A Christmas Witch, The Whipping Father, a child-eating scarecrow, and a Troll named Meat Hook....

It is fascinating how many different traditions and customs Christmas symbolizes around the world.  I found a few that I have to share.


I did not really think people still went Christmas caroling but if you find yourself in Glamorgan, Wales, be weary of those songsters at your door.  You might just find those roaming performers have brought along a Mari Lwyd (a horse skull on a stick with a person hiding under a cover) with them to try to argue their way through song to get inside your house and take your food and gifts. 

If you are in Eastern Europe, you may find the two-faced Frau Perchta (Christmas Witch).

Apparently, she has a nice face for the nice children and a scary face for the bad children. She also comes into the homes of the good children and leaves a piece of silver in their shoe.

Norway also has a Christmas Witch.  The Norwegian Witch comes out on Christmas Eve to steal brooms just to go for a ride.

Guess you probably want to hide your broom if you are in Norway on Christmas Eve.

If you find yourself in Finland on Christmas Eve, head on over to a cemetery.  Finns go to the cemeteries to light candles at the graves of their loved ones who have passed away.


In the Alsace region of France, tales of a cold-blooded, rich, old man named Hans Trapp will give you a freight.

This devil-worshiping dude was excommunicated and lived in a forest.
Story has it he became a cannibal and would venture out of the forest on Christmas dressed as a scarecrow for the purpose of kidnapping all the bad children so he could eat them.

That's pretty frightening!  I am guessing there are some pretty well-behaved kids in Alsace, France.

People in South Africa have a full proof way to make kids stop eating Santa's cookies. Parents simply remind their kids about the story of Danny.  He was caught by his grandmother eating Santa's cookies so she killed him.  Makes perfect sense to me.  So now the ghost of Danny haunts all the kids who eat Santa's cookies.

In Iceland, Santa brings along 13 badass trolls when he visits.  Their gang name is The Yule Lads, and they have names like Pot-Scraper, Bowl-Licker, and Meat Hook.
They steal food, slam doors, destroy property, and kidnap the bad kids to bring to their mother, Gryla, who is said to be a large, hoofed troll/ogre female with terrifying horns and covered in warts.

And The Yule Lad gang also have a monstrous cat that goes by the name Jolakotturinn.


Fingers crossed that you will receive clothing of some type for Christmas because if you do not, Jolakotturinn with devour you.




I think I will be staying away from Iceland around the Christmas holidays.





And finally if those stories were not odd/scary enough; Le Pere Fouettard a.k.a. The Whipping Father should do the trick.

This dude hangs out with Santa everywhere he goes.


He basically whips all the children who have not been good.


If you are going for that obligatory mall photo with Santa, you can almost count on someone dressed as Le Pere Fouettard right beside him threatening children to be good.


On that note, Joyeux Noël! Et à tous une bonne nuit!

Bonne Annee..........

Another year has come and gone.  Bring it on 2019!!!!

You can read more New Years facts and trivia blog posts here and here. 

In Argentina at exactly 12:00, everyone takes one step forward with their right foot so they can get the year started off "on the right foot."

They also eat beans, a lot of beans with the belief of a prosperous new year.

In Chile at midnight, they eat one spoonful of lentils so the year will be filled with money.

They also grab brooms and sweep out their homes to rid the house of bad energy.

They are especially fond
of  burning Spongebob in
Ecuador.

Ecuadorians make a doll thing of sorts that usually resembles politicians, pop stars, and/or other famous people and burn them in the streets at midnight.  This burns away the old year for a fresh new year to begin.

When the clock strikes midnight, they eat 12 grapes before 12:01 which is said to be harder than it sounds to do.

In England, they believe the first person to come through your door will bring you good luck in the new year but it should be a young handsome man carrying salt, coal, money, and bread but beware of any person with red hair.  They refer to this as "first-footer."

They eat a lot of bread and drink an excessive amount of beer.

The French eat escargot, oysters, and foie gras, which is liver from a duck or a goose (besides eating anything from an animal being gross and unnecessary, the French take it one step further.  They literally force-feed the ducks and geese with a feeding tube shoved down their throat to fatten up their livers.  What a bunch of saccades!).
Side note, never tell a French person Happy New Year until it is actually the new year.  They are sensitive about that.

