. When he goes to McDonald’s and serves fries, he’s like, he’s not faking that at all. That’s why that worked.

Democrat media consultants are like, How is that working? Because it’s real. That’s why.

The second reason that people love Trump, and I put myself in this category, it’s why I’m here today, is because he’s liberated us in the deepest and truest sense. The liberation he has brought to us is the liberation from the obligation to tell lies.

Donald Trump has made it possible for the rest of us to tell the truth about the world around us. That’s the single most liberating thing you can do for people. If you want to enslave people, if you want to degrade them, force them to tell lies. They have.

They forced us to lie about everything at gunpoint, effectively. They put people in prison for refusing to lie. Not just the obvious lies like that men can become women or Vladimir Putin blew up the Nord Stream Pipeline or January 6th was an insurrection. They were unarmed, but it was very insurrection-y. Not even the obvious ones.

But the big lie. Do you know what the big lie is? The big lie is that they’re impressive. That’s what the big lie is. That the people in charge have somehow earned the right to rule over you, and they haven’t.

You know that. These are the single most useless people in the United States. They have no skills whatsoever. They’ve got three quarters of the money, and they didn’t earn it.

They set up a system precisely for the purpose of awarding themselves wealth and power when it’s undeserved. You look at Liz Cheney and you ask yourself, honestly, what skill could she possibly have that allowed her to send hundreds of thousands of people to their deaths? Did she earn that? I don’t think she did.

No fair system would make Liz Cheney rich. No fair system would make Larry Fink rich. No fair system would elevate someone like Kamala Harris to a presidential nomination. She’s never been accused of doing anything useful. She has precisely no achievements.

She’s a nominee without getting a single vote. She is a metaphor for the system they created to make themselves rich and powerful.

Then they have the gall to lecture you, the people who can actually change a flat tire and repair a power grid, who have useful jobs, who pay your taxes and work 40 hours a week, lecture you that you are somehow immoral.

Donald Trump has empowered the rest of us through mostly just sticking around in the face of their hate and abuse and persecution, he has given the rest of us the right to call BS on the charade.

“No, you are not better than us. No, you are not smarter than us. No, you do not deserve what you have. You probably stole it. No, you’re not going to bully me into silence anymore.” (Read more.)

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Rand Paul is Telling the Truth About the Iran War

 From The Rand Paul Review:

Missile strikes on Iranian oil drilling sites and reserves are unconstitutional.  The response comes amidst Israel’s offensive against Hezbollah’s headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon.  Iran launched ballistic missiles against Israel after its aggression in Lebanon. 

The unfortunate truth of the military action in Lebanon is that it displaced more than a million innocent Lebanese people.  President Biden went on the record stating alternatives to bombing Iranian oil sites should be considered.  However, it appears that the United States’ aid to Israel is financing attacks on Iran’s oil fields.

"No administration has done more to help Israel than I have." – President Biden

The problem with the Biden administration’s continued financing of Israel’s war against radical Muslims is that it is costing you, the taxpayer.  Moreover, our tax dollars are being used for war, albeit by proxy. 

As Paul points out, Congress never voted to go to war.  Therefore, the use of American taxpayer dollars for war in the Middle East is unconstitutional. (Read more.)

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Rogan Interviews Trump

 

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Transhumanism, Mothers, and Replacism of the Body

 From Mary Harrington:

One of my core arguments in Feminism Against Progress, is that the story of the industrial age is one of enclosure. This is a dynamic that, at every step, “liberates” a store of captive value by dissolving what was previously ordered relationally, in a process the political economist Karl Polanyi calls “disembedding”. Once stripped of social governance, the now “liberated” land, resources, creatures, or people are subjected ever more nakedly to the pressures of the market, which delivers economic gains but at considerable, albeit frequently obscured, social cost.

