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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 months

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"Celebrations of the second anniversary of the Provincial Workmen’s Association [PWA], held on 2 September 1882 and detailed in the Trades Journal, signalled a new public presence for the miners in Cape Breton County. Union loyalties that had been forced underground in earlier decades were now openly and widely vaunted, and they were powerfully shaped by Highland cultural forms and symbols. At Cow Bay, members of Eastern and Banner Lodges assembled and marched in procession to welcome lodges from Little Glace Bay (Keystone) and Big Glace Bay (Wilson). “So enrapturing was Scotland’s favorite melody to whose note they marched, that the countryman is excusable who mistook them for a rising clan who had substituted the uniform blue for the Tartan.” Joining with the Glace Bay lodges about a mile outside the village, the members of the four lodges proceeded together through the Gowrie Mines and the Block House Mines before assembling on the picnic ground

At Caledonia Mines, 100 members of Equity Lodge gathered and “formed into a procession and marched gaily from thence to the invigorating strains of [a] highland pibroch,” through the “manager’s beautiful park, then to Bridgeport.” Here, the procession was joined by members of Island Lodge as well as the Reserve Mines lodge (Unity). The enlarged procession of about 450, clothed in PWA regalia, carried on through the Lorway Mines before arriving at Reserve, where several platforms had been erected in an open field. On these, the men with their “wives, sweethearts, cousins and aunts … danced to the best music the Island of C.B. could furnish.” At 12:30, the group moved to a hall where “the tables groaned under a bountiful supply of the good things of this life”; later, the manager, D. J. Kennelly, paid a visit and was “well pleased with the deportment of ‘his boys.’” Members of Equity Lodge departed afterward in order to attend a “grand ball” at Little Glace Bay that lasted until 9 p.m.

Exactly three weeks later, Drummond Lodge celebrated its first anniversary at Sydney Mines and North Sydney. A procession of 250 members of Drummond Lodge, along with members of some of the other lodges, was gathered. A correspondent reported the scene:

the order of the march was two deep. First came four pioneers followed by the ‘drum and fife’ corps, next our country’s flag, the Union Jack, next officers of lodge, next a body of at least 100 Brothers, next and near to centre, our banner borne by four bros. with the words ‘Drummond Lodge No. 8 of P.W.A.[’] on one side, and Unity, Equity, and Progress, on the other side. Close by marched two of our native pipers, who well performed their part, followed by the remainder of procession in the midst of whom were two more of our native ‘sons of heather’ with their bag pipes.

The procession moved to Albert Corbett’s storefront, where “three deafening cheers” were given to the sympathetic merchant before the group continued on to North Sydney. Here, the streets were crowded with spectators. W. H. Moore & Co., supporters of the miners in the 1876 strike, had set up a line of flags for the occasion, one of which was stamped “success to the P.W.A.” Three cheers were made for this mercantile enterprise. !e group then returned to Sydney Mines to gather at the Temperance Hall, where three platforms were set up for dancers “young and old,” “treading time to the rich violin music of Messrs. T. Ling and J. Nicholson, and to the music of the pipers.”

The place of the fiddle, pipes, and step dancing at these gatherings revealed ways in which Highland cultural traditions became integrated into the common culture of the coal country. Support from local merchants and sympathetic mine managers, as well as associations with British loyalism, confirmed the sense of a stable and powerful PWA presence. And the processions through the coal villages carried considerable symbolic importance as a claim upon public space. !is was the environment that sustained the Lingan strike. The Glace Bay Mining Company had agreed to take on workmen from Lingan as Drummond operated, in effect, as adviser to the company; the Cape Breton PWA lodges contributed to a fund to support the strikers; and William McDonald accommodated the Glace Bay Mining Company and the prevailing feeling on the ground. The miners and the PWA commanded considerable local strength."

- Don Nerbas, “‘Lawless Coal Miners’ and the Lingan Strike of 1882–1883: Remaking Political Order on Cape Breton’s Sydney Coalfield,” Labour/Le Travail 92 (Fall 2023), 107-109.

#cape breton #glace bay nova scotia #coal mining #coal miners #mining company #resource extraction #resource capitalism #nineteenth century canada #working class struggle #union organizing #social history #canadian history #working class history #academic quote #reading 2024 #scottish immigration to canada

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nickysfacts · 2 months

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Thank you Scotland for gifting lumberjacks and school girls everywhere a stylish pattern to wear no matter the circumstance!📚🪓

💙🤍💙

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burningchandelier · 4 months

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My mom got a DNA test done and it didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know.

Ukrainian Ashkenazi. The Wiseman Family.

We know where we come from.

We went as far North as we could when there was nowhere safe for us in Eastern Europe. We made a home for ourselves in Lerwick, Scotland. Scotland, the only country in Europe that has never expelled Jews, kept us safe for a while, but a poor family could only live at the end of the world in the Arctic Circle for so long. There were too many fishermen and not enough people to buy fish.

Between wars, we went South again, to Germany. We didn’t stay.

I am grateful every day that my great-great grandfather could see that there was trouble coming for his family. He sent his four children and wife to Canada and followed the next year. So many of us did not.

We found a place in Toronto where we watched what happened to our loved ones in Europe. We forgot Hebrew. It was easier that way.

My great-grandmother kept secrets:

Her first daughter, born out of wedlock, was raised by her parents as one of their own.

Her second daughter was told that her father was dead, rather than divorced away (it was a different time— divorce was shameful, death was inevitable).

Her job was mysterious. Officially, she worked for the state department as a pay roll clerk. I don’t know why any pay roll clerks would have traveled to Russia during the Cold War, but she did many times.

The secret she kept the longest was her heritage. As far as anyone knew, she was a severe Scottish immigrant and fiercely proud of it. Only my mother, her favorite, had suspicions.

When Granny Annie Wiseman died, she left everything to her favorite granddaughter. The money, the house, and everything inside it. Every memory of who we are.

Years later, my mother fell in love with a Jewish man. They raised me together. I had the privileges and the pains of knowing who I was. I carry our family burdens and I honor them.

Someday, I will name my daughter after the woman I never met who passed our heritage to me through the simple and brave act of survival. Her assimilation kept us alive. Her secrets got me here. She left the breadcrumbs that let us find our way home.

We know where we come from.

#jumblr #jewish heritage #jewish history #family history

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paddysnuffles · 7 months

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halloween is a celtic festival, it was brought over to the americas by scottish & irish immigrants. you might be thinking of the phrase "trick-or-treat" which is definitely canadian?

@77bears You're absolutely right, it started in Celtic British cultures.

I was referencing the gif that called Halloween an "American holiday" but I probably should have made it more clear that I meant in the sense of "in the Americas".

But modern Halloween as a whole is, as far as we have evidence for, a Canadian invention. One of the earliest mentions of people dressing up and going door to door is in 1898 in Vancouver:

^ Vancouver Daily World (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) Wednesday, November 02, 1898, pg. 6.

though there are earlier mentions of Halloween in Canada dating to at least 1820.

