Resolve to Better Yourself in 2015

A tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions goes back to the Roman Empire during the first century B.C. because of a god who had two faces. The mythical god Janus was depicted with one face looking to the past and another face looking to the future. He became the ancient symbol for resolutions at the beginning of each New Year.

The Romans believed Janus offered them a chance to redeem themselves of past transgressions if they promised to improve themselves during the eve of the upcoming New Year. Julius Caesar named January, the first month of his new 12-month calendar, after Janus in 46 B.C. Caesar’s calendar was very similar to the one most of the populated world uses now.

The custom of making resolutions for the New Year extended throughout the centuries as a way of starting off with a clean slate. People hope to use the first day of the year to improve themselves.

Typical New Year’s resolutions include losing weight, exercising more, and stopping a variety of bad habits such as smoking.

About 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions. The University of Scranton in Pennsylvania, researched how often people keep their resolutions. These figures were published in the university’s “Journal of Clinical Psychology” on the first day of 2014. According to the study, the number of people who kept their resolutions for the first week was 75%. Past two weeks the number was 71%. Then the figures drop to 64% after one month and 46% after six months.

The university’s results seem completely contrary to reality. From what I've seen, most people stop keeping their resolutions after only one week. After one month the number of people still keeping their resolutions would be 15% at best. And after six months, forget about it.

Scranton’s clinical journal based at least part of the conclusions about keeping resolutions on interviews with test subjects. It’s human nature to give interviewers what they want to hear. So people who made the resolutions want to say they kept them to please the testers and keep their egos intact. That’s my opinion, anyway.

Kissing at the stroke of midnight on December 31st is a New Year custom unique to the United States. The custom derived from masked balls where disguised dancers supposedly didn’t know the identity of their masked partners. The masks symbolized evil spirits from the ending year. A kiss was the purification of the evil or bad luck from the old year into the new.

Follow the inspiration passed down by Janus from the ancient Romans. Make your best resolutions. Don’t worry if you don’t keep them, because you won’t.

Thanks for taking time to read this blog. Look at my website www.joevlatino.com to get information about my book of short stories “The Device.” It’s available from Amazon.

Why Santa Looks That Way

The image we know as Santa Claus came from a 19th century poem and a 20th century advertising campaign.  

Henry Livingston Jr. wrote “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas.” Published in 1823, it’s commonly known by the first line of the poem, “Twas the Night before Christmas.” Livingston described a magical elf who traveled in a sleigh with a team of eight flying reindeer. In the poem, St. Nicholas’ use of a sack to carry toys is mentioned. The flying sleigh and a sack of toys stayed part of the iconic Christmas figure. 

The elf, who later used the name Santa Claus, had a broad face and a round belly. He dressed in fur from head to foot. Santas everywhere were depicted wearing red clothes many years later.

The Coca-Cola Co. solidified the image of a red-suited, jolly man during an advertising campaign that started in 1923. Artists painted a thin, unsmiling Santa to advertise the company’s soft drink. This image lasted until 1930.

Haddon Sundbloom painted an image of a friendly Santa Claus in 1931. That image of a red-suited, jolly man wearing black boots has been the accepted view of how Santa Claus looks for more than 80 years. Showing him enjoying a Coca-Cola sold many millions of dollars of soft drinks for the company.

Sundbloom drew Santa in numerous company advertisements until 1964. The Coca-Cola company holds a trademark for the Santa image. While that particular image of Santa Claus has been trademarked, the names Santa Claus and St. Nicholas are in public domain.

The name “Santa Claus” goes back to St. Nicholas who was a bishop born about 280 A.D. He was canonized as a saint for his lifetime of piety and kindnesses to the poor. The name Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas’s nickname Sinter Klass. That is what Dutch children call him.

An 1804 gathering of the New York Historical Society helped cement the images of Santa and Christmas. The society distributed woodcuts of St. Nicholas during an annual meeting. The background of the engraving contained familiar images of Santa. It included depictions of stockings hung over a fireplace. Toys and fruits filled the stockings.

During the early 19th century, gift-giving became a popular part of the Christmas celebration. Stores began to advertise shopping specials to attract customers into their businesses. By the middle of the 1800s, newspapers created separate sections for holiday advertisements that often featured images of Santa Claus. It was the beginning of the commercialization of Christmas.

Gift-giving extended to the many charities in need of money. The Salvation Army saw an opportunity to get money for their work in helping needy families. Unemployed men were dressed in Santa suits and placed on New York street corners to solicit contributions. The red kettles and constant bell ringers began. Now the red-suited ringers are in all cities and shopping centers.

The image of Santa Claus began evolving as far back as the third century. The change of Christmas to a time of gift-giving plus a push from commercialism led to what we know today as the jolly old elf.

Thank you for reading this blog. Look for my website at www.joevlatino.com where you can see information about my book of short stories, “The Device.”

Americans Imitate Brits and Decorate Trees

Christmas in American was a formal celebration lacking a festive atmosphere until the middle of the 19th century. That's when Christmas trees changed the tone of the season.

 

Europeans used evergreen branches to decorate inside and outside their houses during cold winter months to celebrate the upcoming spring and warmer weather. This practice goes back thousands of years before the Christian Era.  People decorated the branches, and putting an entire tree into their homes was a natural progression.

 

The tradition of decorating trees for Christmas evolved into a popular tradition in Germany long before it started in America. Well into the 1800s, the strict Puritan belief that Christmas was a time for worship and not a time for celebration dominated the way the holiday was observed in America. 

 

During the early 1900s, Irish and German immigrants brought their traditions of fun during Christmas, and people started to change their view of Christmas from strictly religious to joyful.

 

The biggest influence in using Christmas trees and making the holiday fun was Queen Victoria. She was queen of Great Britain from 1837 to 1901. During her reign, literacy in our country grew. The invention of the telegraph and the growth of  popular newspapers made mass communication a major impact on society.

 

People started admiring the popular queen, and American society looked to copy all things British. Much like today, the royals were popular and admired by Americans.

 

Queen Victoria married Price Albert, a German. He brought his country's tradition of Christmas trees to England, and the idea spread to America.

 

In 1846, the queen and Price Albert were sketched in the "Illustrated London News" newspaper with their children around a Christmas tree. The sketch was accompanied with a detailed description of the decorated tree. It was about eight feet high with six tiers of branches. Each branch held up to 12 candles.  An angel was placed on top of the tree.

 

American society embraced the idea of decorating trees in their homes. By the 1890s, the popularity of Christmas trees spread around the U.S. Early 20th Century Americans decorated their trees with homemade ornaments. The German-American crowd used apples, nuts, and cookies. Electricity replaced candles with Christmas lights. The lights were created by members of Thomas Edison's group of inventors.

 

Cities began placing Christmas trees in town squares, and communities accepted the trees as a sign of the season's celebration.

 

Top producing Christmas tree states are California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The best selling trees are Scotch Pine, Douglas Fir, Fraser Fir, Balsam Fir, and White Pine. The growing and selling of Christmas trees employs approximately 100,000 people in the U.S.

 

The American fascination with British royalty was responsible for the tradition of placing decorative trees in our living rooms this time of year.

 

Thank you for reading this blog.  Visit my website www.joevlatino.com where you can read a sample of my flash fiction. You may also find my book, "The Device," on Amazon.

December 7, 1941: Japan Uses Element of Surprise

World War II began without warning for the United States on December 7, 1941.  A surprise attack from the Empire of Japan started the war during a beautiful Sunday morning on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the home of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor.

A clear sky with a warm day looming made it promising to spend time outside on a golf course or a tennis court.  Instead of providing for a day of leisure, the weather gave perfect conditions for a flight of fighter airplanes to find their way from an aircraft carrier hundreds of miles off shore.

