Welcome to this year’s edition of the History of the Holidays. I’m Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian. From now through the Spring or vernal equinox, most of the major secular and sacred holidays are celebrated. This is a series that recounts the history behind the major American holidays, and some of the minor ones [...]
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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 recount below.
Recently, however, there [...]
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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 [...]
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SO WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO OLD…
This year, 2010, the joy of Easter is being shared in common on the same date among the Roman Catholics, Greek, Armenian, Coptic, Syrian and Ethiopian Orthodox, and Protestants.
You may be asking yourself, “Self,” you ask, “where are they now?” and well you might ask. What happened to our players [...]
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GOOD FRIDAY
For centuries, pilgrims have walked the Via Dolorosa, “the way of sorrow” in Jerusalem, following the path Jesus took from the judgment seat of Pilate at the Antonia in the eastern part of the city immediately north of the Temple through several “stations of the Cross” to the ultimate location at the Church of [...]
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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 [...]
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THE TRIAL OF JESUS
The trial of Jesus leading up to his crucifixion was actually a series of perhaps half a dozen trials, across several locations in Jerusalem, some of which are captured in the tradition of the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrow, a series of locations that pilgrims take through the streets of modern [...]
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