Saturday this and that

Greetings all! Well, it is Valentine's Day weekend as this year the holiday falls on a Sunday. When I came home from work last night, there was a pretty big REAL rose encased inside a heart-shaped glass globe. It was from my husband who told me he thought he would give it to me a couple of days early so that I can enjoy it longer - although I will probably leave it displayed on my living room coffee table for a good while anyway.

 And since Valentine's Day, as is with most contemporary holidays which we celebrate today, has a very unique history I have decided to re-publish one of my older posts explaining how this holiday and traditions evolved into what we celebrate today ...

What's in a Holiday?: Lupercalia

I have always been fascinated by our holiday traditions and where they actually came from. St. Valentine’s Day, as with so many of the contemporary holidays which we, as Americans, celebrate today, has its’ beginnings in Paganism. In ancient Rome, a Pagan fertility and purification festival called Lupercalia, was celebrated. Lupercalia is uniquely Roman and was named after the fertility god Lupercus, protector of flocks against wolves. In fact, he was often identified with the gods Pan and Faunus.

Lupercalia was an important festival and historical records indicate that Mark Antony was Master of the Luperci College of Priests. In the year 44BC,, he chose the Lupercalia festival as the proper time to offer the crown to Julius Caesar. Since February occurred later on the ancient calendar than it does today, Lupercalia was held in the spring. Each year on February 15, the Luperci priests gathered on Palatine Hill at the cave of Lupercal. Young men wore their loincloths and led the priests around the pomerium, the sacred boundary of the ancient city, and around the base of the hills of Rome.

Long after Palatine became the center of the powerful city, state and empire of Rome, the Lupercalia festival lived on. Roman armies took the Lupercalia customs with them as they invaded France and Britain. One of these customs was a lottery where the names of available maidens were placed in a box and then drawn by the young men. Each man accepted the girl whose name he drew as his love for the duration of the festival, which lasted from February 13^th to the 15^th, sometimes longer.

Circa 289AD, a Christian named Valentine of Rome was martyred under the Emperor Claudius. Valentine was a bishop in the city who was arrested for giving aid to prisoners. While in prison, he was said to have converted his jailer by healing the man’s blind daughters’ sight. He then fell in love with her and from his death row cell, he wrote her a note signed, “From Your Valentine.”

Somewhere around 197AD, Christianity began to slowly do away with the Pagan pantheons. It frequently replaced the festivals of the Pagan gods with its’ own modern celebrations to fit the life and teachings of Christ. Lupercalia, with its’ lover lottery, had no place in the new order. In the year 496AD, Pope Gelasius did away with the festival of Lupercalia, citing it as Pagan and immoral. He chose Valentine as the Patron Saint of lovers who would be honored at the new festival on February 14^th.

It is believed that the very first valentine cards were the slips of paper bearing the names of maidens the early Romans first drew. Or, perhaps the note which Valentine passed to his sweetheart from his prison cell.

By the 17^th century; however, handmade cards became quite elaborate and pre-fabricated ones were only for the wealthy. In 1797, a British publisher issued, “The Young Man’s Valentine Writer,” which contained suggested sentimental literature for the young lover. Today, the St. Valentine’s Day traditions continue with the giving of chocolates, jewelry and flowers. An estimated 1 billion St. Valentine’s Day cards will be sent worldwide, making it the second most celebrated holiday after Christmas.

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

And, last but not least, I found a pretty cool recipe for a DIY mermaid scrub. It is simple and easy to make. The directions are as follows:

YOU WILL NEED:

One small jar, blue food coloring, 1 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup cold pressed coconut oil (refined), 5-7 drops of pure essential lavender oil.

In a bowl add the sugar, food coloring, coconut oil, lavender oil and mix well. Pour into the jar and  DONE!

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday odds and ends

Well, more nasty, crappy weather on the way is predicted for today (it has already begun to snow and coming down really hard as I write this post) and two more rather bad snow storms to come throughout this coming week. GOD, how I just can't wait for this winter from HELL to be over!! We had only one entire day of warmer-ish weather last week after the first bad storm, but not enough to melt even a quarter of what we were slammed with. This weather really sucks ...

Moving on, I had a bit of time yesterday to set up my mermaid treasures. The merman statue I ordered arrived this past week  and I could not wait to display him along side my mermaid tealight holder ...  

A little ceramic mermaid bell that I found a few years ago at a flea market ...

I am still in the process of looking for a large starfish that a good friend of mine gave to me as a gift a long time ago, but I have not been able to find it as of yet.

Speaking of gifts, a very thoughtful co-worker surprised me with a beautiful crystal amethyst pendant on Friday night at work. Many THANKS to Rosa - I love it!

