Roman God Janus Started New Year’s Resolution Tradition

Survey research from the American Medical Association (AMA) gives a 46% success rate to New Year’s resolutions during the first half of the year.  That success, however, is always short-lived. The AMA research agrees with other polls that the number of successful resolutions drops drastically during the last months of the year.

A blog posted in this space in December, 2015 explains the origins of the New Year’s tradition. That blog is posted here again for you to read again or see for the first time.    

The custom of making resolutions to improve oneself at the beginning of a new year dates back to the first century B.C. when ancient Romans worshiped the god Janus. That god symbolized beginnings and endings by seeing the past and future at the same time. Pollsters from the University of Scranton, PA, published research in 2014 indicating that 45 to 50 percent of Americans continue the 2,100 year old tradition of making New Year’s Resolutions.

Janus was depicted as a bearded man with two heads, one looking left to the past and the other looking right to the future. The Romans believed Janus would bless them with a prosperous new year if the god saw that they made improvements in their lives from the previous year. They believed this gave them a clean slate to use to improve their lives.

Julius Caesar named the first month of his new 12-month calendar January after Janus in 46 B.C. Caesar created the world’s most accurate calendar. With some small changes, it’s the calendar most cultures use today. Janus was a minor god and the prestige Caesar gave him by using his name for the first month raised the god’s status to a popular level.

Even with the influence and blessings from Janus, most people failed to keep their resolutions during the New Year just as we do today. The statisticians at Scranton University published a study in “The Journal of Clinical Psychology” that showed 75 percent of people kept resolutions after the first week. By the end of the first month of the year, the figure dropped to 64 percent and to 46 percent after the middle of the year.

Scranton’s findings came from interviews with test subjects. It’s human nature in answering face-to-face questions for people to say what they think the pollsters want to hear. Surveyed people want to please the people administering the questions. Not wanting to admit failure, people will say they kept their resolutions to feed their egos. With that in mind, the actual number of people keeping their resolutions for the entire year is about only 15 percent. The typical resolutions of losing weight, exercising and to stop smoking prove the old adage that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The meager number of people keeping New Year’s resolutions is supported by a recent study done by the University of Bristol at Bristol, England. That study surveyed a large group of 3,000 people. The results showed that 88 percent of those questioned failed to keep their resolutions during the year.

Following the inspiration of Janus is a worthwhile practice for everyone to use in trying to improve ourselves. The best thing we can do is use determination and pledge to make good resolutions at the beginning of 2016. If we fail to keep those resolutions, don’t worry. We’ll simply be in the majority.

Come back to this space after the New Year begins for another interesting subject. Go to my website www.joevlatino.com and read a piece of flash fiction called “Cake.” While you’re there, see the information about buying a copy of my book of short stories “The Device” at a greatly reduced price.

                                                       

Tooth Fairy Reassures Children That Losing Teeth Isn’t Scary

Most children lose the first of their 20 baby teeth between four and seven years old. The primary teeth, sometimes called milk teeth, fall out and get replaced with 32 permanent teeth during the following six years. Children often get scared, even traumatized, when the first baby tooth gets loose and eventually falls out or gets pulled.

A unique North American fantasy called the Tooth Fairy can ease the fear many children have about losing a tooth. The myth involves children saving the tooth for the Tooth Fairy to take and exchange for money or a gift.

The dental fairy is a relatively new fable that didn’t show up until as recently as 1927. That’s when Esther Watkins Arnold wrote “The Tooth Fairy,” an essay for children about the spirit and her benevolent habit of giving money in exchange for children’s first teeth.

Losing baby teeth is a clue to children that adolescence and the struggles of puberty are coming. It’s a rite of passage and a signal to children and their parents that young bodies are at the beginning of changes. Getting money, usually for the first time, gives children a feeling of maturity and responsibility.

European and Nordic traditions acknowledge quite different methods of using children’s baby teeth. As far back as the Middle Ages, baby teeth were buried or left for mice and rats to take. It was believed that this prevented witches from getting them. Witches who possessed a tooth could allegedly cast spells and curses on the owner.

People also believed that providing baby teeth to rats and mice would ensure the child would develop adult teeth as strong as the rodents had. Rodents were part of everyday life since the vermin commonly lived inside houses.

Ancient Vikings going into battle often wore necklaces made of their children’s teeth. The necklaces gave them invincibility, they thought. You can read about other tooth fairy traditions by clicking here.

During the 1970s in the United States, a college professor named Rosemary Wells became fascinated by the positive reaction she saw among youngsters who believed in the Tooth Fairy.  Dr. Wells taught at the Northwestern University, School of Dentistry, in Chicago, IL. She gave numerous presentations at dental conventions during her teaching career about the comfort children received from the Tooth Fairy myth.

She conducted several public surveys about the Tooth Fairy. Her research found an overwhelming 95 percent of adults thought the Tooth Fairy myth was a positive force in their families. For the rest of her life, Dr. Wells kept an obsession with all aspects of the myth.  She collected items from all over the world to use in a Tooth Fairy museum located inside her home. Her husband sold the museum items after Wells died in 2000. Northwestern University’s Dental College closed the following year.

VISA Inc. published a survey in 2012 about the amount of money children received from the Tooth Fairy. The corporation showed that children received an average of $3.70 per tooth. That amount was up 23 percent from the previous year. When the tradition first started in the 1920s, children were lucky to get a few cents for one of their baby teeth. Currently children get an average of $5.00 per tooth from the Tooth Fairy.  

Information for this blog post was gathered from The Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, and Wikipedia. Thanks for visiting and come back to this space later this month for a different posting. Visit my website for free view of an original piece of flash fiction at www.joevlatino.com.  

Buying the “Twelve Days of Christmas” Gifts a Bargain This Year

If you buy all the gifts listed in the carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you’ll get them for only $198.00 more than last year. Total cost for the 12 gifts is $34,130.99, according to PNC Financial Services Co. of Pittsburgh, PA.

The financial group has calculated the price of the gifts listed in the iconic Christmas song over several years. In this year’s news release, PNC says the 2015 cost is the smallest increase for the past six years because of a low inflation rate. Nine of the twelve gifts kept the same costs as last year.  

Two of the daily gift totals vary greatly from the most expensive to the least costly. Seven swans-a-swimming cost more than anything else at $13,125.00; the same price as last year. The least expensive group is the eight maids-a-milking for $58.00. That’s chump change compared to the seven swans. I guess the PNC number crunchers found the eight maids were considered unskilled labor. Those seven swans had to be some kind of precious birds at their price.

PNC Financial, the acknowledged expert source, listed each day’s total and the amounts of price changes:

• One partridge in a pear tree for $241.99, up 3% from last year’s $207.68
• Two turtle doves for $290.00, up 11.5% from $260.00 last year
• Three French hens cost $181.50, no change from 2014
• Four calling birds will set you back $599.96, the same as last year
• Five golden rings are estimated at $750.00, same price last year
• Six Geese-a-laying cost $360.00, same price as last year
• Seven swans-a-swimming cost an outrageous $13,125.00 (are they doing the back stroke?) with no change from 2014
• Eight maids-a-milking cost only $58.00 (they need a stronger union) with no cost change
• Nine ladies dancing are at a pricey $7,552.84, same price last year
• Ten lords-a-leaping cost $5,508.70, and that’s up 3% from last year’s price of $5,348.24
• Eleven pipers piping will charge you $2,635.20, no change
• Twelve drummers drumming bring a price tag of $2,854.80, no difference from 2014.

The Christmas carol began its known lineage in 1780 England as a chant or rhyme without music, according to Wikipedia. An author’s identity was not found in any documents. It went through several changes in the words that were eventually sung. The standard tune associated with it came from a 1909 arrangement of a traditional folk melody by English composer Frederic Astin. He’s given credit for introducing the prolongation of the verse “five gold rings” that’s often sung as “five golden rings.”

The repetition of the song makes it recognizable immediately. The carol, translated into hundreds of languages, is sung thousands of times over the radio and as part of television presentations throughout the world during the Christmas season.

Thanks for reading this blog. Come back here later this month to find another interesting subject. You can also see more of my writing at www.joevlatino.com.

Coffee: It’s Good For You, It’s Bad For You Depending On Who Did the Testing

Every morning approximately 100 million people in the United States drink their first cup of coffee, typically within their first hour of waking up. More than half of coffee drinkers acknowledge that they feel better—more like themselves—after their morning cup of the hot, dark liquid. It’s the caffeine in coffee that delivers a boost to our nervous systems.

Coffee is an efficient caffeine delivery system, and the popularity of drinking coffee is reflected in the estimated $40 billion Americans spend on it each year. That annual consumption amounts to twelve million pounds of coffee beans. The beans, once roasted and ground, get brewed with hot water and provide a steamy drink; it delivers the caffeine that gives most people a desired overall feeling of wellbeing.

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Because caffeine is in coffee beans, it’s the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug. But unlike many other psychoactive substances, caffeine is legal and unregulated in nearly all parts of the world. In addition to coffee, caffeine is in many foods and drinks including tea, soft drinks, cocoa and chocolate. It’s also in some prescription and nonprescription drugs such as ones used to treat colds, allergies and pain.

The type of coffee beans and the way they are processed varies the amount of caffeine in an 8oz. cup of regular coffee. Most tests involving coffee drinkers use a standard of 50 milligrams of caffeine per cup. The rule of thumb usually given by doctors is that drinking more than six cups a day of regular coffee, about 300 milligrams, is excessive and can lead to health problems.

Studies from well-established research companies and universities push the pendulum of good and bad things about coffee back and forth repeatedly. News sources intensified fearful reports about the bad health risks of coffee drinking more than 30 years ago. However, the most recent eye-opening reports about the benefits of coffee consumption were spread within the last two months by several media. 

Some of the health benefits of drinking coffee supposedly include the following items, some of which seem outlandish and impossible. At any rate, these reports were released to the public:

• Regular coffee drinkers are 80% less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease;
• Two cups a day cut the risk of gallstones in half;
• Two cups a day caused an 80% drop in the risk of developing cirrhosis;
• Two cups a day reduced the risk of colon cancer by 20 percent.

Older studies of coffee consumption during the last 30 years suggest that caffeine is beneficial in treating asthma, stopping headaches, boosting mood and even preventing cavities in teeth.

The pendulum swings to the bad effects of coffee drinking, depending who is conducting the studies. Caffeine results in negative effects on the nervous system. It has a record of increasing anxiety, stress, and food cravings. The cause of damaging sleep quality has long been an accepted effect of caffeine.

Consuming added calories with no nutritional value is an overlooked problem of coffee. People who drink restaurant and specialty store coffees often overlook how much the flavoring and creamers add calories and fat to their favorite, frothy drinks.

Consumers line up on the pro or con sides of the effects of coffee drinking according to whether they like drinking it or not. Most doctors agree that coffee, like almost everything we enjoy consuming, won’t harm us if we practice moderation.

Much of the data presented here were found on Wikipedia. Information used from other institutions who participated in studies of the effects of coffee drinking included John Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD; Rutgers University of Public Health, New Brunswick, NJ; and Byrd Alzheimer’s Institute, Tampa, FL.

If you ever wondered where the phase “a of cup joe” for a drink of coffee came from, you can choose from two popular origins. Some wordsmiths say that joe is a reference to an average person—someone with a common background. Therefore, the common drink among the masses became called “a cup of joe.” The timeline of this phrase is buried in history.

A more interesting and colorful explanation of the phrase comes from a recorded event in 1914. Josephus Daniels, then Secretary of the Navy, banned all alcoholic beverages from United States ships. Sailors objected to the order but had no choice after alcohol, long a staple on ships, was banned. The Navy personnel substituted the only strong drink available—coffee. In a protest to the secretary’s rule, the enlisted men named their coffee after Josephus, calling it “a cup of joe.”    

Thanks for reading this blog. Another interesting subject will be in this space next month. See my website at www.joevlatino.com.

First Thanksgiving Feast Had Turkey but No Stuffing, No Pie, No Women

This blog entry was originally posted on November 20, 2015.