Minutes before 8 a.m., Japanese fighter planes began dropping specially designed torpedoes into the harbor. The torpedoes were set to run only 35 feet deep to be effective in the shallow water.  Delivered with deadly accuracy, the underwater, powered bombs were fired from the first wave of 83 aircraft sent from one of six aircraft carriers.

An armada of 30 warships including the carriers traveled undetected for thousands of miles from the Land of the Rising Sun.  An attack force of 423 fighter/bomber planes rested on top of the carriers and remained undetected during the attack that lasted less than two hours. The fighters had to fly almost 90 minutes from the carriers to reach Pearl Harbor.

The element of surprise worked perfectly for the Japanese. Their fighters were able to cross several miles of ocean, follow the terrain of the island and find the harbor without any resistance from the Americans.

Ironically, one Army private saw the first wave of planes crossing Oahu. He and another soldier were manning a remote radar station. It was used to give advanced warning to the U.S. Fleet of possible enemy planes. When he saw the large flight of planes on the radar screen, he called in the sighting. The radar intelligence office instructed the soldier to ignore them. The radar blips, the officer said, were a flight of B-17 bombers that were expected to fly into Hawaii that morning.

Eight U.S. battleships were stationed in the harbor.  All of them were damaged by torpedoes.  The Arizona and the Oklahoma were destroyed.  Six battleships eventually returned to service after repairs.

The Arizona sank with 1,000 men on board. A memorial of a white concrete and steel structure spans the hull of the sunken ship. It was dedicated on May 30, 1962, to honor the Americans who died in the attacks in 1941.

More than 180 American aircraft were destroyed. Few American planes left the ground. Clustered in tight groups on the airfield, they were sitting ducks for Japanese bombs and machine guns.

The second wave of planes left the attacking carriers with the intent of damaging other ships and shipyard facilities.  Storage tanks holding thousands of gallons of fuel were targeted by the invading planes, but the precious gasoline was not destroyed.

The prime targets wanted by the Japanese consisted of the three Pacific Fleet carriers—the Lexington, Enterprise and Saratoga.  Fortunately, the U.S. aircraft carriers were on maneuvers, many miles from Pearl Harbor. They were safe from the invasion.

By 9:45 a.m., the Japanese inflicted enough damage to cripple the U.S. fleet.  The attackers’ original plan was to send in a third wave of planes to finish off the remaining equipment and the vital fuel supply on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese admirals argued about continuing the attack, because they didn’t know how close the missing American aircraft carriers were to Hawaii. The Japanese had plenty of airplanes and ammunition to complete the attack against the U.S., but the admirals made a mistake in leaving without finishing the job.

The United States government and the government of Great Britain declared war against Imperial Japan the next day.  On December 8, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt made the announcement to a joint session of Congress that the United States was going to war. 

The war would surely have lasted longer if the Japanese had taken their element of surprise to the next level and wiped out Pearl Harbor. Most historians agree that the end of the war would have taken longer but still have the same results even if the attack on Pearl Harbor had been more destructive.

One leader of the Japanese Navy, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, was the main officer in the attack on Pearl Harbor.  While the armada retreated from American waters he described the situation best in facing the United States entering the new war:

“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

Thank you for reading this blog. Visit this site again in December for another interesting subject. Look for my website, www.joevlatino.com, for information about my book “The Device.” A sample short story can be read there.  

First Thanksgiving held in 1621 or 1623?

The Pilgrims established their first colony in Plymouth, MA, in 1620. They built homes, storage buildings and a church during the first year of their arrival in the New World. By the time the cold, fall season set in, they decided it was time to celebrate.

From its beginning, Thanksgiving was a holiday affected by politics and disagreements of its official place in American history.

About 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians gathered sometime in November of 1621, the exact date is unknown, to celebrate the success of the colony. This was more of a political move on the part of the Pilgrims than what they considered a thanksgiving. A strict religious group, the Pilgrims believed that a thanksgiving was a gathering that included prayers and worship of God.

