Evacuation Day

I am sure that people assume that I would be writing about St. Patrick's Day today, well only kind of.  March 17th is not only St. Patrick's Day but also Evacuation Day in Boston, Massachusetts.  This is the day the history records General George Washington's first victory during the American Revolution. 

In 1776 the British held Boston but were surrounded by the Continental Army commanded by Gen. Washington.  A few days before the 17th of March cannons captured from Fort Ticonderoga were brought in and placed overlooking the city.  With the cannons at a vantage point the British realized they had no way of winning a battle and after an agreement between Gen. Washington and Gen. Howe (commanded of the British forces) the British solders were given safe passage out of the city in return they did not burn the city down.  According to one source, the fact this happened on St. Patrick's Day was not lost on Gen. Washington and was even used in the password allowing for passage across the lines.

For many years there was a movement to make this a governmentally recognized holiday in the Boston area but did not succeed till 1901.  Then it became an official holiday for Suffolk County, but even though it is only an official holiday for that county, state employees get the day off and schools are closed.  I kind of wonder if they know that this is for Evacuation Day or think it is for St. Patrick's day.

I find it quite ironic that not only two important things happen on the same day but that such an important event should take place in an area that is so heavily populated by an Irish population.  I also find it very interesting that a day celebrating the fact that a city was given up by the British happens to fall on the same day as the Patron Saint of Ireland, which has had a number of run-ins with the British over the years. 

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evacuation_Day_%28Massachusetts%29



General

 http://www-tech.mit.edu/V118/N14/ring.14c.html

http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=83

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/03/09/fixing_evacuation_day_oversight/

http://bostonist.com/2006/03/16/whats_up_with_evacuation_day_anyway.php

http://boston.about.com/b/2007/03/06/evacuation-day.htm

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/When_did_Boston_proclaim_March_17_Evacuation_Day

Bacchanalia

In ancient Rome there were many celebrations to honor the different gods of their pantheon.  One in particular has seemed to capture the imagination of contemporary people more then the rest Bacchanalia.  Traditionally a three day event it starts on March 16th and people do continue to celebrate to this day but more as a resurgence of the ideas then to venerate one of the Roman gods, Bacchus.

Originally this celebration was attained by only women though later men were allowed to go as well.  Bacchus was the god of wine and inspired madness.  As such this proved to be a very popular celebration and has been seen in today's time as a reason for great excesses in many things, drink, food, revelry and of course the most famous orgies.  From what I know of today's religions all of these are contrary to their belief system and help to demonstrate, in their view, the sinfulness of the Roman society.  Even in the time of Rome the gatherings were seen as a threat and were forbidden by the Senate.  It is believed that many illegal acts where committed during them; murder plots were conceived and even treason.  Some also believe the reason for the outlawing were do to the fact that women held powerful positions within the group, as well as slaves and poor held station, against the normal functioning of the society.

The beliefs in the level of revelry that occurred during the Bacchanalia has caused the name to be used in many different settings today.  It is used to convey the idea that a group has indulged to such excess that the indulging was all that mattered.  In addition it is used by restaurants to convey the level of excellence that they believe they have achieved.

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchanalia



General

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/dionysusmyth/g/Bacchanalia.htm

Hōnen Matsuri

Japan celebrates a harvest festival on March 15 called Hōnen Matsuri.  This is also a fertility festival and as such has a number of symbols that represent or depicts male/female anatomy. 

As I am still just beginning this blog I don't know how detailed I want to go into yet as this seems a bit adult for some people so will just put the links to sites I found that describe the festival.

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dnen_Matsuri



General

http://eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=973

White Day

One month after St. Valentine's Day the Japanese celebrate White Day. In most of the cultures that I know of Valentine's Day men and women exchange presents with one another, this is not the case with Japan. There the women give presents to the men in their lives, both romantic as well as none romantic such as co-workers and managers. To counter this White Day was created.

Now there were two stories that I found regarding the origin, one was from 1965 the other in the 80's. Both involved a confectioner who saw an opportunity to sell more candy because the men were just receiving gifts. By playing off the duty of the Japanese he thought he would be able to guilt them into giving gifts to the women who give them something. This seems to have worked out well as there is a saying the roughly translates to "return thrice fold" so that the return present is three times more expensive.

I found that all the stories of the beginnings had that the first person to come up with this was a marshmallow confectioner, therefore he advocated the giving of marshmallows. Eventually this has fallen out of favor and been replaced by white chocolate as well as other candies and cookies.
There is also conflicting indications that different return presents mean different things, such as one says if the person only likes the other as a friend then you should give cookies but another said this would mean you love them. With this in mind if you are going to give White Day presents, be careful and read the links I supplied closely, you may want to even send the person a copy of the link that you used as your guide.
Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Day
General links:

http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/explore/calendar/march/whiteday.html

http://whatjapanthinks.com/2006/02/01/white-day-in-japan/

http://www.japan-guide.com/topic/0003.html

http://web.mit.edu/jpnet/holidays/Mar/whiteday.shtml

http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=993679

http://www.tanutech.com/japan/valentine.html

Feast Day for Saint Nicephorus

This will be one of those posts that show this is a new endeavor.  I hope that you will give me sometime and that the other entries will make up for this one in some small way.

March 13 is the feast day for Saint Nicephorus in the Greek Orthodox Church.  He was from Constantinople and he helped to codify some of the early writings of the church.  The best that I could do for this particular one is rewrite the Wikipedia entry which does not seem like a good idea to me but I will post the link if you would like to read more.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicephorus