Bill Petro

MAY DAY

May Day is many things to many people. Etymologically, it is a homophone for the international call for help. It is a corruption of the French imperative “M’aidez” meaning “Help me!” As a holiday it is claimed by many. It is known in the pagan world as Beltane, a fertility celebration, one of the four high holidays in the pagan calendar, Samhain on October 31 is another. Beltane is the day of fire commemorating Bel or Belenos, the Celtic sun god. Indeed, in the modern Irish language, Bealtaine is the name for the month of May. The early Anglo-Saxons began their celebration on the eve before, feasting the end of winter and the first planting. It was a time of revelry and abandon — note the song from the musical Camelot “It’s May, it’s May, the lusty month of May” — with the selection of a May Queen and the ribbons of the Maypole. But this day’s celebration of the revival of vegetation goes back to the Roman practice of visiting the grotto of Egena. The people of ancient Rome honored Flora, the goddess of flowers and springtime.

In 1886 it was co-opted as an international workers day to celebrate the 8-hour workday movement, following national strikes in the US and Canada. Later, the French declared May 1 the International Working Men’s Association holiday in 1889. Some countries consider May Day a bank holiday. This “Labor Day” is on one of the non-holy days in the calendar.

Occasionally, May 1st also marks the National Day of Prayer in the U.S. This day of non-sectarian prayer is observed on different days usually around the beginning of May, but goes back to 1775 when the first day of prayer was declared when the Continental Congress “designated a time for prayer in forming a new nation.” President Lincoln proclaimed a day of “humiliation, fasting, and prayer” in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national day of prayer. In 1988, the law was amended and signed by President Reagan, permanently setting the day as the first Thursday of every May.

A pagan festival, a labor day, or a day of prayer. May Day is many things to many people.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

EARTH DAY

April 22 is called Earth Day because it both commemorates and celebrates the observance of the anniversary of our discovery of planet Earth. At this time, by all accounts, there is general agreement that Earth is far superior to the place from which we came, as we shall see below.

Recently, however, there has been increased concern regarding our displacement of the original aboriginal inhabitants, as is often the case with more “enlightened” conquerors, as we like to think of ourselves.

The indigenous population, a kind of Eukaryota or more specifically Archaeplastida, is known in the vernacular as plants. You cannot have missed the increased coverage in the media on all things “green.” Of course, the Irish were the first to capitalize on this theme, but now everyone seems to have jumped on the bandwagon, with everything from green vehicles to green computing.

Even Google is gaining ground in going green, while garnering gajillions of Gmail guests giddy with great gobs of gleefully garnered gigabytes of storage.

Increased recognition of this under-represented earlier population of our planet, sometimes persecuted almost to the point of extinction — when was the last time you saw a chocolate bush — has brought greater attention to rampant plantocide: witness for example that in Kansas whole fields of wheat continue to be slaughtered.

Hence, this year there is special attention paid to underprivileged plants, with the motto:

“Take A Plant To Lunch…But Don’t Eat It.”

Instead, responsible Earth people might consider an alternative. One could chose instead animals, which already have the good sense to be made of meat. And they are higher in protein, like chocolate, one of the other four food groups.

So, in celebration, let’s respect our plant brethren. They’re often at least as intelligent as some people you know: have you ever noticed how a sunflower tracks the movement of the sun? Think about it. They’re also quiet and, while generally not good conversationalists, are better behaved than many human children.

Of course, this is with the exception of fungi, the so-called “trailer trash” of the plant kingdom, which have been disowned for phylogenic reasons, not to mention their being “photosynthetically challenged.” Some of these heterotrophs have, through remedial education, found a home in breweries and Italian cuisine.

Nevertheless, plants, as you’ll recall, are one of the reasons we came to Earth. Some of the other reasons include:

• Location: it’s right here. Look just below your feet.
• Memorable: it’s shaped like the new AT&T logo
• Spherical: which makes it convenient for those “round the world” trips and has a much more pleasing shape than where we came from. Did you ever wonder why we called the previous generation “squares”?
• Great restaurants: and great atmosphere, unlike, for example the Moon which has great restaurants but no atmosphere.
• Oxygen-Nitrogen atmosphere: so crucial for those of us who breathe, and better than methane in so many ways.
• Gravity: which is set at a convenient one “g” is quite handy for keeping everything in its place.
• Neighbors: generally far enough away that they don’t bother us much, and those who do are generally more intelligent than average, needing to understand things like calculus, tachyons, and three-phase cyclotronic nuclear-fissionable uranium isotope molecular reconstructors for trans-dimensional physics.

I don’t know about you, but I’m planning on spending the rest of my life right here on Earth.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood Earthling
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF THE MARATHON

Today in Boston, Massachusetts is the running of the Boston Marathon the oldest and longest running (no pun intended) annual marathon event, at least in the Western World. It began in 1897, the year following the reintroduction of the marathon competition in the first modern Olympics in 1896. This large event typically features roughly 20,000 participants and is one of more than 800 marathons held each year worldwide. It is held annually on Patriots’ Day which used to be fixed on April 19, but is now the third Monday in April.

The race begins in Hopkinton, Massachusetts where buses drop off the runners in front of the world headquarters of EMC Corporation, and the traffic nearby gets fierce. The course winds east toward Boston, about a “marathon’s distance” away or 26.22 miles where it ends at Copley Square. Historically, the Boston Red Sox baseball team holds a game at Fenway Park to coincide with the race finishing the last mile in front of Kenmore Square.