The Pilgrims started their first colony in Plymouth, MA, in 1620. They endured a year of near starvation but somehow built homes, storage areas and even a church. During the second year, their farms provided a bountiful harvest, mostly due to the help and advice from the local Native Americans.

In November, 1621, the pioneers, in what would become known as the American Colonies, celebrated their bountiful harvest before the cold, fall season set in. Their impromptu celebration set the precedent for our annual celebration of Thanksgiving.

About 50 Pilgrims and 90 Wampanoag Indians got together some time that November. The exact date is unknown. A strict religious group, the Pilgrims believed that a thanksgiving was a gathering that included prayers and worship. But even then, the food played a major role in their celebration.

The first Thanksgiving lasted about three days. Their guests, the Wampanoag Indians, slept outside when the Pilgrims went into their homes to rest after each day of eating and celebrating. The women dutifully cooked and served the food to the celebrants, but the female Pilgrims were prohibited from joining the male partygoers who exchanged gifts and played games.

The women boiled vegetables, roasted meats and baked bread in their ovens. A delicious smell probably drifted over the primitive encampment as the women carried the food among the party goers. The women served the men and darted back to their open fires to continue their cooking chores. For many of the women, it was the first time they made close contact with Indians. Some of them were fascinated with being near a group of people foreign to them. Others were afraid to interact with the Indians. We can speculate that the women probably talked among themselves and decided that the hard work they had to do would stop them from inviting Thanksgiving guests the next year.

Nothing was recorded about the food that was consumed during the first Thanksgiving. But historians can surmise what the menu might have been by knowing what food sources were available to the settlers. Researchers often conclude that turkey, our staple on Thanksgiving tables, was not part of the meal the Pilgrims had. However, wild turkey was plentiful in Massachusetts in the 1600s. The Pilgrims and Indians undoubtedly ate turkey as part of the feast. Turkeys, roasted over open fires, weren’t stuffed with spices and bread crumbs back then. With turkey, they also ate duck and other migrating fowl.

Pies, fruit pies as we know them, weren’t part of the staples the Pilgrims ate. The pie they knew in England was typically a meat pie and similar to what we call today a pot pie. It would have been too complicated for the Pilgrims to bake. Pumpkins grew wild, but they weren’t part of the Pilgrims’ food group, thus eliminating pumpkin pie from the menu. Wild duck was plentiful and a popular food. They also ate roots, squash, carrots, peas and corn. The Pilgrims grew all these vegetables with the knowledge they learned from the Wampanoags. Migrating fowl of several types were eaten at the feast. Staples such as walnuts and chestnuts came from the forest. Fresh corn wasn’t available in the cold autumn. Only dried corn was possible to be used on the Thanksgiving menu. The Wampanoags probably provided a favorite of theirs called sobaheg. It’s a stewed mix of dried corn, roots, beans, squash and chunks of meat. Cranberries were available, but only in their natural form. Cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes weren’t invented yet. The friendly Indians probably provided several deer to the original feast. Venison was readily available. It was a favorite food for the locals and the Pilgrims and an important source of protein in their agrarian diets.

President Abraham Lincoln made the first attempt to make Thanksgiving a holiday. He proclaimed it a national day of celebration in 1861. Lincoln hoped that the holiday would help unify the country at the beginning of the Civil War. The 16^th president ordered government offices closed on the fourth Thursday of November to celebrate Thanksgiving. On October 3, 1863, the holiday became an official national observance.

In 1939, politics motivated President Franklin D. Roosevelt to move the holiday to the third Thursday of November, to encourage citizens to begin their Christmas shopping one week earlier. The country was ending its worst economic decade. Roosevelt proclaimed the date change to help strengthen the weak economy.

On December 26, 1941, just 19 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor that pushed the United States into World War II, the U.S. Congress moved Thanksgiving to its permanent place on the fourth Thursday of November. That change to the original date worked to calm a very nervous population that was facing participation in a world-wide conflict.

Thanksgiving often is considered the favorite national holiday. It doesn’t bring the pressure of buying gifts to exchange with family and friends but focuses on time spent with family. Today, turkey is the main course for most of Thanksgiving meals in the United States. According to a CNN poll, 46 million turkeys will be baked, grilled or fried this month.