Ivan Illich’s 1980 work Gender explored specifically the “disembedding” of men and women, via the destruction of socially-governed distinctions between the sexes. This process, in his view, is the key enabling condition for modernity, in that it allows homo economicus to emerge as our era’s aspirational ideal. (Read more.)

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A Mammal That Lived Alongside Dinosaurs

 From Phys.org:

The researchers, led by the University of Colorado Boulder's Jaelyn Eberle, published their findings Oct. 23 in the journal PLOS ONE. Eberle and her colleagues named their discovery, which they identified from a piece of jawbone and three molar teeth, Heleocola piceanus. The animal lived in Colorado roughly 70 to 75 million years ago—a time when a vast inland sea covered large portions of the American West. (Fittingly, "Heleocola" roughly translates to "swamp dweller" in Latin).

"Colorado is a great place to find fossils, but mammals from this time period tend to be pretty rare," said Eberle, curator of fossil vertebrates at the CU Museum of Natural History and professor in the Department of Geological Sciences. "So it's really neat to see this slice of time preserved in Colorado."

Compared to much larger dinosaurs living at the time like tyrannosaurs or the horned ancestors of Triceratops, the new fossil addition to Colorado might seem tiny and insignificant. But it was surprisingly large for mammals at the time, Eberle said. She's also glad to see Rangely, which sits in the northwest corner of the state not far from Dinosaur National Monument, get its due. (Read more.)

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Childhood of Maria Theresa

From Geri Walton:

Maria Theresa was Marie Antoinette’s mother, but before she became a mother, she was a child herself. She was born to Emperor Charles VI and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on 13 May 1717 at the Hofburg Palace. Her older brother, Leopold John, had been born on 13 April 1716, but he died when he was seven months. Thus, there was great rejoicing in the kingdom when a healthy baby girl was born. (She was also the oldest of three girls, her younger sisters were the Archduchess Maria Anna and the Archduchess Maria Amalia, who lived to be only six years old.)

Because of the loss of Leopold John and the difficulty of having children, Charles VI took steps to provide for a male-line succession failure with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a document which abolished male-only succession. The sanction allowed Maria Theresa or any of Charles VI’s other daughters to succeed over the children of his elder brother and predecessor, Joseph I. Moreover, Charles VI “felt the importance of securing his beloved daughter’s undisputed title to the throne,”[1] even though he remained disappointed Maria Theresa was not a boy and knew the male line would die with him. Maria Theresa also recognized her political importance, and it was said from an early age she “seemed one of nature’s queens, born to reign and subdue.”[2] (Read more.)

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The "Most Profound Failure"

 

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Halloween and Catholicism

May 13, which is the feast of Our Lady, Queen of All Martyrs, was the original All Saints Day. So the origins of All Saints and Halloween had nothing to do with Samhain, as some people seem to think. Later, the Pope changed All Saints from May to November because after the harvest there was more food in Rome to feed the pilgrims. And for other reasons, as told in the article. From uCatholic:

The practice of a festival day to honor the whole communion of Saints, rather than that just a single saint, seems to happen for the first time in the Catholic Church with the consecration of the Pantheon as a public place for the Church’s worship. This happened in the year 609 (or 610) on May 13th. The Pantheon had been originally dedicated for the use of Roman religion as a place where all the gods would be honored. Boniface displaced the images of the gods from their shrines and gave the building over to the Saints of the Church, particularly the Martyrs. This was a kind of “in your face” to pagan culture. Boniface was saying that the old gods had been defeated and were defeated by the faith of the Church’s Martyrs. 

Also, May 13th was a day associated in Roman religion with what was called the festival of the Lemurs or ancestral spirits. It is likely that Boniface’s choice of this day to claim the Pantheon for Christian worship was intentional and it was a way of saying that the Martyrs are the great ancestors of all the baptized and it is their memory and witness that is rightly honored on the day that Romans recalled their ancestors. 