Originally the word Marathon comes from the legendary run of Pheidippides, a Greek soldier who ran from Marathon to Athens in ancient Greece. The story goes that he ran all the way without stopping until he arrived at the Senate where he proclaimed “We have won” against the Persians and then fell from heart attack and died. The 1st century historian Plutarch first records in writing this story quoting a lost work. In the late 19th century Robert Browning immortalized the runner in his poem “Pheidippides” cementing the story into popular historic legend.

Traditionally the word “Marathon” has become synonymous with a long endurance race in contrast to a shorter sprint race. The Marathon was a popular feature in the ancient Olympics and even the Apostle Paul seems to have been aware of it — King Herod the Great sponsored the Olympic games of 12 B.C. — and Paul was perhaps alluding to the Olympics when he wrote to the church in Corinth:

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly.
1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

PASSOVER

This year, the evening at sunset April 19 marks the beginning of Passover. Exodus 12 in the Bible tells the story of Passover from the life of Moses. Ten plagues were visited upon the Egyptian pharaoh (starring Yul Brenner, but he was much better in “The King and I”) to get his attention to release the “children of Israel” from bondage. The final plague was the death of the first-born son. The Jews were to smear the blood of a lamb upon their door posts, so that the angel of death would “Passover” them unharmed. Pharaoh relented and released the Israelites.

In making their hasty exit, the Jews did not have time to let their bread rise, so in commemoration, they celebrate the Passover Seder (”order”) meal with unleavened bread (motzo), bitter herbs, and roast lamb to be eaten in traveling garb. This Feast of Unleavened Bread is a major holiday in the Jewish when Jews from all over the world return to Jerusalem. During Passion Week, which was at Passover, the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time would have tripled from its population of about 50,000.

Could “The Last Supper” (made famous by Leonardo da Vinci’s painting now in Milan) that Jesus had with his disciples in the Upper Room have been a Passover meal? It seems likely. It was at about the right time in the calendar. Some churches commemorate this meal by using unleavened bread for their Communion Eucharist.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

HISTORY OF MY HOLIDAYS

I’ve been writing for over 20 years about the “History of the Holidays.” I’ve been asked by many of my readers to write about the history of my holidays, on another one of my blogs. For business I have done a lot of world travel and enjoy learning about the local history, culture, art, and language.

I recently had a long holiday in Italy and captured many impressions both in words and in pictures. I’ll be writing about these on my new blog Ignorance Abroad and featuring photos. I’ll explain how to subscribe separately to these articles below.

What will I be writing about?

I’ll cover areas in and around Tuscany, Venice, and Rome.

• Hill Towns: what can you find in Volterra and Vinci (as in Leonardo da)?
• Pisa: is it more than just the Leaning Tower of?
• Pistoia: what is it known for other than the word pistol and home of Pinocchio?
• Cinque Terre: The “5 Lands” of the Italian Riviera
• Agritourismo: born in a barn? If not, you can stay at a farmhouse
• Cooking class: learning to cook 19th century Tuscan food
• Florence’s Galleria dell’Academia: what is there other than Michaelangelo’s David?
• Uffizi Gallery: one of the oldest and most famous art museums in the world
• Pitti Palace: sure it’s mentioned in the musical Kiss Me Kate, why was it tops on my list?
• Ponte Vecchio: is it just an old bridge?
• Gelato: yes this Florentine ice cream is to die for

• Venice’s San Marco’s Basilica: it is everything you’ve heard, and more
• Doge’s Palace: you’ve seen it in lots of movies. Is it that fabulous?
• Campanile: see all of Venice from this prototypical bell tower
• Murano Glass: how to see a fraction of the glass shops in an entire day

• Vatican City: the museums, Sistine Chapel, and St. Peter’s
• St. John Lateran Basilica: the original Pope’s church
• Forum: and Coliseum, and Palantine Hill
• Babington’s: an English Tea Room in Rome?
• Tivoli Gardens at Villa d’Este: more than you’ve heard
• Assisi and Orvieto: the hill towns outside of Rome

And I’ll have a few other stories as well, like traveling by car (oh my!), train (oh yes), and vaporetto (boat taxi).

You can subscribe to this blog by any of these methods:

1. Visiting the site
2. Subscribing by email
3. Subscribing with your favorite news reader by RSS feed

Thanks for coming along.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
www.billpetro.com

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY

April Fools’ Day, or All Fools’ Day, is the name given to the custom of playing practical jokes on friends on that day, or sending them on fools errands. The origin of this custom has been much disputed; it is in some way a relic of those once universal festivities held at the vernal equinox, which, beginning on the old New Year’s Day celebrations, March 25, ended on April 1.

Another view is that it is a farcical commemoration of Jesus’ trials during Passion Week when he was sent from Annas‘ House to Caiaphas‘ Palace to Pilate’s Praetorium to Herod’s Hasmonean Palace and back to Pilate again… which culminated in his crucifixion on Good Friday, which may have been April 1.

The observance in the UK of April 1 goes back to ancient times, though it did not appear as a common customt until the early 1700s. In Scotland the custom was known as “hunting the gowk“, i.e., the cuckoo, and April fools were “April gowks.” The France would designate this person as poisson d’avril.

In the US individuals and employees would concoct elaborate hoaxes on April Fools’ Day. At Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley, for example, the size and complexity of these hoaxes were legendary in the 1980s in particular, with local television and radio media showing up to capture the event.

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood hysterian
www.billpetro.com