In the Netherlands, they eat big oily balls of dough (gross) called oliebollen.  I guess basically it is like a donut hole which sounds better than big oily balls of dough!


They burn their Christmas trees and have bonfires to celebrate.

In the Philippines, they open all the windows, doors, and cabinets and turn off all the lights and just after midnight, they race around shutting them all back.  This is to ward off evil spirits in the new year.  Not sure how that works but okay, whatever. 

They also eat foods that are round again for a prosperous new year. 

Russians write down a wish on a piece of paper and at midnight set the paper on fire and put it in a glass of champagne and drink it before 12:01.

They fancy eating sweets for the new year.

The Spaniards eat 12 grapes exactly when the clock strikes 12 and must have them all eaten before 12:01.
They celebrate with red undergarments and lots of lottery tickets.

We have gone with the black-eyed peas, cornbread, and greens over the last few years, and we have been lucky.  We were going to shake up the menu this year but decided to just add rice pilaf, vegan Italian sausage, and spiced up lentils.  Yum!

My thoughts on Dunkirk............

The girls and I saw Dunkirk today, and I will admit my main objective was to see eye-candy Harry Styles, I love him!

I am interested in history but a war movie is really not my kind of flick but let me tell you that ten minutes in, I was completely hooked by this movie.  I was still waiting to see Harry, but the movie was holding my attention.  Completely invested.

We saw the movie in IMAX which was insanely ((((loud)))), I am talking hideously loud, and despite the topic of war, the scenes were visually stunning.



Christopher Nolan kept me on the edge of my seat with this ticking-clock thriller.

So many things were going on from plunging planes, sinking ships, explosions, beach bombardments, and drownings.

This is a must see movie.

I would not be surprised if this movie is the movie of the year.  Bravo!

I love this English greenhouse.....

Pick your poison, literally........

I had the weather channel on in the background the other day because there were a lot of storms cranking up nearby, and I heard them talking about an infamous poisonous garden located in Northumberland, England, and I had to find out more about this fascinating idea of a poisonous garden.

So it turns out that the poisonous garden in Northumberland is not the first of its kind.  The idea of a "deadly garden" was the concept of Catherine de'Medici.  I have blogged about her in other post during out Medieval studies which you can find here.

You may remember her for marrying in to the de Medici family--the "Godfathers of the Renaissance," the family who founded banks.  She was kidnapped when she was 11 years old, and married Henry II, the King of France when she was 14 years old and became Queen.  She was also mother-in-law to Mary Queen of Scots.

Any of that ring a bell?  At any rate, the de' Medici garden had numerous poisonous plants growing, and it is said that Catherine had a private room full of tiny apothecary cabinets fill with a collection of deadly poisons.  Interestingly enough, a lot of people died around Catherine, for reasons unknown.  I wonder what it could have been.  Hmmm.....

In 2005, Duchess Jane Percy of Northumberland decided to create a poisonous garden modeled after that of Catherine de Medici.  The Duchess thought children would be more interested in how plants could kill rather than how plants could heal.  Her exact words were:

'I wondered why so many gardens around the world focused on the healing power of plants rather than their ability to kill... I felt that most children I knew would be more interested in hearing how a plant killed, how long it would take you to die if you ate it and how gruesome and painful the death might be.' - Duchess of Northumberland

Nightshade

The Poison Garden is located within the Alnwick Garden and has over 100 deadly, intoxicating, and hallucinogenic plants.

It is home to a variety of interesting plants such as Hemlock (which was the poison of choice for executions in Ancient Greece and in fact is said to be what killed philosopher Socrates), Strychnos nux-vomica or strychnine which can cause a human to die within 20 minutes after ingesting and is essentially undetectable, Foxglove or Digitalis can cause tremors, jaundice, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, and even death, Deadly Nightshade or Atropa belladonna (can cause hallucinations, induce comas, unrelenting thirst, and convulsions), and Laburnum which can cause foaming at the mouth, induce comas, sleepiness, vomiting, nausea, spasms, and diarrhea.

Poppies

With permission from the government, the garden is also home to opium poppies, cannabis, tobacco, wild lettuce (Lactuca virosa), and magic mushroom.

They even have a treehouse restaurant that serves local dishes. Fingers crossed they will not be serving up anything grown in their garden.

There are, of course, a few rules if you want to take a tour of the gardens, get married at the gardens (yes this is an option), or hold a conference at the gardens.

Understandably, the garden is also under 24 hour security. You can only be in the garden with a guide.

You are not allowed to touch, smell, or taste the plants (duh for tasting), as there have been several tourist who became ill during their tour of the garden.

You should also hope you are not visiting the garden on a windy day.

You can find out more here at the official website.  I might be adding this to my bucket list.

Setting the record straight about the 4th of July and a few more American history fallacies..........

Never mind what you really thought!

~History tells us that America gained independence on the fourth of July but the Second Continental Congress officially declared America's independence on July 2, 1776.  Thomas Jefferson was the principle drafter of the document which was written on a laptop, well a laptop back then.

Laptop 1700s.

~The first Independence Day was celebrated on July 8, 1776 in Philadelphia.  There was a parade and guns were fired into the air.

~Can you believe George Washington had no idea American Independence was gained until the 9th of July?  And Georgia did not know until August 10, 1776, and the Brits learned the news on August 30, 1776.

~Oddly enough, The Declaration of Independence not signed by any of the Founding Fathers at all in July 1776.  The signing began with a ceremony on August 2, 1776 but several signatures were still missing until January 1777.  John Hancock did not sign until November 1776.  There were 56 men from 13 colonies who signed The Declaration of Independence with 8 of the 56 signers being born in the British Isles:  John Witherspoon, James, Wilson, Matthew Thornton, George Taylor, James Smith, Robert Morris, Francis Lewis, and Button Gwinnett.

~History also tells the tale of the Liberty Bell was cracked on July 4, 1776 when the patriots rang the bell in celebration of the great news, however, turns out the bell did not crack that day because no one ever rang it!  The famous crack in the Liberty Bell was due to poor casting of the bell initially, and it cracked upon arrival to Philadelphia in 1752.  The Liberty Bell was named The Liberty bell by abolitionists.

~Interesting factoid both John Adams (2nd) and Thomas Jefferson (3rd) died on the 4th of July, 1826 within hours of each other.  President James Monroe  (5th) also died on the 4th of July , 1931.
~President Calvin Coolidge (30th) was born on the July 4th, 1872.

~You will probably never believe that The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key came from a
song that drunks on a boat made up in which the melody stayed the same but the lyrics were changed.  The original song about how much men love wine and women.

~Did George Washington and a small committee actually have Betsy Ross sew the first ever American Flag?  Still over 150 years later, this very idea is still taught in public school history but experts say this is also a fallacy.  Betsy Ross certainly did sew many American Flags in her time but just not the original flag.  It is believed that Mary Young-Pickersgill from Baltimore is responsible for the original flag.

~American as apple pie, or not?  Turns out people in England had been eating apple pie long before the colonist in America.

~Sorry guys but it also appears that the English were also responsible for baseball.

So now, you know!

Benedict Arnold from patriot to spy.......

Benedict Arnold is a name synonymous with being the most famous traitor in American history, but why?

Well for starters in 1779, he was assisting the British in the American Revolutionary War for well-over 16 months before his espionage activities were discovered.  Turns out Arnold was passing along secrets to the British, specifically Captain John Andre (British spy chief).  Arnold's wife, Peggy, helped out with this using codes and invisible ink.  These letters detailed all sorts of goodies for the British including troop positions, the

number of troops, and how many supplies the colonist were in possession of.

The second scandal Arnold was involved with was in 1780 when Arnold became commander of Fort West Point.  He basically handed over control of West Point to the British (Captain Andre) by agreeing to surrender the fort for 20,000 pounds.

The Americans captured Captain Andre, and they found the detailed papers outlining the plot to take over West Point in his possession.  Andre was hanged for his crimes.  With his co-conspirator, Andre, deceased, Arnold quickly fled and hid out with the British.  Arnold was granted land in Canada by the British government.

After the war, Arnold moved to England where he set up a merchant trading business with the West Indies.  He had an unsavory business ethic to say the least. It was said that no one single person in the world trusted him.  He spent the rest of his life in London where he died in 1801 at the age of 60.  He
left behind a massive amount of debt.  It was thought his death was related to issues involving an anxiety/nervous disorder.  I guess with all that debt and lying it would be hard not to be nervous and stressed out.
Fact monster
Bio.
History.com
US History
Arnold family tree
PDF with info and worksheets
Mr. Nussbaum
Heritage History

Mystery of History Volume 4, lesson 2.

The 13 colonies.

Love, love, love the Mystery of History!

First off, a colony is a piece of land under political control of another country.  The controlling country is usually very far away as is the case with England and the American colonies.

A colony is formed when people from another country come in and settle the land, for example, people from all over Europe came to America to settle the land back in the day.  These people were called settlers.  These Europeans settled a total of 13 colonies between 1607 and 1732.

Here is a list of the colonies in order: Virginia 1607, Massachusetts 1620, New Hampshire 1623, Maryland 1632-1634, Connecticut 1636, Rhode Island 1636, Delaware 1638, North Carolina 1663, South Carolina 1663, New York 1664, New Jersey 1665, Pennsylvania 1681, and Georgia 1732.

These settlers did not have an easy go of it.  In fact, more than half of the settlers did not make it past the first winter in Virginia (Jamestown) or the Plymouth Colony.

Most of the colonies were named after the rulers in England at that time.  For example, Virginia gets its name from the Virgin Queen Elizabeth and Georgia is named after George II.  Massachusetts was named after a Native American Indian tribe (Massachusett).

Virginia (Jamestown)-The first English colony in the New World was founded by Captain John Smith on May 14, 1607.  A total of 104 people lived there at the time many of these people were farmers and blacksmiths.  Jamestown was known to have the best tobacco crops.  A group of African slaves were sent to Jamestown and arrived in 1619.

Massachusetts-Founded in 1620 when a group of pilgrims on the Mayflower arrived from England and created the Plymouth Colony.  Only half of the pilgrims on the journey survived.  The Mayflower Compact (a decree for a local government/rules) was conceived by the pilgrims the same year.  Chief Massasoit and his tribe of Wamapanoag Indians assisted the pilgrims in planting crops.  This was also the first Thanksgiving which was shared by the pilgrims and the Wamapanoag Indians.

New Hampshire-Founded in 1622 by Captain John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges.  The name comes from Hampshire County in England  The colony of New Hampshire was part of Massachesetts, a royal charter in 1679.  The Pennacook and Abenaki Indians were already living in New Hampshire before the Europeans arrived.  A really important fact to know about New Hampshire is that New Hampshire was the first to claim independence from England, a full six month before the Declaration of Independence was signed.  Another interesting fact is that the first potato ever grown in the US was planted in Londonderry Common Field (NH) in 1719.

Maryland- Where tobacco was used the same as money and kids could drink beer!  Founded between 1632 and 1634 by Lord Baltimore and named for the wife of King Charles I, Henriette Maria.  Native Indians already living in Maryland at the time included the Yaocomaco, Susquehannock, Shawnee, Piscatawy, Nanticoke, Accohannock, and the Algonquin tribes.

Connecticut- Founded in 1636 by Thomas Hooker and other from the Massachusetts colony looking for more religious freedom.  Between 1636 and 1637, a war broke out between the settlers and the Pequot Indians, the Pequot War.  The Pequot Indians were pretty much wiped out.  Connecticut comes from the Mohegan Indian word Quinnehtukqut which means long river place.

Rhode Island- Roger Williams founded Rhode Island in 1636.  Williams started a rebellion against the Puritans.  Williams believed that the Indians should be paid for the land so he bought it from them.  The first slaves arrived in RI in 1774, and in 1776, Rhode Island was the first colony to renounce allegiance to Great Britain and declare its independence.