By 1910 in Winnipeg, we have the first recorded evidence of Halloween being widespread, as Halloween candy buckets were being advertised:

^ The Winnipeg Tribune (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada) Tuesday, October 18, 1910, pg. 10.

Halloween pranks were first reported in an 1898 Vancouver newspaper article saying that Halloween pranks would not be a problem that year.

And, like you mentioned, "trick or treat" was first recorded in Canada -- in 1927 in Blackie, Alberta (only a few hours away from where I live!)

#halloween #happy halloween #canada #ask response #i'm just saying #world history #halloween history #did you know #random facts #alberta #united states #trick or treat #canadian history #holiday

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sevendeadlyyamis · 2 months

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BFDI Ethnicity HCs

Why? I just feel like it.

Characters will be sorted in alphabetical order in their post-split BFB and TPOT teams (And also the exitors):

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Note: In a human au, I imagine them all living in Canada. Just keep that in mind when reading this blog post.

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Have Cots:

- Balloony : Romani British (His grandparents are from Romania) - Bubble: 1/3 Ukranian, 2/3 Mongolian (Her mother immigrated to Mongolia in her 20s) - Gelatin : Hawaiian - Leafy : 1/2 Tagalog-Filipino, 1/2 Saudi Arabian (Tree is her father and Woody is her half-brother) - Lollipop : Black Hungarian (Her ancestors were from South Africa, and Teardrop is her niece) - Ruby: Chinese (Although some of her sisters are 1/2 Thai) - Teardrop: Romani Hungarian (Lollipop is zer aunt)

Have Nots:

- Blocky : 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 Scottish - Firey: Ojibwe (Ojibwe people are one of the Indigenous groups in Canada. Firey Jr is his cousin) - Flower : 1/3 Irish, 2/3 Turkish - Loser : African-American (Specifically Libyan) - Spongy : Francophone (French-Canadian) - Taco : Chilean - Woody : 1/2 Saudi-Arabian, 1/2 Taiwanese (His half-sister is Leafy and his father in Tree)

The S!:

- Bottle : 1/4 Turkish , 3/4 Korean - Clock : Finnish (White) - Cloudy : 1/2 Belgian, 1/2 Palestinian - Ice Cube : Korean - Rocky : Brazilian - Winner : Desi (Their great-grandparents are from Pakistan) - Yellow Face : Born and raised Anglophone (English Canadian)

Team8s:

- Barf Bag : Malaysian - Coiny : Egyptian - Donut : Indonesian-German - Gaty : 3/4 Greek, 1/4 Cree (Indigenous Canadian tribe) - Needle : Japanese - Pin : 1/2 Malgasy , 1/2 Indian (Grandmother on her mother's side is from Madagascar and her father is from India) - Saw : Japanese

Death P.A.C.T again!:

- Black Hole : 1/2 South African, 1/2 Romani Hungarian - Fanny : Iroquois (Indigenous Canadian tribe) - Lightning : 1/2 Anglophone, 1/2 Korean - Marker : Mexican (Pen and Pencil are his cousins) - Pie: Iranian (She's also a muslim) - Remote : Afro-Syrian - Tree : Saudi Arabian-Australian

The Strongest Team On Earth:

- Basketball : Hispanic Danish (Her ancestors are from Peru) - Bell : 1/3 Chilean, 2/3 Metis - Eggy : Latin American - Foldy : Japanese - Grassy : Anglophone (Black) - Robot Flower : Black German - Snowball : Icelandic

Just Not:

- Bomby : 1/2 Chinese, 1/2 African American - Book : Black Francophone - Cake : 1/3 Puerto Rican, 2/3 Colombian (His parents are both black) - Naily : Taiwanese - Nickel : Indonesian (May or not be related to II Nickel) - Pillow : 1/2 Swedish, 1/2 Japanese - Price Tag : Manobo-Filipino (Manobo are Indigenous people that reside in the Philipines

Are You Okay?:

- Eraser : Indian-Polish - Fries : Peruvian - Golf ball : 1/2 Scottish, 1/2 Nigerian (Her mother immigrated to Canada from Nigeria when she was a teenager which is when she met Golf ball's father in an airport (He's a year younger than her[*Golfball's mom] ). ) - Pen : Mexican (Pencil is his sister and Marker is his cousin) - Puffball : 1/2 Vietnamese , 1/2 Anglophone (White) - Tennis ball : 3/4 British , 1/4 Thai - TV : Ukranian

Exitors:

- Pencil : Mexican (Pen is her sibling and Marker is her cousin) - Bracelety : 1/2 Greek, 1/2 South African - Liy : 1/2 Slavic-Greek, 1/2 Vietnamese - Roboty : Unknown - 8-Ball : Japanese - Stapy : Italian-Peruvian - Match : 1/2 Metis, 1/2 Afro-Mexican - Firey Jr : 1/2 Ojibwe, 1/2 Mexican (Firey is his cousin) - David : 1/2 Francophone, 1/2 German - Dora : Colombian

Others:

- Profily : Laos-Anglophone (Their grandparents immigrated to Canada in the 70s) - Onigiri : 1/2 Korean, 1/2 Japanese - Evil Leafy : Taiwanese (Woody's mother adopted her when she was 8) - Tune : Cantonese

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So that is everything: Thank you for listening

#bfb #bfdi #battle for bfb #battle for bfdi #tpot #the power of two #yami rambles #anti dni #battle for dream island #alt-right dni #bfb human au #bfb humanized #bfdi humanized #bfdia #battle for dream island again

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consanguinitatum · 9 months

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David Tennant audios: Tuesdays & Sundays is an audio gem

As you all know by now, surely, I'm a David Tennant theatre buff, but right now I want to explore my other major passion with regards to his work: his audios. He's done a bewildering amount of audio work and a lot of it is really, really good. With that in mind, I'm going to concentrate on one of my absolute favorite David Tennant audio works: a 2003 audio entitled Tuesdays & Sundays.

Based on a true story of an 1887 series of events between a young woman named Mary Tuplin and her lover William Millman in Margate on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, Tuesdays & Sundays begins with the young couple's spirits as they "awaken into a void. As they question where they are, they recall and begin to relive the story which got them there: their giddy courtship and the overwhelming passions of first love, the pangs of a six-month absence, an unplanned pregnancy, and a guilty and shameful young man amidst a community in which respectability is of utmost importance. As they try to cope, to keep love amongst the fear and confusions of youth, these two spirits ultimately stumble upon their own tragic ending."

Sounds intriguing, yes?

Tuesdays & Sundays was originally a 45-minute play written by Canadians Daniel Arnold and Medina Hahn. It was first performed in June 2000 in Edmonton, Canada, with the authors as the two principal characters William and Mary. Arnold and Hahn took the play on tours throughout Canada, Europe and the US and won many awards, including the Sterling Haynes Award for Outstanding Fringe Performance.

