HISTORY OF PRESIDENTS’ DAY During my lifetime, two American holidays got consolidated into one. In 1971, a day between both Lincoln’s Birthday on February 12 and Washington’s Birthday on February 22 became a single holiday, Presidents Day — alternately spelled President’s Day or Presidents’ Day — to be observed on the third Monday in February, [...]
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HISTORY OF THE SUPER BOWL The Super Bowl, also known as simply Superbowl — a territory acquisition athletic contest played upon a fixed agrarian grid using as a token an inflated porcine prolate spheroid — is the most important holiday of the year in America. Some will say that it is a secular holiday, others [...]
HISTORY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR This year Martin Luther King Jr Day on January 16 coincides with Religious Freedom Day. Since 1993 the US President proclaims this day as a celebration for religious liberty. It is the anniversary of the passage of Thomas Jefferson‘s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786. Along with Jefferson, [...]
HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING: FRIENDLY INDIAN? We’ve all heard the story of how the Pilgrims, landing in Massachusetts on the Mayflower in 1620, were ill equipped to survive the harsh winters of the New World. We’ve also heard how they met a Native American Indian of the Pawtuxet tribe named Squanto who befriended them, taught them [...]
HISTORY OF THANKSGIVING The origin of Thanksgiving Day has been attributed to a harvest feast held by the Plymouth Colony. In 1621, Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony proclaimed a day of “thanksgiving” and prayer to celebrate the Pilgrims’ first harvest in America the year after their arrival on the merchant ship Mayflower. The [...]
HISTORY OF KIRKING OF THE TARTANS This Sunday all over the world many churches will observe the Kirkin’ o’ th’ Tartans, a celebration of Scottish heritage and culture. What is The Kirking of the Tartans? Etymologically it simply means: Kirking, from the Scots word kirk which means church, in this usage it means “blessing.” Tartans [...]
HISTORY OF THE ASPENS I went camping this weekend amongst the aspens in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It was spectacular. Every year about this time, Fall is ushered in by a flush of aspens as their leaves turn to gold. Where I live in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the particular aspen is the trembling [...]