How we get from May 13th to November 1st is interesting. The festival of All Saints seems to emerge from the dedication of another Roman church that was consecrated by Pope Gregory III. The church is named St. Peter and all the Saints. It was a subsequent pope, Gregory IV, who extended the annual festival that commemorates this church dedication to the whole Church as All Saints Day. The extension of festivals specific to the Church of Rome is an part and parcel of how the Catholic Faith becomes the underlying cultural matrix from which a new kind of European civilization would emerge. (Read more.)

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The Family of Francis I and Maria Theresa

The Emperor and Empress are shown with eleven of their sixteen children.

Archduchesses Josepha, Antonia, and Carolina

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Trump Discusses Economic Plans

 

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The True Origins of Halloween

From The Crossroads Initiative:

We’ve all heard the allegations. Halloween is a pagan rite dating back to some pre-Christian festival among the Celtic Druids that escaped Church suppression. Even today modern pagans and witches continue to celebrate this ancient festival. If you let your kids go trick-or-treating, they will be worshiping the devil and pagan gods.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The origins of Halloween are, in fact, very Christian and rather American. Halloween falls on October 31 because of a pope, and its observances are the result of medieval Catholic piety.

It’s true that the ancient Celts of Ireland and Britain celebrated a minor festival on Oct. 31 — as they did on the last day of most other months of the year. However, Halloween falls on the last day of October because the Feast of All Saints or “All Hallows” falls on Nov. 1. The feast in honor of all the saints in heaven used to be celebrated on May 13, but Pope Gregory III (d. 741) moved it to Nov. 1, the dedication day of All Saints Chapel in St. Peter’s at Rome. Later, in the 840s, Pope Gregory IV commanded that All Saints be observed everywhere. And so the holy day spread to Ireland. The day before was the feast’s evening vigil, “All Hallows Even” or “Hallowe’en.” In those days, Halloween didn’t have any special significance for Christians or for long-dead Celtic pagans. (Read more.)

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Shades of Victorian Fashion: Orange, Pumpkin, and Peach

 From Mimi Matthews:

Unlike popular autumnal shades, such as golds, browns, and burnished reds, the Victorians generally regarded the color orange with disfavor. Fashion magazines of the day advised against wearing orange dresses, calling the color ugly and claiming that it was unflattering to every complexion. Even worse, as fashion historian C. Willett Cunnington reports, some believed that the color orange implied “a degree of animal passion which the pure ought not to possess.” I had not intended to give orange an article of its own, but it’s Halloween today and I can think of no better occasion to showcase a selection of this much maligned—but nonetheless striking—shade of Victorian fashion. (Read more.)

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Vice President Kamala Harris Grilled on Pivotal Issues

 I hate to see anyone as out of their depth as Kamala is; the puppet masters are cruel and merciless even to their own. Brett was a perfect gentleman.

 

 

From Bo Snerdley:

Fox News anchor Bret Baier pulled back the curtain on his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris, revealing how every effort was made to keep her appearance as short as possible.

The host of “Special Report” discussed the disastrous interview later with his colleagues, exposing the Harris team’s efforts to keep the sit-down short and how the contentious segment was cut off early.

“We were supposed to start at 5 P.M. and we — this was the time they gave us,” he said during the post-interview analysis.

“Originally we were going to do 25 or 30 minutes. They came in and said maybe 20. So it was already getting whittled down,” Baier continued. “And then the vice president showed up about 5:15. We were pushing the envelope to be able to turn it around” in time for the scheduled airing.” (Read more.)