In 2003, Arnold and Hahn were asked to adapt the play for radio; one for Canada's CBC Radio (which starred themselves) and once for the BBC. I spoke to Arnold about how the play got adapted, and he told me, “CBC Radio was the first to approach us about a radio version, and we performed it on CBC Radio with minimal adaptation. The Edinburgh Festival is where Sara Benaim of the BBC saw it, and asked about a radio adaptation for BBC Radio 4. We adapted the play accordingly, and…re-set it to [Tusket in] Nova Scotia, where there was much more Scottish settlement. Margate on Prince Edward Island was much more English. We made…the characters both immigrants from Scotland, which actually worked quite well.”

The BBC adaptation was broadcast on 16 June 2003 as the BBC Radio 4 Afternoon play and starred David as William and Claire Yuille (who later appeared in the first episode of 2010’s Single Father, credited only as a “Doting Mum") as Mary. And on top of all that, David and Claire also voiced all of the play's other minor characters!

Of David’s turn as the young William Millman, Arnold told me, “We were quite taken with his performance in it.” He added, “We were thrilled when we learned David Tennant would play (my role) William…and when we heard the recording on the BBC, it sounded fantastic.”

And it DOES! In my opinion, there are so many reasons why this play is stupendous. David and Claire are top-drawer. The dialogue is back and forth, breathless and imbued with teenaged giddiness, bullet-paced and conversational - both with each other and in asides to themselves - and it must've taken some doing for the two actors to get this pace down just right without running over the top of each other and blurring it into chaos. But instead, it creates a perfect tension-filled atmosphere that draws an audience in and makes this play a must-hear.

By this time I imagine you're wondering where you can hear or read this play. Well, here's a partial script. Here's the original Canadian radio broadcast at the Internet Archive (which is a great listen in and of itself) but, sadly, hearing David's version had become a bit more difficult. The Internet Archive had a copy once but it's been removed, and Arnold and Hahn's DualMinds website has almost 5 minutes of the play, but as it's based in Flash Player good luck getting it to work. But I won't tell if you won't tell - so go get it here while it's still available. ;)

Here's a cute little David in advertising for the play - and below, some other historical information about the events the play is based on. If you don't want to know anything about the play before listening to it (spoilers!) then don't look beyond this photo!

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The real Mary Pickering Tuplin was 17 years old when she was murdered, and her lover William Millman was convicted of the crime. Tuplin’s body was pulled from the Southwest River on July 4, 1887, just a short distance from where she lived with her parents in Margate. She had been shot twice in the head. Her body was weighed down with a heavy stone, and it was discovered she had been six months pregnant. Authorities separated her head from her body for forensic examination, and - bizarrely - it was never reunited with her body. It remained in the coroner's office, which eventually became a pharmacy. And there it remained until 2016, when it was finally reburied with the rest of her remains.

If true crime is your thing, you can access the entire report of the Tuplin-Millman murder trial, right here!

William Millman was convicted of Mary Tuplin's murder and was sentenced to hang. Despite the jury’s recommendation for mercy, he was hanged on 10 April 1888.

Many believe him innocent of the crime. Was he? It's highly unlikely we will never know.

#DavidTennant #DavidTennantAudios #Tuesdays&Sundays #ObscureDavidTennantPerformances

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barbucomedie · 11 days

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Officer's Uniform of The Irish Regiment of Canada from Canada dated to 1959 on display at the National Museum of Ireland-Decorative Arts and History in Dublin, Republic of Ireland

Across the British Empire and in other countries Irish immigrants formed regiments in the national armies of these countries. They often used Irish symbols and national dress to identify themselves but the Irish Regiment of Canada from 1931 used the Scottish kilt and the balmoral cap making them the only kilted Irish regiment in the world.

Photographs taken by myself 2017

#uniform #art #military history #fashion #ireland #irish #20th century #national museum of ireland #dublin #barbucomedie

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scotianostra · 8 months

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James McGill was born on October 6th, 1744 in Glasgow.

A name most of you will be unfamiliar with but McGill ask any Canadian and they will tell about the man who founded one of their top Universities that bears his name.

During his studies at Glasgow University, McGill was shaped by the values of the Scottish Enlightenment. Although he left university without completing a degree—a fact likely due to his family’s poor fortunes—his education instilled in him a lifelong love of new ideas, and a commitment to give serious thought to the beliefs and opinions of others, no matter how at odds they were with his own worldview.

Sometime before 1766, McGill immigrated to North America and entered the rough-and-tumble world of the fur trade. His hard work and French fluency served him well as he spent much of the following nine years in almost constant danger, navigating the rivers and lakes of the Great Lakes frontier, wintering in unmapped wilderness and living off the land.

By 1775, McGill had established himself as a successful merchant, trading in furs, ammunition and general goods. He said goodbye to bush life and used his fortune to settle in Montreal. There he married an industrious francophone widow, Charlotte, and became stepfather to her young sons.

McGill's dedication to public service distinguished him from many of his fur-trading contemporaries. A volunteer Colonel with the Montreal militia, he led the defence of Montreal during the War of 1812. He served as a city magistrate for many years, making him part of a council that was the de facto government of Montreal at the time. He was also a member of a committee that reported on the need for a Legislative Assembly for the colony of Lower Canada, to which he would be elected three times.

Always a visionary, McGill was determined to create a rigorous system of education for Lower Canada. During his time as a legislator, he participated in the debates that would lead to the establishment of the Royal Institute for the Advancement of Learning (RIAL), a body designed to establish a formal educational system in the colony.

McGill took great care of the welfare of others, including his step-children and the orphan daughter of a friend. This ecumenical and generous spirit manifested itself in his final will, which, after his death in 1813, revealed a bequest to the RIAL for the founding of a college.

Spurred on by the gift, the RIAL became the governing body for McGill College, which was officially established in 1821. McGill College is a regular top performer and is usually in the top 30 universities in the world.

The pics are McGill by Canadian artist Louis Dulongpré and a statue of the man at McGill College's downtown campus in Montreal.

#scotland #scottish #history #Canada #Teacher

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appalachianwarlock · 2 months

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Term's Hillbilly and Redneck

The term "hillbilly" in the United States started early in the 18th century when British soldiers began using it when referring to Scots-Irish immigrants who lived in the frontier areas of the Ozarks and Appalachian Mountains. These Protestant Irish colonists brought their traditions with them when they immigrated. Many of their stories, songs, and ballads dealt with the history of their Ulster and Lowland Scot homelands, especially relating the tale of the Protestant King William III, Prince of Orange. Many of the settlers in the Appalachian mountains were of German origin and were named Wilhelm with the short form Willy, a common German name during that time. Those Wilhelms, who went by Bill or Billy, living in the Appalachian Mountains became known as hillbillies, that is Bills who lived in the hills. The term emerged as a derogatory nickname given by the coastal plain-dwelling Southerners to the hill-dwelling settlers of Eastern Tennessee, Western Virginia (including modern West Virginia), and Eastern Kentucky.