The Pilgrim leaders wanted to use the 1621 celebration as a way to cement the military alliance between them and the natives who undoubtedly saved them from starvation. The Wampanoag Indians showed the Pilgrims how to kill game for food and cultivate the land for crops. Massoasoit, supreme chief or king of the Wampanoag people, attended the celebration that lasted at least three days. William Bradford, the English governor, also was there.

The Pilgrim women didn’t attend the feast. Only the men participated in the several days of socializing and eating with the Indians. The women were delegated to cook the numerous meals consumed during the celebration. The two cultures exchanged gifts and played games.

All the celebrating was done outdoors. They didn’t sit at long tables that are often depicted in paintings and drawings. Most people at the celebration stood up to eat or sat leaning against trees. At night the Pilgrims went to their homes. The natives were left to sleep outside.

During the second day of feasting, the Pilgrims conducted a shooting contest among themselves. Some historians surmise the Pilgrims wanted to impress the Indians with their match-lock rifles that were loud and spewed large clouds of smoke from the black powder they used. This could have been a show of superiority by the Pilgrims who were concerned about the advantage of the American Indians who greatly outnumbered the new colonists.  

Two years later, Governor William Bradford declared the community hold a thanksgiving gathering that included all members of the group. As expected, the women still had to do the cooking. The second Thanksgiving in 1623 included religious celebrations, and the colonists used the time to thank God for their success in the New World. The 1621 celebration is usually the one recognized as the first Thanksgiving. After all, it did concentrate on eating and having fun rather than holding religious functions.
 

Turkey wasn’t on the menu for the Pilgrims. The bird didn’t become a staple part of Thanksgiving Day feasts for another 300 years. Wild duck was plentiful and a popular food the Pilgrims ate regularly. They also ate roots, squash, carrots, peas and corn that they grew themselves. Migrating fowl of several types were plentiful in the autumn. Lobster, mussels, clams and several kinds of fish were eaten at the feasts. The forest provided walnuts and chestnuts.

Fresh corn wasn’t available in the cold autumn and only dried corn was on the Thanksgiving menu. The Wampanoag guests provided a favorite of theirs called sobaheg. Sobaheg is a stewed mix of dried corn, roots, beans, squash and chunks of meat. Pumpkins grew wild but pies didn’t exist. 

Cranberries were available, but only in their natural form. Cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes were not invented yet. The friendly Indians provided several deer to the original feast. Venison was readily available and was a favorite food for the locals and the Pilgrims.

The first attempt to nationalize the Thanksgiving holiday occurred in 1789 when President George Washington proclaimed a day of thanksgiving. He issued his request on October 3^rd of that year. It didn’t become a national holiday until later.

Hoping to use any means to unify the country that was at the beginning of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed in 1861 that government offices would close on the fourth Thursday of November to celebrate Thanksgiving. The holiday became a national observance on Oct. 3, 1863. Prior to that, each state government scheduled its own celebration at different times in November.

Politics influenced the celebration period of Thanksgiving again in 1939. President Franklin D. Roosevelt agreed to move the holiday one week earlier to encourage citizens to begin their Christmas buying season sooner. The country was ending its worst economic decade, and the president thought the extra spending would help the weakened economy.

 Many state governments objected to the date change. Congress acted during a time of great turmoil in American history to move the official day back to its origin. On December 26, 1941, just 19 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that pushed the country into World War II, Thanksgiving was moved by law to its permanent place on the fourth Thursday. It became a calming effect on a very nervous population that was facing what became a world war.

Thanksgiving is often considered the favorite national holiday. It doesn’t have the pressure of buying gifts to exchange with family and friends. And it’s a quick holiday that doesn’t extend past two weekdays.

Thanks for reading this blog. Check here at the end of the month for another interesting topic. You can check my website at www.joevlatino.com where you can get information about my book of short stories, “The Device"

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Number Eleven Meaningful to Veterans Day

Veterans Day is on November 11th. It began on that date as Armistice Day in 1919 to celebrate the first anniversary of the ending of what was then called The Great War. We now know it as World War I.