Delaware- Delaware was established in 1638 by Peter Minuit and the New Sweden Company.  Delaware is named from Lord de la Warr (Sir Thomas West) who was the first governor of the Virginia Company.  Interesting note, Dutch explorer Henry Husdon was the first to explore this area in 1609.
North Carolina- North Carolina was founded in 1653 by the Virginia colonists.  The name comes from the Latin name Carolus for Charles IX of France, King Charles I and King Charles II of England.

South Carolina- Founded in 1633 by eight English nobles with a Royal Charter from King Charles II. North Carolina and South Carolina were one colony until around 1729.

New York- It was Peter Minuit who founded New Amsterdam (New York) in 1626, and the Dutch occupied New York until 1674 when the English decided to take it from the Dutch.  They wanted the land because it was ideal for farming.  The name was changed to New York later in honor of James the Duke of York.

New Jersey- The Dutch and Swedish settled in New York and New Jersey around 1626 and called the land New Netherlands.  Around 1664, King Charles II took the New Netherlands by force and gave it to his brother, James, The Duke of York.  The Duke of York quickly discovered that the land was too big and gave part of the land away to his good friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret in 1664.  King Charles named his piece of land New York and New Jersey became the name of the other piece of land.  Side note, Princeton University was founded in NJ in 1746.

Pennsylvania-William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1681 but the Swedes were actually the first to find Pennsylvania under the guidance of Peter Minuit in 1638.  Penn was looking for a place to have religious freedom for the Quakers.  There were around 638 people living in Pennsylvania at that time. The name Pennsylvania comes from the Latin word Sylvania which means forests or woodlands and Penn from William Penn's name, i.e. Penn's Forest. Ben Franklin was also in Pennsylvania.

Georgia- Three hundred and forty-five English folks led by James Oglethorpe set up shop in the Georgia Colony in 1732.  This was the last of the English Colonies to be established.  Georgia's name comes from King George II.  Georgia, the last colony founded, was founded 75 years after the first colony, Virginia, was founded.  Georgia was the only colony that forbade slavery.

Learn more:

Land of the brave info.
You can find a great chart here.
Another great site here.
Unit study, free, here.
PDF printables, amazing, here.

Congrats to the Royals!!

Random New Year's facts/trivia.

A little bit of randomness about the New Year's celebration.

~Happy New Year, Julius Caesar!  Thanks for creating this celebration 4,000 years ago making this the oldest holiday.  Yep, he gets credit for yet another major event.  Caesar made Janus (January) 1st, a national holiday to celebrate the new year.  Background:  Janus was an interesting Roman god.  He was the god of doors and gates.  He also had two faces, one was the face of the future and the other, the face of the past.

~If you are in New York for New Year's Eve, you can check out the dropping of the ball which signifies the new year has begun.  New York has hosted this event since 1907 with the exception of 1942 and 1943 due to World War II.  This massive ball currently weighs in at almost 12,000 pounds and has more than 2,500 Waterford crystals (made in Waterford, Ireland) attached to it.  It is a whopping 12 feet in diameter.  The original ball was over 700 pounds and 5 feet in diameter.  Here is a peek of the ball for 2015 from USA Today.

~In Sydney, Australia, you can watch the more than 80,000 fireworks set off from the Sydney Harbour bridge.

~If you just happen to be in Japan, you will find homes decorated with bamboo stalks for prosperity, a plum blossom to show nobility, and pine branches which symbolize longevity.

~Of course, we have all heard the song Time Goes By for Auld Lang Syne (Time Goes By) a million times.  The song was written by a Scottish poet named Robert Burns in 1788.

~When the clock strikes midnight in Britain, people gather around and sing Auld Lang Syne.

~In Norway, a whole almond is added to rice pudding, the one who gets the serving with the almond is guaranteed to be wealthy for the year.

~In Greece, a coin is baked inside a loaf of bread.  When the loaf is cut and if the almond is in the third slice of bread, spring will come early.

~If you are in Sicily, you will be served lasagna for good luck.  Other types of pastas are considered to bring bad luck.

~More black-eyed peas are eaten on January 1st, than any other day of the year.

~It is thought that the reason for the noise/noise makers is to ward off any bad spirits at the beginning of the new year.