The term Appalachian Hillbillies arose in the years after The War Between the States, when the Appalachian region became increasingly bypassed by technological and social changes taking place in the rest of the country. Until The War Between the States, the Appalachians were not significantly different from other rural areas of the country, but after the war, as the frontier pushed further west, the Appalachian country retained its frontier character, and the people themselves came to be considered as backward, quick to violence, and to make their living from moonshine stills. Fueled by news stories of mountain feuds, such as that in the 1880s between the Hatfields and McCoys, the hillbilly stereotype developed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

The origins of the term "redneck" are Scottish and refer to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, or Covenanters, largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom would flee Scotland for Ulster (Northern Ireland) during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church. Although the term "redneck" is characterized by farmers having a red neck caused by sunburn from hours working in the fields, many Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia. Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially in the South) were Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern descendants. One of the earliest examples of its use comes from 1830, when an author noted that red-neck was a name bestowed upon the Presbyterians.

The term Redneck refers to a stereotype of usually rural, Caucasian people of lower socio-economic status in the United States and Canada. Originally limited to the Appalachians, and later the South, the Ozarks, the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, this stereotype is now widespread throughout North America. Southern comedian Jeff Foxworthy defines "redneck" as "a glorious lack of sophistication" stating that we are all guilty of at one time or another. The common stereotype of a "redneck" is a group of people that are generally from The South, though can be found throughout the United States. They are considered uncivilized, uneducated, racist, enjoy outdoor sports such as hunting and fishing, and country music. They know how to work on a farm, can fix their own vehicles, and know how to make moonshine. They tend to live in the backwoods.

The terms "hillbilly/redneck" is often misunderstood by those north of the Mason-Dixon line. Many Yankees use these terms to refer to Southerners and treat them as if they were illiterate, uneducated, inbred, and backward compared to the rest of the United States. you know what you believe and you aren't afraid to say so, no matter who is listening; you respect your elders; or, you'd give your last dollar to a friend in need.

(Edited From Facebook)

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kirsteninthesun · 1 year

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Mandatory Redesign

Ok, say the slate was wiped clean and we were forced to rewrite every. single. AG. historical. (And make them not resemble their original characters)

Kaya is Confidence, a Pilgrim girl living in New England, whose family has been in the colonies since the 1600s. Despite her name, Confidence is a shy girl who prefers to stay indoors and has trouble making friends. Her parents appreciate their dutiful daughter but worry for her future given her solitary nature. She likes to sew, knit, and draw. Over the course of her stories, she befriends a younger girl living next door, six year old Hope, and starts teaching her household skills. Through offering to teach others, she “grows into her name” as her mother says, and finds a place in her community. She has a Marie Grace mold, the lightest skin tone, light brown hair, and green eyes.

Felicity is Kimimela, a Lakota girl from the general area of North Dakota. She is athletic and high energy, and a problem solver. She tends to drift away from her responsibilities to create things of her own, and uses unorthodox ways of doing things that sometimes frustrate others. Her story focuses on her and her family’s day to day lives, trade, and an incident of conflict with the Ojibwa later in her series. Mostly, though, her story is about striking a balance between listening to your elders and teachers and coming up with ideas yourself. She has a unique facemold (close to an Addy mold with thinner lips and more Jess-like eyes), a dark medium skin tone, long dark hair with a center part, and two braids.

Caroline is Manette (short for Marie), a Haitian-American girl. She is a first generation immigrant to Louisiana, her family having left after the revolution to seek work in the United States. She is shy and a daydreamer, something that frustrates her practical mother. She likes to draw. She has a five year old brother and a much older sister, who lives in Haiti and has recently married. She would have a Claudie mold and come with her hair in microbraids. She would have Claudie’s skin tone as well.

Josefina is Aileen, a girl living in Maine on a small family homestead where her family taps maple trees to make syrup. Her family are Scottish Catholics forced out of Scotland during the Highland Clearances, and they speak a mixture of Gaelic and English at home. She likes making maple candy, swinging on a set of swings her father made for her and her older brother, and dreams of one day living in a big city. Her brother has left home and is working as a fisherman, something that makes her parents nervous. She would have a Classic mold, the classic light skin tone, and have long strawberry blonde hair worn in curls.

MG and Cecile would be Tsintah and Mayra, a Navajo girl and Mexican-American girl. Tsintah’s family herds sheep and Mayra’s father is a cowboy. The girls meet up when Tsintah comes into town to trade wool, and Mayra starts riding her horse out to help Tsintah on the ranch to make a little extra money. The girls watch the sheep together, keeping each other safe, and they use that to escape from the difficulties of their respective lives and the pressures of growing up. They like to make jewelry and make up stories. Tsintah would have a unique mold, medium-dark skin, and long braided hair. Mayra would have medium length hair, slightly lighter skin (maybe classic medium), a Josefina mold, and freckles.

Kirsten is Aurienne, an Acadian girl whose family is forced out of Canada by the British during the expulsion and travels south to Louisiana. She was previously outgoing and happy, but has retreated into herself due to the trauma of fleeing the country, and the war. She likes to sew, and makes rag dolls for the other Acadian refugee children. Her uncle died in the war, something that deeply troubles her mother. Her twin brother wants to return to Canada to fight despite being ten. Aurienne has a Marie-Grace mold, the next to lightest skin tone, streaky blonde hair in a complex braided style, and a birthmark near her eye.

Addy is Keava, a first generation Irish American girl from New York City whose father volunteers to fight for the Union. Her father is proud to fight for the country, but many other Irish immigrants are resentful of the draft, and riots break out in her neighborhood. When her father returns from the war, he is traumatized by many of the things he’s seen, and considers returning the family to Ireland, which forces Keava to confront her position in America and her fears of not fitting in anywhere else. She is sporty and high energy, and often plays with her best friend Mary, whose father died in the war. Keava has a Classic mold and long, straight strawberry blonde hair with a side part, which comes in a thick side braid a la Josefina. She has the next to lightest skin tone.

Samantha is Karen, a Norwegian girl who immigrates to North Dakota with her single mother. Her mother has a sister in America, and the death of Karen’s father means that her mother can no longer support herself in Norway. Her story deals with the conflict between mother-country ethnic groups and their diasporas, as Karen is very different from her Americanized relatives. (I take inspiration from Rebecca and Ana here.) Karen struggles in school and has dyslexia and dyscalculia. She likes to paint and draw, and is very imaginative. She also likes traditional folk embroidery. She envies kids with siblings, and imagines herself as part of a big wealthy family back in Norway. Her desire to return home is not resolved. Over the course of the story, her mother meets a man she marries, and Karen accepts her new stepfather slowly but learns to love him. The story ends with them having a new baby, and she begins to connect her daydreams to her real life and stop living in fantasy all the time. Karen has medium length light blonde hair with bangs and a Classic mold, and the lightest skin tone. She also has freckles.

Rebecca is Ailuen, a Chinese immigrant to San Francisco. She immigrated when she was four, and does not remember China. She attends a small school for the first time in her life. She is a talented singer and wants to sing in the opera one day. Her father is offered a job opportunity mining near Death Valley, and she is uprooted once again, taking her out of school and to the hottest, driest place in the country. She does not like living there, and the hard work affects her family. Her brother becomes ill and she stands up to the company town owner to get medicine for him. By the end of her series, her family returns to San Francisco. She is assertive and strong, and takes initiative to meet her needs and help others. She likes wordplay and scary stories. Ailuen would have the Corinne mold, the classic light tone, and shoulder length black hair.