Communities across the country celebrated with parades and flag waving after President Woodrow Wilson recognized the significance of the war’s end with a proclamation on the first anniversary. Congress enacted a resolution in 1926 to make Armistice Day an annual observance but not a holiday.

In 1938 it became a national, legal holiday. President Dwight D. Eisenhower proclaimed in 1954 that the holiday would be known as Veterans Day and would honor all military people who participated in any American wars and military actions.

In 1971 Veterans Day became one of the Monday holidays until President Gerald Ford moved it back in 1978 to its original November date. Several state governments and veterans groups objected to the change from the original date that spotlighted the number 11.

The number 11 was repeated when The Great War ended on the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month. An armistice or truce was signed by representatives of the German government in the private railroad car of one of the French commanders. The historical importance of that date spotlighted by the coincidence of the number 11 encouraged many citizens to reject the three-day weekend. 

The Department of Veterans Affairs released estimates of the numbers of people who participated in various wars and the approximate number of survivors. These estimates are about four years old, but they demonstrate how many Americans were involved.  

Several thousand veterans from World War II are dying each month. They are entitled to military funerals, and the government has to search into reserve units to meet the demand. The official figures show that 16, 113,000 servicemen and servicewomen participated in that war. The number of survivors numbers about 1,000,000.

In Korea, about 5,720,000 service people were involved. Survivors number less than 1,900,000.

The Vietnam War veterans number about 7,560,000 people. The numbers of veterans who served and many who still serve in global conflicts number in the millions.

These numbers show why the theme of Veterans Day now includes peacetime as well as during times of war.

Memorial Day is a three day, weekend holiday. It falls on the last Monday of May. It’s different from Veterans Day because it celebrates the military people who died during battle. Veterans Day, originating from the end of the First World War, honors all military people dead and alive.

Thank you for viewing this blog. The origins of Thanksgiving will be revealed in this space later this month. Look at my website at www.joevlatino.com for information about my book of short stories, “The Device.”

  

                                                        

  

                                                                                                                                                                                        

                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                             

How About Tuesday? Let’s Vote On It

The U.S. Congress decreed in 1845 that the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November would be the official voting date for presidential elections. The law was extended to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1875. It took another 39 years before the uniform date was extended to the U.S. Senate elections.

That totals 69 years of indecision about which day would become the official date to vote in all the national elections. And what about the confusing way the day of the week became Tuesday after the first Monday?

Most states used the decreed date for their own elections long before it was made official in 1845. At the time, it made sense to set the voting date on that November weekday. The country was an agrarian society. Most crops were already harvested by the beginning of November, allowing farmers enough travel time to reach the county seat where most polls were held.

The voting date was kept off the first day of the month. That’s when merchants totaled their incomes for the previous 30 days. Politicians didn’t want the necessary bookkeeping to prevent business owners from voting. They kept the voting time away from the weekend

because people who traveled by horses and carts often spent the night on the road, and they didn’t want to miss the Sabbath.

Weather was another consideration.  The temperatures were mild enough to make traveling over unimproved roads tolerable.

Today’s society offers many conveniences that make the process of voting easy compared to the hardships endured by patriots in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet the United States ranks pitifully in the percentages of citizens throughout the world who have the privilege of voting.

Fifteen states in the U.S. still have elections only on the one day in November. The percentage of voter participation has increased among the 35 states that offer early voting that extends through weekends. 

Early voting varies from four to 50 days prior to Election Day.

The United States ranks 138 among 172 nations with free elections in the percentage of people who vote. Being too busy and not being able to get time off from work are two of the most mentioned excuses for not voting.

Election Day is a government holiday in Delaware, Hawaii, Kentucky, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia and the territory of Puerto Rico. California government allows workers two hours off with pay in order to vote.  At least five countries in the free election world give voters a paid holiday on national election days.  

Veterans Day is November 11. Visit here during the first few days of November for information about its origin.  If you enjoy these blog postings, visit my website, www.joevlatino.com, where you can see information about my book of short stories, “The Device.”