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Festivals of Autumn

 From Charles Coulombe at The European Conservative:

September and October in Europe are filled with innumerable harvest festivals and blessings of the fields; Michaelmas is a great holiday in many places—and even in England greeted with daisies and roast goose. If Halloween is an American import outside of the British Isles’ Celtic Fringe (wherein you’ll still find some very interesting observances), throughout Catholic and even much of Lutheran Europe the cemeteries are the places to be on All Saints Night and All Souls Day, with their innumerable beautiful candles. Catholic or Protestant, hounds shall be blessed and horns sound in churches across the Continent in honour of St. Hubert’s Day. November 11, with its sombre memories of the Great War, is festooned with red poppies, blue cornflowers, and forget-me-nots in Britain, France, and Germany. But it is also Martinmas, welcomed with goose and red wine—and in Central Europe, singing children illumine the night with paper lanterns and songs in honour of St. Martin. Every Scot keeps St. Andrew’s Day, while St. Nicholas in turn is welcomed on his feast day with his creepy companion (be he called Knecht Ruprecht, Zwart Piet, or Krampus) for the children’s rewards or punishments. The buildup to Christmas unleashes a cavalcade of local customs, but the candle-crowned girls on St. Lucy’s Day in Sweden with their morning coffee and cakes are among the most charming. The observances of Christmas Eve and Day vary not only from country to country but province to province and even town to town, with the gifts brought by figures ranging from Father Christmas to the Christ Child Himself. But the next too is kept well, whether one hunt the wren in Ireland or bless the horses in Hungary. New Year’s Eve and Day are also great times for celebration, with everything from telling fortunes with molten lead to giving more gifts to first-footing. But the Epiphany is a much bigger feast in Europe than America, with children again going singing from door to door in German-speaking lands, and the Three Kings and Befana bringing gifts in Spain and Italy. So it goes on, until the revelry of Candlemas and Carnevale.

Even so, it is not just Autumn and Winter that are heavy with such feasts; every season has them, from Ireland and Portugal to the Ural Mountains—indeed, they are celebrated with redoubled vigour in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of Communism. Most, of course, are based like the ones we have looked at on the liturgical year, be it Latin or Byzantine, Gregorian or Julian. Nor is it only on the calendar that Christianity has left its mark in Europe. Every palace and castle has its chapel; every city and town has its cathedral or civic church. The abbeys—ruined or occupied—still mark the landscape, as do innumerable wayside shrines and holy wells. So too has the Faith marked the arts and literature of Europe, no matter how much artists and writers attempt to escape it. In a word, the identity of Europe is complete, utterly, and inescapably bound up with Christianity.

But herein lies a problem. It is certainly true that – as with American Christmas, Easter, and Halloween—it is possible to celebrate the many feasts of the European year without any faith, even as it is possible for American Supreme Court Justices to attend the annual Red Mass of the Holy Ghost in Washington, D.C., or innumerable British municipal bodies to have civic services or kirkins of the council offered on their behalf. It can all be, as American jurists have it—“civic Deism”—pretty rituals emptied of all religious or other meaning through endless repetition. Christmas can indeed be just about gifts, Easter about bunnies, and Martinmas about geese. Even in this meaningless practise, there is the feel-good rush of nostalgia, of revived feelings of good-will. Surely that is enough? (Read more.)

 

Also from Charles Coulombe:

In all of my travels, it struck me that just as—in a real sense—the descendants of the Recusants and the members of the Ordinariate in Britain are truly the most English of the English, the most Welsh of the Welsh, and the most Scot of the Scots because they are the direct inheritors of what founded their countries and made them great, my new friends are truly the most Danish of the Danes. Despite the national superstitions that conflate national identities with their Protestant State Churches, the same is true of all Northern Europe. Despite the centuries of apostasy, the old churches and castles and manor house, the woods and fields—all of the landscape—cry out that these were Catholic countries. It is wonderful to see, in Denmark at least, that more and more are heeding the call.

It is not merely a question of safeguarding a glorious past, however, anymore than it is among the surviving devout in post-Catholic countries, from Ireland to Italy to Austria. It is about building a truly Catholic and so humane future. My young friends plan to make this event a recurring one—and to invite similar groups from around Scandinavia: Swedes, Norwegians, perhaps even Finns and Icelanders. All of us Catholics around the world must support these developments, with our prayers if nothing else.