Claudie is Yael, a Jewish girl living in New Jersey. She likes music, and plays violin like her uncle, who she is close with. Her mother’s side of the family is more conservative than her father’s, and there’s conflict between them that she sometimes struggles to navigate or understand. She is shy around strangers, but around her family and friends she’s funny and friendly. When her uncle leaves New Jersey for New York City, Yael feels betrayed and hurt and runs away from home to find him. She makes it to New York City, but the trip is scary and dangerous, and she learns her lesson about running away. Yael has the Josefina mold, dark tight curls just past her shoulders, and a custom skin tone, kind of an “olive” tone. She also wears wire rimmed glasses.

Kit is Mariama, a Gullah girl who wants to be a movie star. She saves pennies under her bed to move to Hollywood, where she imagines acting in movies of her own creation. But those dreams are a long way away, and at home her boring responsibilities frustrate her. She has twin baby brothers who eat up her parents attention and a grandmother who scares her a little. Over the story she grows to respect her grandmother and learn more about her, and it turns out her grandmother is very receptive to her wild dreams. She promises to one day act in a movie about her grandmother’s life. Mariama has the Addy mold, long textured hair that comes in thick twists, and the darkest skin tone.

Nanea is Lynne Muuka, an Aleut girl who is displaced during WW2. Her family is removed from her home and sent to a camp on the peninsula, where illness and fear are rampant. She hears the story of Attu Island, which was invaded by the Japanese and its inhabitants taken prisoner or killed. Her parents are subsistence hunters and she fears for her beloved dogs. At the camp, she befriends a girl who has lost her mother to influenza. Her story would close with her family being relocated to Dutch Harbor, where they must find a new way of life in fishing, which would extend it past the end of the war/Nanea’s timeline. She has a baby brother who she brings everywhere. They don’t see their dogs again, but in Dutch Harbor she gets a puppy. Her story would look critically at the US government’s actions in WW2 (as Nanea’s did). Lynne Muuka would have the Jess mold, Kanani’s skin tone, and two black braids halfway down her back (think Molly.)

Molly is Mariela, a Mexican-American girl from LA who loses her father in the war. She faces everyone else celebrating while she feels like “she’s the Germans” because she “lost” the war. Her grief translates into isolation and irritability, and she lashes out at her mother and siblings, and neglects her schoolwork. She likes baseball and soccer, and in school enjoys playing drums in band. As the story progresses, she opens up to her mother about her grief. She visits her father’s family in Mexico, which helps her feel like he’s not “all the way gone”. She has the Addy mold, a medium skin tone, bobbed dark hair with half-bangs, and dark eyes.

Maryellen is Yekatarina, called Katya, Katenka, or Katie, who is a Russian-American girl living in Denver. She is cheerful and enthusiastic, and willing to open up to strangers. She and her brother have a newspaper route. Her parents left Russia when they were young, just after the revolution, and it’s difficult to communicate with her grandparents. She fears that her parents might be arrested for writing to Russia, a worry that bullies at school reinforce. She wants to be a vet, and loves feeding the stray cats in the neighborhood. Katya has a unique mold (think Jess eyes, Josefina nose, Classic lips), the lightest skin tone, blue eyes, and medium length dark blonde going on brown hair with bangs.

Melody is Ellen, a girl living in rural North Texas during the oil boom. She’s a friendly but not overly outgoing girl with a big group of friends. She’s a barrel racer, her family farms pecans, and she loves horses, dogs, and cows. Her beloved aunt lives in Dallas, and Ellen goes on a trip all by herself to visit. She loves games and is competitive. She and her friends often have sleepovers. She has three siblings. Ellen has the Joss mold, green eyes, very light blonde hair worn in French braids, and the lightest skin tone.

Julie is Kim-Khanh, a Vietnamese girl living in Cajun country. She was born in Vietnam but doesn’t remember it, though her brother has troubling memories of the war. She’s friendly and creative, loves drawing and painting, and draws all over the walls of her bedroom. Her dad is a fisherman who often delivers to fusion cuisine restaurants. Her mom operates a home daycare. She wants to be a comic book artist. She babysits with her friends for pocket change, which she spends on candy and comic books. She has the Jess mold, the classic medium skin tone, and long, straight dark hair with two braids like Julie’s in the sides.

Courtney is Heather, who lives in Yellowstone with her biologist and geologist parents, and has cerebral palsy and uses crutches. Her mom is very invested in disability activism. She likes nature photography and is lonely without many kids in the park. She goes to all the talks and activities for kids, but the friendships she makes are short. A boy, Charlie, arrives in the park, living with his single park ranger father. He’s fifteen, but like Heather, he’s bored being on his own, and so they go off on adventures together, often on horseback. Heather has been doing horse therapy since she was a toddler, and she’s a better rider than walker. The kids explore the whole park and encounter tourists, wild animals, and geothermal pools. When Charlie gets a long distance girlfriend who comes to visit, Heather feels left out. Heather has short brown curls, a Classic mold, dark brown eyes, lots of freckles, and the classic light skin tone.

Isabel and Nicki are Annie, a Blackfeet girl living in Browning, Montana. Her brother is a member of the Chief Mountain Hotshots, a star firefighting crew. Annie loves puzzles, and once won a talent show by solving a Rubix cube in under a minute. Her love for puzzles makes her a natural with computers. She spends every minute she can on the library computers, and dreams of having one at home. Her brother buys her a GameBoy with his newfound firefighter money. She is a little bit of a know-it-all. She’s outgoing, friendly, and talkative. She challenges herself to build and solve puzzles in new ways, like solving a jigsaw blindfolded or building a wooden block puzzle based on drawings from a library book. She has the Jess mold, long black braids, Kanani’s skin tone, and glasses.

#mandatory redesign #ocs

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 2 years

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“IMMIGRANT CHARGED WITH THEFT OF HORSE,” Owen Sound Sun Times. April 15, 1932. Page 11. ---- Gordon Perkins of Proton Remanded for Judgment --- Gordon Perkins, an Old Country immigrant who has been in Canada but two years, appeared in police court on Friday morning charged with the theft of a horse from his employer, Dan Mclnnis of Proton township. He pleaded not guilty and the evidence of Mclnnis and Chief of Police Murcar of Dundalk were taken. Perkins had taken the horse and buggy and traded it. He was remanded a week for judgment.

#proton township #owen sound #stolen horse #horse and buggy #stolen rig #stealing from the boss #selling stolen goods #life of the horse #theft #horse theft #horse thief #great depression in canada #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada #scottish immigration to canada

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sundownintheparisoftheprairies · 2 years

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Thoughts about Mattie as the prairies opened up?

!!!!!!

Okay so,

The prairies have always been in the back of Matt's head as like. 'im aware it exists but it's fuzzy and doesn't really matter'.