Veterans Day’s Name, Date, and Celebration Changed

Woodrow Wilson

Veterans Day falls on the eleventh day of this month. It started when President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. His proclamation declared Armistice Day, its original name, an annual observance and celebration of the U.S. military people who fought during the world-wide conflict that was then called The Great War.

The observance didn’t become a federal holiday for 29 years, till the U.S. Congress made Armistice Day a national holiday in 1938. President Dwight D. Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor not only World War I vets but all military people who participated in any American war and military action.

In 1971 the date for the holiday changed when Veterans Day became one of the Monday holidays. President Gerald Ford moved it back seven years later to its original November 11th date.

Thirty countries sent military personnel to be part of World War I. The United States suffered 116,516 casualties during the war that began July 28, 1914 and ended November 11, 1918. During World War II, the number of Americans killed was 405,399. The Korean conflict resulted in 54,246 military deaths. During the Vietnam War, 58,209 American military died. Since the Iraq-Afghanistan War began in 2001, the current American casualties number 6,717. These casualty figures were provided by Wikipedia.

Memorial Day is another federal holiday dedicated to honoring American military people. It’s celebrated on the last Monday of May and honors military people who died during battle. Veterans Day honors all military for their service.

Thanks for reading this blog. Visit this space later this month to read another interesting topic. See my website at www.joevlatino.com.

U.S. Constitution Quickly Needed Adjustments Called “The Bill of Rights”

Our country’s Founding Fathers realized that the legal document they wrote, called the U.S. Constitution, needed changes immediately after it was ratified into law on September 17, 1787.

Congress Hall in Philadelphia

The first 10 of the current 27 Amendments to the historic document make specific references to freedoms not explicitly indicated in the main body of the Constitution. These 10 specific laws, added two years after the ratification of the Constitution, guarantee individual liberties, limit government power in judicial proceedings, and reserve powers to the states and the public. They are called The Bill of Rights.

The original U.S. Congress proposed 12 amendments to the Constitution on September 25, 1789. State legislatures rejected the first two proposals and ratified the remaining 10 in 1791. The first rejected proposal described the number of constituents for each U.S. representative and the second one dealt with the salaries of congressmen. So proposals 3 to 12 became the first amendments to the Constitution. 

This is a synopsis of the Bill of Rights ratified by the 13 U.S. states on December 15, 1791:

• Amendment 1 Freedom of Religion, Speech and the Press 
• Amendment 2 Right to Bear Arms 
• Amendment 3 Housing of Soldiers in Private Homes
• Amendment 4 Protection from Unreasonable Search and Seizures 
• Amendment 5 Protection of Rights to Life, Liberty and Prosperity
• Amendment 6 Rights of Accused Persons in Criminal Cases
• Amendment 7 Rights in Civil Cases
• Amendment 8 Preventing Excessive Bail, Fines, and Punishments
• Amendment 9 Other Rights Kept by the People
• Amendment 10 Undelegated Powers Kept by the States and People

The Bill of Rights helped satisfy opponents to the ratification of the Constitution. Several state legislatures charged that the Constitution established a strong central government that could violate the civil rights of the individual states. The concern of an all-powerful central government came out during debates among the state leaders during the ratification process.  This concern was a carry-over from the domination of the British to the U.S. Colonies. Members of the First Congress wrote the Bill of Rights to prevent the federal government from ever dominating the states.

Seventy-seven years later the Fourteenth Amendment ensured citizens of all states have not only rights on the federal level but on the state level as well. This amendment became law shortly after the end of the Civil War. It meant that the newly freed slaves and their descendants were full citizens of the United States and must be afforded all the legal protections granted to citizens. Ratified on July 9, 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment gave the individual states the powers to enforce the personal freedoms guaranteed in the Bill of Rights under a process known as incorporation. The U.S Constitution and subsequent amendments influence legal decisions made at the state and federal level.

There were fourteen handwritten copies of the Bill of Rights, one for each of the original states and one for Congress. There are few surviving copies, two can be viewed publically in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and the New York Public Library.

Thank you for reading this blog. Come to this space later this month to read about another interesting topic. See my website at www.joevlatino.com.