I have also been trying to work on my other blog, "Mermaid Tails and Dragon Treasures" lately as I had been neglecting it for a while due to lack of free time. The couple of snow days we had last week, if nothing else, atleast to allowed me some time to publish a few new posts. Since I was stuck in the house anyhow I tried to make good use of my time.

A Saturday song ... here's hoping ... soon!

Mermen in Mythology

Through the history of human mythology and religion, mermaids received much attention, but their male counterparts were much less showcased. While mermaids represented beauty and romance that the predominately male ship crews longed-for on the long journeys, mermen remained left behind in the folklore, usually shown only as children made in a union of a man and mermaid.

In their appearance, mermen do not differ much from mermaids. They are mythical creatures who have a form of an upper human torso, and a lower half of a fish tail. Originally celebrated as the deities, mermen slowly slipped back into the legends as the ordinary mythological creatures of the sea, who very rarely show up on the surface. The reason for that was sometimes because of their shyness and sometimes because their ugliness.

The best-known deities that had the form of mermen were Babylonian Oannes, Ea (also known as Enki in Sumerian mythology) and Dagon (sea god of fertility). However, the most famous mermen God was celebrated in Greece. Triton, son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, was regularly depicted on stone walls and pottery as strikingly handsome mermen with a fish tail. He often carried a trident and a twisted conch shell (which he used to control the sea and calm or raise storms) and was believed to have the power to multiply himself into a host of smaller sea spirit demons called Triones. Indian Hindu religion also celebrates mermen, as they are thought to be the first incarnation of their supreme deity Vishnu (the only difference to the modern mermen is the presence of two sets of arms, each holding one artifact - conch shell, wheel, Lotus, and Mace).

Around the world, many cultures have their myths and folklore tales about mermen. Here are some of the most notable ones:

• The region of Amazon River is a home of a myth of boto -fresh water mermen who is responsible for seducing and impregnating many women while being transformed into full human form.
• Finnish mythology is portraying mermen as powerful and handsome creatures that wield magic and have the ability to cure illnesses, lift curses and brew potions. They are most often depicted with a beard made from seaweeds, and are sometimes capable of causing much destruction if they come to close to human civilization.
• Glaucus was a man from Greek mythology who one day found a grass with magical properties. After he ate it, he quickly transformed into mermen, who was latter elevated by the gods into one of the Greeks many sea spirits.

With the rise of the modern view of mermaids that started with the appearance of the Hans Christian Andersen's fairytale "The Little Mermaid", mermen revived an increased attention in the minds of the public. During the last few decades, mermen became part of many fantasy settings as one of the most common dwellers of the sea, and with each passing year, their appeal grows more and more. Some of the most famous examples of mermen in modern culture can be found in the Disney's "The Little Mermaid" franchise of cartoons, DC Comics mythology, and one of the main villains from the popular "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" cartoon in the 1980s.

(Source: http://www.realmermaids.net/mermaid-facts/mermen/)

My treasured Poseidon brooch, which was an anniversary gift from my husband a few years ago, was the Olympian Greek god of seas, storms, earthquakes, and horses. 

(image source: www.ebay.com)

The very first pic above is of my gorgeous merman (part of a set along with a mermaid) statue made of plaster. I found them in a store called, "The Gothic Shop" many  years back which has since closed.

No real surprise here, Phil!

Happy Imbolg and Groundhog Day, friends! Well, it snowed ALL DAY yesterday and through the night ...

My husband spent hours last night shoveling out a path in our driveway and digging out both of our cars ...

What do you think of the snow sculpture of my husband's car? The artist? Mother Nature, of course. 

We also lost power THREE times, but fortunately it came back up again. My employer closed yesterday but not today so I had to use up one of my few PTO days as we were snowed in and plowed in by the Borough trucks who had nowhere else to go with all the messy snow. Anyway, I plan on returning to work tomorrow as the roads should be a bit better by then hopefully.

Hope everyone is doing fine and staying safe and warm!

Lazy snow day

Yes, friends, we most definitely GOT IT today and it is not supposed to actually stop until early tomorrow. In the meantime, both my husband and I got lucky as my work was cancelled and Brett was told to stay home and online job train for the day. Tomorrow is supposed to be even worse than today to drive in, so we shall see IF I am going in tomorrow or not.

So, I ended up spending a little quality time with the kitties. Ginger is fascinated by the snow and watching the moving white stuff fall down from the sky - she is so funny because she tries to catch the snowflakes ...

Lady Tabitha prefers to watch it from her favorite window in the cats room ...

The view from Merlin's back catio window ...

Ginger still watching from her window, wait for it, wait for it ...

Mwwwah, mommy's sweet little girl ...

Fingers crossed for what is in store for us here tomorrow!

Oh yeah, and Happy first day of February!!