Fur Traders both French and British prowled the area from like 1640s-1840s with some British making homesteads as well. But it was never really Matts. The Red River colony is Metis and moved into the prairie area but Canada (like actual government ) really did not like them (shocker I know). This was mainly what we now know as Manitoba but back then even when it became part of Confederation it was called the postage stamp province because it was so small.

So for most of his colonial life if say he wasn't very connected or that aware of the prairies at all. It was mainly fur trading space and was very fuzzy and neglected. It also wasn't part of him for a while. I mean Alberta and Saskatchewan both joined Confederation in 1905. Matt was already pretty established by then.

In regards to gaining the land I don't think Matt as a person was prepared to get SO MUCH in such a little time. Just all of a sudden, BAM prairies, good luck son. Arthur basically just gave all of the Hudson Bay company over to Matt. And it was a lot of space and it was so different to what he was used too.

But they did kinda start what Canada is known for today? Immigration. Yes there was immigration to Canada before the prairies but it was mainly from the British isles. The prairies came and suddenly they didn't know what to do and called for immigration from other places. I live in a very Scottish and Ukrainian place just because those are the people who settled and influenced the area.

I think Matt would be unsettled at first and just overwhelmed by how different things were. Of course this also helped the railways and actually connect Canada together instead of there being this... Empty space that was technically England's but was never used. It made Matt feel more complete bit more.... Canadian. More than just a shadow of two empires.

Also I think he just shot up like a weed. Became even more lanky and tall in a short period of time. Those growing pains must have been brutal. But he was also more useful now that he had actual land that could grow things lol. Father was so proud.

Overall the prairies made him more him. Made him feel a sense of self and self worth and most importantly made father actually look at him. " Oh you can provide wheat for me? Good lad". "what's that? You found oil? I can pay less for you? Fantastic". " You are creating and producing illegal alcohol and selling it to your brother? That's my clever boy".

#aph canada #hws canada

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

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newsfromstolenland · 2 years

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Why are some villages and small towns more welcoming than others?

that's complicated

some towns were established by white supremacists, and were/are sundown towns and/or KKK towns, which is why they remain hostile to marginalized people

towns near reservations tend to go one of two ways, they either resent the local Indigenous community or feel solidarity with them

towns that were established by white immigrants (largely scottish and sometimes Irish for those in so-called canada) are often more welcoming because they come from colonized countries and sometimes experience xenophobia in canada, giving them more insight and solidarity with Indigenous and other racialized people.

some towns also have larger populations of racialized immigrants, which can also either lead to resentment or solidarity

the example I gave of the town closest to where my mom grew up is a heavily scottish town and I believe they're so welcoming because their ancestors were also colonized

towns that historically sheltered racialized people who had escaped slavery or residential schools or forced labour are more welcoming because of their history of defending racialized people

but sometimes it's more complicated than that. it all depends on the culture of a town, the way they view "outsiders", and there isn't always a clear-cut explanation for why they are the way they are

#asks #anonymous #mine

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handweavers · 2 years

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okay random question about your mention of orangemen in the canadian prairies - is that a lot of the irish descendents for the prairies? I've moved here only recently bc my wife is from here, and her irish ancestry is stronggg catholic irish lol. I'm familiar with the polish/ukrainian/etc immigration influences here, and how they were treated by english/scottish immigrants, but not enough about irish immigration evidently!

orangemen are exclusively protestant and usually scots-irish ancestry (the descendants of scottish settlers in northern ireland during the plantation of ulster) and basically function as like. hardcore right wing british nationalists, their ideology is fascist and extremely racist and pro-capitalist, they're british monarchists, they despise catholics and native irish, they typically occupy positions of wealth and status that have allowed them to exploit catholic irish in the north and play a huge role in the assimilation of the irish into the british anglophone sphere etc.) irish catholics are their main targets in ye olde country, so your wife's irish catholic family in the prairies likely comes from a very different background.

however, in canada wealthy scots-irish protestants of the orange order make up a significant number of former prime ministers, premiers, and men in other positions of power esp during the 1800s confederation period and the western imperial push across the prairies to the pacific coast. they ran many of the residential schools and orchestrated indigenous genocides, often in tandem with the catholic church which doesn't make sense from an old country perspective but from a "we are actively colonizing natives and doing genocide" perspective they had shared economic interests.

for example, it was men of orange who targeted louis riel and the red river colony, and it was them who hunted him to his death. they were the ruling class of the canadian nation-building period, they ran the local hudson's bay company outposts in rupert's land, they were the ones who established settlements and were the ones on the ground organizing genocide against indigenous peoples and in canadian parliament.

irish catholics in canada are also settlers of course but they generally held a different position in early-"canadian" society and in the process of imperial conquest of what would become canada. their position was closer to that of eastern european settlers, rather than the scots-irish/scottish/british ruling class.

#thankfully (?) my irish protty ancestors were poor and stayed in ireland instead of leaving to terrorize first nations #but its still an important history nonetheless

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weatherman667 · 1 year

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The Five Parts of Canada, for Non Canadians

Central: Southern Ontario and Quebec. Toronto thinks it’s New York City. Montreal is San Francisco with less gay and more New Orleans. This is Canada’s most populous region, and only thinks about itself. The parts of the US that consider the rest Flyover Country, but right next to each other. You will notice that they are called the Central region despite not being anywhere near the centre.

Atlantic: Consists of the Maritimes, along with Newfoundland and Labrador. They are often forgotten, even though they include 3 of the 5 original provinces of Canada. There were largely founded by Irish and Scottish immigrants, and includes some of the oldest regions in Canada. This is partially because they have never been economically successful enough to really improve themselves.

The West: Western Ontario through the Rockies. This is the conservative heartland that just wants to be left alone, and the Central Provinces have basically declared war with. If the US has a peaceful divorce, there is a high chance they’ll just join the Red faction. There is a strong desire to simply separate from the rest of Canada. They contain The Oil Patch, the majority of the Canadian. No link, because Wikipedia doesn’t have the article. Because Wikipedia doesn’t care about the opinions of the people that actually live there. They use the older and deprecated one that includes all of British Colombia.

Lower Mainland + Vancouver Island: Culturally and ecologically contiguous with Washington (state) and Oregon.

The North: Most of Canadians live near the border. The further north you go, the less populous it gets. Most provinces have 1 or 2 ridings (electoral districts) for their entire northern half, and then beyond that we have the territories that are too sparsely populated to be provinces.

#canada

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mask131 · 2 years

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Deadly fall: Halloween

HALLOWEEN

Category: World culture / International holiday

What is Halloween? It is Hallowe’en. What is Hallowe’en? It is Allhalloween. What is Allhalloween? It is All Hallows’Eve – aka All Saints’ Eve. Hence its celebration on the night of the 31st of October, before All Saints Day on the 1st of November.