Indeed, it is interesting to note that this movement is organic; it is not an initiative of the hierarchy, but rather a spontaneous outburst, a natural result of goodwill seeking Infallible Truth—and finding it in Catholic Tradition. Just as the initiative for the Ordinariates came from the Anglican side, so too here. But this renewed search for reality is not confined to the lands of the Reformation: my last two (adult) godsons have been respectively a Brahmin Hindu from Calcutta and a Jew from Israel—both of whom found the Faith on their own. In the latter’s convert class here in Austria, over half of the thirty or so others were Iranians or Afghans.

Eras which see mass fallings away from the Faith often see compensations elsewhere. The loss of the Near East to Islam preceded wholesale national conversions in Northern and Eastern Europe; even as millions followed Luther, Calvin, and Henry VIII out of the Church, millions more followed Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Francis Xavier in. It may well be that a period which has witnessed majorities fall away from the practice of the Faith in what were the Catholic heartlands in Ireland, Southwestern Europe, and Latin America may precede one that shall see them made up or excelled in lands traditionally hostile toward the Church. Nothing could be more fitting than a return to Catholicity of those Scandinavian lands who first brought the Faith to North America. But regardless of the macrocosm, every soul is infinitely precious to God—sufficiently so for Him to die for each of them. Any individual on his way to the Truth should be nurtured every way we know how—for our own soul’s sake as well as his. (Read more.)

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Banshees

"The Banshee Appears"

The Irish people have a colorful folklore, rich with stories of creatures from the Otherworld. In spite of the obviously pagan origins, many legends have endured to modern times. One legend is that of the banshee (bean-sidhe), a spirit which is supposed to haunt certain Irish families when a member is about to die. According to Ireland's Eye:

The bean-sidhe (woman of the fairy) may be an ancestral spirit appointed to forewarn members of certain ancient Irish families of their time of death. According to tradition, the banshee can only cry for five major Irish families: the O'Neills, the O'Briens, the O'Connors, the O'Gradys and the Kavanaughs. Intermarriage has since extended this select list.

Here is a more detailed description from Irish Culture and Customs:

The Bean Sidhe or Banshee makes her appearance when someone in the household is about to die. She haunts only the families of the "high Milesian race" - those whose names have an "O", "Mac" or other prefix. One exception to this rule has been granted by virtue of the Irish poets who have given her to some of the Norman-Irish families - the FitzGerald's for example. In any event, she heralds the demise of only those who are of authentic noble stock and it is with great dread when her piercing "caoine" or keening is heard. In many respects, this mysterious creature resembles traditional Irish keeners or mourners of old; as with her mortal counterparts, those who have seen her describe her as drawing a comb through her hair, similar to tearing the hair out in anguish, which the ancient mourners used to do. Incidentally, or maybe not, while the Banshee is considered benign, she supposedly has a sister force who isn't; this force is called the Lianhan Sidhe and her sole purpose is to seek the love of mortal men. Their desire for her ultimately destroys them.

The banshee, according to legend, is usually heard at night, but sometimes in the morning, and at noon. An old Irish poem refers to the appearance of the Banshee in the morning:

Hast thou heard the Banshee at morn,
Passing by the silent lake,
Or walking the fields by the orchard?
Alas! that I do not rather behold
White garlands in the hall of my fathers.

There were a few banshee stories among some of my older relatives. (I suppose being descended from the Kavanaughs and the O'Neills as well as the O'Connors made them especially worthy of hauntings!) Irish lore is full of tales of the preternatural; the banshee is definitely one of the most interesting.

My Irish novel is HERE.
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Pelosi: ‘I Hope I Don’t Burn in Hell.’

 We hope you don't either, Nancy,  but you will for the way you have promoted and protected abortion, unless you repent. From The National Pulse:

Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has said she hopes she does not “burn in Hell” on the Politics Weekly America podcast. The Speaker Emerita, 84, claimed on the show that she avoids using former President Donald J. Trump’s name in favor of euphemisms like “what’s his name,” likening it to a profanity that could leave her soul in a state of sin.