Halloween appeared in the British Isles and was the result of a fusion: Christianity, to smother the “pagan” celebration of Samhain, imposed on it its Allhallowtide celebrations (see my posts about Samhain and All Saints Day). But the traditions of Samhain survived into the Christianized Isles, and soon they fused themselves with the All Saints and All Souls Day traditions, and this led to the birth of a new holiday: Halloween. [Note that Samhain actually wasn’t everywhere in the British Isles – it was celebrated in Ireland and Scotland mostly. The other parts of the Isles had their own analogous celebrations, which I will make a post about one of those days – but given Samhain was the most famous and influential, and that Halloween was most fervently celebrated by the Irish and the Scottish, precisely due to Samhain – we’ll simplify Halloween as “Samhain’s child”].

For a very long time Halloween was seen as the local oddity of Great-Britain, not present in any other European countries. When the United-States were born, the holiday didn’t even hold on there: the Puritans had a too strong dislike of holidays of all kinds (they didn’t even trust Christmas!). We would have to wait for the massive immigration of Irish and Scottish people in the 19th century for Halloween to actually take a hold on America: the celebration brought from oversea fascinated the Americans so much that, by the early 20th century, it became a recurring and popular holiday among them – and the rise in fame of Halloween even pushed it, by the end of the 20th century, into one of the most important and iconic holidays of the United-States. It is to the point that many people of Europe call it an “American invention”, despite the holidays’ roots being in Europe itself… But it is true that it was the American version of the holiday that made its way back into Western Europe at the end of the 20th century and in the 21st, thanks to the USA’s cultural influence: it was the Americanized Halloween that then reached Australia, New-Zealand, Japan, and even some Southern American countries… Oh and I forgot poor Canada – everybody forgets poor Canada, who actually grew and developed the Halloween tradition alongside the United-States (in fact the tradition of trick-or-treating seems to have been born in Canada before reaching the USA!).

Let’s put history aside for a while, though. For this post, I would like to focus on the various rules and traditions of Halloween – let’s talk about the Halloween customs!

# Trick-or-treating. This is the main and most famous feature of Halloween: children disguise themselves and go knocking from house to house at night fall, saying “Trick or treat!” – and adults inside give them candy. The tradition of giving candies relies in the very sentence used: “treat” is here a stand-in for sweets, candies (or in older times money). If the house refused to give “treats”, then they had the “tricks”: some form of unharmful mischief, pranks and various annoyances. This tradition is an inheritance of Samhain’s tradition of “guising” (see my post about Samhain), back when youth or poor people went door-to-door, often disguised, putting up small performances in exchange for food or money, and warning people that misfortune would befall them if they were not kindly welcomed. These people were supposedly disguised as inhabitants of the Otherworld (fairies, ghosts, monsters and the like) ; and this tradition mixed itself with the “souling” tradition of All Souls’ Day, on which beggars and homeless went door-to-door, acting as or in behalf of the dead in purgatory, begging for food or money (often given as soul cakes).

As the tradition went over to America, it was children only who started “guising”, and reinterpreting this old tradition as the “trick-or-treat”. It first spread in Canada and northern/western America back in the 1920s-1930s, before spreading to the south and the east – by 1950s all of the United-States knew of the “trick-or-treating”. While met with some suspicion at first (the youth gathering been seen as “gangs” and their trick-or-treating as a sort of blackmail), it soon became considered a form of “harmless fun”. Back in early 20th century, the “tricks” took the shape of stealing wheels, wagons, barrels and sometimes even gates, back in the United-State countryside, by 1950s this “rural vandalism” was gone, replacing by other forms of more “urban” vandalism, such as throwing eggs at a house or covering a building in rolls of toilet papers.

# The trick-or-treating traditions ties in with the tradition of masks: at Halloween, people have to disguise themselves. This is well-known. Originally, the costumes seem to have been open for all (though it was mostly youths who did it – for the “guising”), and this whole “disguised” nature made the original Halloween quite carnival-like: in the 19th century, costumed parades and masked revelries were noted with a big disapprobation, as they often lead to debauchery and public disorder. To control this “wilderness”, in the early 20th century Halloween was reinvented and imposed as an indoor celebration, a private party among families and friends, while the costuming was focused entirely on the children (too silly for grownups): it corresponds to the rise and expansion of the trick-or-treating tradition between 1930s and 1950s. However, by the end of the 20th century, it was not uncommon to see adults disguised too, in fact adults and children being both disguised had become quite a norm. In fact, we can say that by the 21st century the whole “Halloween-carnival” thing completely made a backflip, as now there are many scandals and debates over “sexy Halloween costumes” designed to be worn by women and be sexually suggestive, coupled with denunciations of youth using Halloween as an excuse to indulge into alcohol-binging and sex-filled revelries.

Halloween costumes have a long history. The original costumes of the Hallowe’en-Samhain of old Scotland and Ireland, back in early 19th century, were quite rustic and simple: grotesque masks, blackened or painted faces, hoods, cross-dressing… The very basis of the Halloween costume was to disguise as supernatural and creepy characters, in imitation of the old Celtic inhabitants of the Otherworld: early Halloween in America was inspired by Gothic art, and so had macabre costumes of witches, werewolves, devils, vampires, skeletons, ghosts and other undead. However, as I said there was an attempt at adding “cuteness” into early Halloween, back when the wilderness was “tamed” and the holiday marked for children – this led to the apparition of costumes of fairies, angels, princesses, animals… As time went by, the original “creepiness” of the costumes was forgotten and exchanged for variations and imaginations: super-heroes, robots and aliens, rising in popularity in the USA, joined the ranks of the mask ; presidents, political figures and historical ones also appeared ; and then there was a whole host of disguises just based on archetypes popular with children: cowboys, ninjas, cosmonauts – and even a lot of disguises that would not age well (remember the whole Cowboy-and-Indian phase?). Another important change to Halloween costumes should be noted: originally, up to the early 20th century, Halloween costumes were hand-made by the parents or the family of the children going out ; they were crafted with whatever materials you had, each unique. It all started to change when in the 1930s, companies started to realize Halloween costumes could be a good business and started mass-producing them: Fishbach and Ben Cooper were two of the most famous “costume-makers” back then. Nowadays, the majority of Halloween costumes were bought in stores.

# Halloween started out as a holiday of morbidity and macabre, influenced by both the Christian traditions tied to Allhallowtide (worship and praying of the dead, visits of cemeteries) and the Gothic literature very prominent at the time – skulls, skeletons and bones became symbols of the holiday, and prominent monstrous characters of Gothic or early horror literature (Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, ghosts, mummies) became associated with the festive night. All sorts of evil and spooky things were also added, ranging from folkloric monsters to the devil imagery of Christianity, people took the habit of telling each other creepy ghost stories on this night, and slowly from a simple “macabre”, Halloween became a holiday of spooks and scare, a night of fear dedicated to terror: the rise of the horror genre not only led to icons of horror movies becoming “usual faces” of Halloween, but many people also took the habit of doing “horror movies marathon” during Halloween, or watching scary movies either at home or in theaters. All sorts of attractions and festivals started to be built each Halloween, entirely based on scaring people: fake haunted houses, creepy corn mazes, spooky hayrides (the latter two a testimony to the “rural roots” of Halloween)… Amusement parks organized big Halloween days, television shows started to have “Halloween special” episodes, and the pranking didn’t even stay inside the “trick-or-treating” tradition, as it became common to prank people on the night just to “scare” them…

# Halloween has many more symbols. There’s the skulls and skeletons, as I said before.

There’s the black cat too – seen as a familiar of witches, as a form taken by the devil, as a bringer of bad luck, the animal soon became a common one to be depicted on Halloween illustrations, alongside bats (with a just as bad reputation as an ugly and wicked creature, a reputation fueled by the Gothic ideas of vampire bats or bats haunting abandoned castles). Scarecrows also tend to be prominent to Halloween – literally designed to scare, and taken from the rural areas in which Halloween was first born. But the most iconic symbol of Halloween, what everybody knows about, is the pumpkin, THE autumn vegetable of the USA (as Halloween stays an autumn-based holiday), that the tradition asks to be carved into a grotesque smiling face, usually with a candle placed-inside it. It is the Jack-o-lantern, a pumpkin-ornament taken from old Irish tradition, and that became an unremovable trait of the holiday: carving pumpkins for Halloween became an art, leading to competitions, and it is said that, to signalize if your house is open to trick-or-treating, you must leave a jack-o-lantern outside your door. Halloween also is tied up to a trio of colors: orange (the autumnal color, the color of dead leaves and pumpkins), black (the color of darkness and death, of the upcoming “dark season”, of witches and shadows), and purple (a color of mystic and magic, sometimes associated with witches).

# Beyond pumpkin in all of its forms (pumpkin pie and roasted pumpkin seeds being the most notable), there are many other foods at Halloween. Candy cannot be escaped, of course: it is what children ask and receive through trick-or-treating, and it is what they later gorge on during the night. Halloween is the night of candies, chocolates and caramels. Apples are THE fruit of Halloween – not only due to it being an autumnal fruit, but also due to Samhain’s connection to apples (see my post about it). Apples themselves are eaten, but also candy apples, toffee apples and caramel apples. Another traditional Halloween dish is well-known in Ireland: the barmbrack, or “brack”, a yeast bread with sultanas and raisins. In an old tradition dating back to “modern Samhain/early Halloween”, when the cake is baked several items are placed inside it, for a fortune-telling game: depending on which object you obtain in your slice of the cake, you will know a special kind of future. A coin means fortunes and riches, a ring means you’ll marry within the year, a piece of cloth means you’ll be poor or suffer bad luck, a stick means a unhappy marriage or disputes with your spouse, a pea signifies that you will not marry that year, a bean that you would have a future without money – sometimes there can also be a medallion, usually with the picture of the Virgin Mary on it, to signify that you’ll have a religious vocation.

# Halloween has always been a night of “games”. Today people entertain themselves by visiting creepy attractions and haunted houses, by telling spooky stories or watching horror movies, or doing the barmbrack divination (see above) – but before, Halloween was THE big night of divination games and rituals to see into the future. The barmbrack divination rite I said above was always a Halloween divination game in Scotland and Ireland, though sometimes the food might change: cranachan (a raspberry dessert), champ (mashed potatoes with butter, milk and scallions) or even colcannon (mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale). Most of the divination games I described in my Samhain post were also part of the traditions of “early Halloween”: the apple peel rite, the roasting of hazelnuts… Another rite of “modern Samhain” was the preparation of a salty oatmeal bannock: the person doing the rite had to eat it entirely in three bites, before going to sleep straight away without speaking to anyone or drinking anything. They would dream of their future spouse, appearing to offer them a drink to quench their first. Another game, purely of Halloween this time, becoming popular in the late 19th century and spreading to the early 20th, had unmarried women look into a mirror in a dark room, to see the face of their future husband appear – this Halloween rite would later fuel the urban legend of “Bloody Mary”. A variation of the barmbrack rite was the Irish “pulcini”, the “game of the blindfolds” : a person has a blindfold on and must choose between several saucers, with the item inside predicting their future. A ring for marrying soon, a piece of clay to mean you will soon die, water for an emigration, rosary beads for becoming a monk, nun or priest, a coin to be rich, a bean to be poor, etc…

Halloween also has numerous other games that have no actual divination purpose or magical powers, and that are just fun and silly games people did to entertain themselves. Apple bobbing is the most famous of these games: apples are placed in a basin of water, and the participants must remove them using only their teeth and nothing else. A variation of the apple-bobbing game is made by hanging a small wooden rod to the ceiling: on one hand, a candle, on the other an apple on a string. The candle makes the rod spin around, and people had to catch the apple in the air with their teeth. Another similar game involved tying scones to the ceiling, but not without covering them up first with treacle or syrup: people had to snatch them away with their bare teeth, which would lead to a very sticky and dirty face.

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I purposefully avoided talking much about the jack-o-lanterns, because I keep them for another post. If you ever want to do research or find information about Halloween traditions or earlier celebrations of Halloween, I can suggest you to look into the tradition of Halloween cards. Just like those of Christmas, Halloween cards (postcards, greeting cards) have been around since the 1890s and are extremely rich in Halloween imagery and information. Today they are still sought and collected as precious memorabilia.

About trick-or-treating, as time went by, the activity became much more surveilled and strict. It wasn’t uncommon a few decades ago to let children wander on their own to do the trick-or-treating, with no adult supervision – however since a rise of child-related incidents, children are now commonly accompanied by an adult or a chaperon in their trick-or-treating ; or the going door-to-door takes place before sunset instead of after nightfall. This is notably tied to a form of mass hysteria that hit the USA and formed a new urban legend: the “deadly candy” of Halloween. Rumors went around and then were spread by media about people giving out poisoned candies or apples with razor-blades to children on Halloween night, and soon all parents were searching their kids’ Halloween stash for hidden needles or broken glass. It should be noted that this whole rumor was NOT based on any real-life events, or rather that there was no proven case of “poisoned candy” before the urban legend was created – if the death of a child on Halloween was invoked, a bit of investigation would always reveal that it was not tied to their Halloween candy or meetings with a stranger: most of these kids dying while trick-or-treating or eating Halloween candies died of natural causes, chronical sicknesses or infections. However, the legend became so widespread that it suffered from the “copycat effect”. People, inspired by the hysteria, started to place dangerous objects inside candies – sometimes it was even children who placed them in their own stash to become part of the “legend”. We also know some unfortunate cases of accidental deaths or murders that the responsible party tried to cover-up by invoking the “dangerous Halloween candy” legend: one kid died when he discovered and ate his uncle’s heroin stash on Halloween night, and the urban legend was invoked ; while another boy was poisoned by his very own father on Halloween with cyanide-covered candies. The only two “real” incidents on which the legend could have been based were isolated incidents: in the late 50s in California a dentist gave laxative pills disguised as candies to trick-or-treaters, while in mid-60s New York, a woman decided to give to kids she deemed too old to be trick-or-treating bags of clearly inedible items, ranging from steel wool to dog biscuits.

#deadly fall #halloween #all hallows eve #holiday #allhalloween #traditions #divination

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