Pelosi, who is seeking reelection in November, told the Guardian-run podcast that Trump is “a grotesque word,” explaining, “I’m afraid, you know, when I grew up Catholic, as I am now, if you said a bad word, you could burn in hell if you didn’t have a chance to confess. So I don’t want to take any chances. It’s up there with, like, swearing.”

When she did utter Trump’s name later in the podcast, she soon exclaimed, “I said his name, oh my gosh, I hope I don’t burn in Hell.”

However, despite her claims to be a staunch and lifelong Catholic, Pelosi has already been banned from receiving Holy Communion by Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco over her strong support for aborting children, in open defiance of Church teaching.

“As you have not publically repudiated your position on abortion, and continue to refer to your Catholic faith in justifying your position… you are not to be admitted to Holy Communion, until such time as you publicly repudiate your advocacy for the legitimacy of abortion and confess and receive absolution of this grave sin in the sacrament of Penance,” he ordered in May 2022. (Read more.)

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Legend of Jason and the Argonauts

 From The Greek Reporter:

King Pelias wanted Jason dead, so he sent him on a quest that he expected would be impossible. The quest was to obtain the Golden Fleece. This was a magical ram’s fleece that was held at Colchis. Colchis was a kingdom on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, far from Greece. This lengthy journey took Jason and the Argonauts past numerous dangerous places and situations. At the end of the journey, in the land of Colchis, Jason and his men find that there is a dragon guarding the Golden Fleece, with the fleece itself in a sacred grove. (Read more.)

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Madame Elisabeth in Peasant Clothes

From Tiny-Librarian via East of the Sun and West of the Moon:

The features of this last-named Princess were not regular, but her face expressed gentle affability, and the freshness of her complexion was remarkable; altogether, she had the charm of a pretty shepherdess. She was an angel of goodness. Many a time have I been a witness to her deeds of charity on behalf of the poor. All the virtues were in her heart: she was indulgent, modest, compassionate, devoted. In the Revolution she displayed heroic courage; she was seen going forward to meet the cannibals who had come to murder the Queen, saying, “They will mistake me for her!”

Memoirs of Madame Vigée Lebrun (Read more.)

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Trump TORCHES Liberal Interviewer

 

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What Richard III Sounded Like

 From Murrey and Blue:

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a new theory concerning Richard III’s voice, see here https://murreyandblue.org/2024/09/28/another-theory-about-richard-iiis-voice/). Well, we may still have to wait until 17 November at the York Theatre Royal (https://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/show/a-voice-for-king-richard-iii/) to hear and see the avatar of Richard III as he is now believed to have sounded, but there is a little taster from Down Under, as you can hear at this link: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/saturdayextra/recreating-the-voice-of-richard-iii/104436374

It’s from a Saturday Extra interview by Fran Kelly on ABC Radio National, Australia. She’s speaking to Yvonne Morley-Chisholm (https://yourvoicebox.co.uk/) vocal coach and founder of A Voice for Richard (the event to be heard at York Theatre Royal in November).

We’re told that in order to produce (apparently with 95% accuracy) what Richard would have sounded like, and to make it even more accurate they used a letter that Richard wrote in 1483 concerning the investiture of his son as Prince of Wales Then they had to find a man who looked like the Facial Reconstruction for Richard III, because every little detail comes together to make a whole, and they found him in one Thomas Dennis, who had played Richard at events at Warwick Castle. See my earlier link above. He will be heard in York Theatre Royal on 17 November 2024, when an avatar of Richard’s Facial Reconstruction will move in harmony with his voice, for an even more realistic effect. (Read more.)

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The Life of James Cumberlidge

 The reality of 18th and 19th-century race relations was far from the fantasy of Bridgerton. From ArtNet:

The 1739 family portrait was recently included in “Picturing Childhood,” an exhibition at the historic Chatsworth House in England. It depicts the prominent British architect Lord Burlington with his wife Dorothy, the countess, and their two daughters, Dorothy and Charlotte. Their names are written on a piece of paper on the floor in the painting.

Absent from this list is the identity of the third child in the painting, who stands to the far-right behind the countess’s chair. The boy carries a bundle of paintbrushes to pass her, having already provided the palette she holds in her left hand, marking her out as a keen amateur painter.

In 2004, the boy was wrongly identified by historian Richard Hewlings as James Cambridge because his name had been mistranscribed in a tailor’s bill from 1739 detailing clothes ordered by Countess of Burlington for her liveried servants, including James Cambridge “the black.” (Read more.)

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Kamala Harris, PLAGIARIST?!

 

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Why Are Extremist Progressives ANGRY All The Time?

 From The Easton Gazette:

A couple of weeks ago our local Moms for Liberty chapter hosted a candidate's forum for local school candidates. We invited ALL the candidates to participate. In Maryland, school board candidates are designated as "non-partisan" even though most of them personally ascribe to one of the major parties.

It's not different in Talbot County where two incumbents are running against challengers and there is one open seat being contested between two first time candidates. We invited all of them, even the incumbents, starting in June so they could put the date of the forum on their calendar. Four candidates accepted the invitation, the two incumbents didn't RSVP, even though they were repeatedly asked.

The format was simple, all candidates were given the same questions ahead of time and were given the same amount of time to answer those questions in a round robin fashion. There was a moderator who asked the questions. There were no "gotcha" questions.

As we got set up and the crowd started to come in the door, we posted a sign in sheet so they could see who was in attendance. Attendees were greeted with a friendly "Welcome and good evening." Most of them responded in the same way.

But, there were those who were angry from the moment they set foot in the hall until they left.

Many couldn't even respond to the greeting. Others angrily grumbled something under their breath that sounded more like a bear coming out of a long hibernation than a human response.

And they scowled. The entire time. Even when one of the candidates, who probably was on their side, gave her answers. It was as though someone had urinated on their granola bars that day or had used the wrong pronouns. (Actually, no one asked for their pronouns nor did anyone urinate on their granola bars.)

But it didn't matter.

You see they hate us and conservative groups like Moms for Liberty. Why, you ask? (Read more.)

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Snow White and Rose Red

A short time afterwards the mother sent her children into the forest to get firewood. There they found a big tree which lay felled on the ground, and close by the trunk something was jumping backwards and forwards in the grass, but they could not make out what it was. When they came nearer they saw a dwarf with an old withered face and a snow-white beard a yard long. The end of the beard was caught in a crevice of the tree, and the little fellow was jumping about like a dog tied to a rope, and did not know what to do. ~from "Snow White and Rose Red" by the Brothers Grimm

One of my favorite fairy tales as a child was "Snow White and Rose Red," one of the many stories collected by William and Jacob Grimm from the peasants of Germany in the early nineteenth century. According to SurLaLune:

Snow White and Rose Red is of German origin with no known oral antecedents. The Grimms included the mostly original story in their collection and consequently popularized it. According to Stith Thompson, Wilhelm adapted the tale from a story, titled "The Ungrateful Dwarf,"by Caroline Stahl published in her own collection of German stories in 1818.

The elements of the story beyond the broad theme of the Animal Bridegroom is uniquely German. Aarne and Thompson have classifed the tale as type 426: The Two Girls, The Bear, and The Dwarf. In this tale, as well as Grimm's The Lion and the Frog, the Animal Bridegroom is a kind and gentle beast whom the heroines do not find threatening. The girls are not required to "tame" the bear; they must deal with the wicked dwarf instead.

The tale has not appeared outside of a small geographic region in central Europe. Thompson considers the tale to be part of the animal bridegroom themes, including Beauty and the Beast, that are all related to the Cupid and Psyche myth (Thompson 1945).

Another tale that is related to the myth of Cupid and Psyche is "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" which will be the topic of a future post. There are many elements of "Snow White and Rose Red" which always charmed me, such as the roses, the angel, and living in solitude in a cottage in the woods. As explained by SurLaLune, the rose trees symbolize beauty and perfection, the angel's appearance indicates that the girls are pure of heart. It is one of the few tales in which the birth mother is alive but the father has died; widowhood sets the stage for poverty, but in spite of their dire straits, the family is happy and harmonious. The girls' fidelity and kindness are rewarded at the end, and the bear to whom they showed compassion ends up being a prince in disguise.

"Snow White and Rose Red" has a contemporary interpretation in Regina Doman's novel Shadow of the Bear. I cannot recommend highly enough Regina's books based upon the classic fairy tales as being especially wonderful for teenagers and young adults, although there are plenty of mature adults who enjoy them as well. It is fascinating how the tales which meant so much to our ancestors can still resonate so deeply with us today, especially when in the hands of a master story-teller.

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Racial Reparations

 From The Daily Wire:

Vice President Kamala Harris signaled during an interview on Tuesday that she was open to spending taxpayer money on racial reparations, which studies show would cost trillions of dollars.

“It has to be studied. There’s no question about that,” Harris said when asked about reparations, which numerous estimates pin well into the trillions of dollars. “And I’ve been very clear about that position.”

Harris made the remarks during a radio interview with Charlamagne tha God where she fielded questions about her agenda.

She quickly pivoted to the rest of her economic agenda, uttering her common refrain that she “grew up in the middle class.”

Harris said during her failed presidential campaign in 2019 that she supported “some form” of reparations, and voted in support of reparations legislation in Congress. She has not taken a position on the issue since joining the presidential ticket with Joe Biden in 2020.

Harris’ remarks come as recent polling, including from CNN this week, has found that Trump is in position to have more support from the black community, including from black women, than any Republican since 1960. (Read more.)

 

More HERE.

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Your Black Plastic Cooking Utensils

 From Eating Well:

Like anything else, there are many kinds of fire retardants. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) are one of the more concerning types. This is because they are considered toxic and are known to accumulate in the body’s tissues. BFRs have been linked to cancer, hormone disruptions, and nerve, reproductive and developmental toxicity.1 BFRs are often found in electrical and electronic devices’ plastic housing cases and printed circuit boards.

There are also different types of BFRs, two of which have been banned in the U.S. and European Union since 2007 and 2006, respectively.1 These include decabromodiphenyl ether (deca-BDE) and tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA). A host of other flame retardants replaced the two banned BFRs and are currently considered safer, including a type of flame retardant called organophosphate flame retardants (OPFRs). While OPFRs are considered safer than BFRs, there is some question regarding the aquatic toxicity of OPFRs—meaning, how they affect organisms, like fish, that live in water.  (Read more.)

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Death of Marie-Thérèse de France

The daughter of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette died just three days after the anniversary of her mother's execution. Here is a quote from her Will: 

Following the example of my parents, I forgive, with all my soul, and without exceptions, all those who may have harmed or offended me; sincerely asking God to extend to them His mercy, as well as to me, and supplicating Him to accord me pardon for my faults.

I thank all the FRENCHMEN who have remained attached to my family and to me for the proofs of devotion that they have given us, for the sufferings and pains they suffered because of us.

I pray God to pour out His blessings on France, which I have always loved, even in the midst of my bitterest afflictions.

Having always considered my nephew HENRI and my niece LOUISE as my children, I give them my maternal blessing. They have had the happiness to have been raised in our holy religion, may they always remain faithful to it, may they always be worthy descendants of SAINT LOUIS! May my nephew consecrate his happy faculties to the accomplishment of the great duties which his position imposes upon him! May he never depart from the ways of moderation, justice and truth!

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