My previous blog post about New Year's can be found here and here.

"And we can never be royal." The royal name game and a little more.

Image from the web

Homeschooling has proven to be one of the best decisions I have made for my girls.  We are learning all kinds of things that are random, useful, and a few things that may be useless but interesting depending on what it is.  One small question can spark an hour-long conversation.

image from the web

For example, what is Queen Elizabeth's last name.  Just saying Windsor was not enough because it is actually a very interesting process on how the royals get their last names so I wanted to share what we learned (briefly).



What we learned was that simply asking what the last name of a royal is a trick questions.  Basically, the royals do not use last names for the most part.

Image from the web

Queen Elizabeth simply goes by Queen Elizabeth.  If and when she signs official documents, she signs Elizabeth R.  The R is for Regina which is the Latin word for Queen.  So where did the name Windsor come from?  Windsor came from the House of Windsor which came to be in 1917.  This name was officially adopted by King George V.  The previous name King George V went by was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (huh?).  Good move changing that name, the Windsor name is the official name of the current royal family.

Queen Elizabeth has reigned supreme for over 62 years.  She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.  (((This is where it is going to run off the rails.)))

Philip's signature.
Image from the web

Let me add that Prince Philip's family used the surname Mountbatten.  It was decreed that when Elizabeth and Philip married, they would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.  Together they have four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Now you might be thinking what are all their last names or you may not even care at this point but bear with me, this is good stuff.

web image Lady Di

Charles is their first son.  He is the Prince of Wales. He is also the Duke of Cornwall but we will just leave him as a Wales for now.  He is Charles Wales.  Princess Diana just went by Diana but for the official documents, she was Diana Wales.

When Charles' and Diana's children William and Harry were in private schools and the army, they went by the name Wales for the record.  When William married Kate, he became the Duke of Cambridge and Kate became the Duchess of Cambridge for all intensive purposes.  Their son's name is Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge.  He could also be called Prince George Alexander Louis Mountbatten-Windsor.

William-web image

Princess Anne (Princess Royal) is the second child of Queen Elizabeth and Philip.  She used the name Anne Mountbatten-Windsor when she married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.


Prince Andrew is their third child.  He is the Duke of York.  His children go by Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York but to make it short, Beatrice York and Eugenie York.


And lastly, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. He actually uses the name Edward Windsor professionally but if you are following the pattern, Edward Wessex would also work.  His wife is Sophie, the Countess of Wessex (Sophie Wessex). Their children are Louise Wessex and James Wessex.

web image

Confused yet?  Also realize that any of the above people could also choose to go by Windsor or Mountbatten-Windsor if they chose to do so.

As you can see, this is a fairly complex system for simply having a last name but it has been in place for a while and does not look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.

Just for fun, how the royals stack up-i.e. who is next in line for the thrown?

web image

First up is Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, or may be not.  This may not happen if it is up to the Queen. Charles is famous for committing infidelity while married to Princess Diana (what an idiot!) and then divorcing her prior to her death.  He then married Camille Parker-Bowles which did not and does not delight the Queen Mum one single bit. (Off with his head!)  It seems Charlie is also catching some heat for evading taxes, another intolerable act that is not sitting well with the Queen Mum.  You can read more on that here and here.  It appears that the Queen has decided to skip a generation and pass the thrown down to Prince William.  She made a promise to baby George that his dad would be the next King of England (I hope so) and hey, she is the Queen so she can do whatever she wants to. Its good to be the Queen!  He was next in line after his father but now it looks like he will not have to wait for Charlie to kick the bucket or mess up on a royal level to sit on the throne.

web image

Lets just say Charles gets his chance to be king next, then William then who?
Next up is Prince George of Cambridge (William's son), then Prince Harry (Charles' second son and William's brother and also a scandalous royal), then Prince Andrew (Charles' younger brother), Princess Beatrice (Andrew's daughter), Princess Eugenie(Andrew's daughter), Prince Edward (Charles' youngest brother), James Windsor (Edward's son), Lady Louise Windsor (Edward's daughter), Princess Anne (Charles' sister), Peter Phillips (Anne's son), Savannah Phillips (Phillip's daughter), Isla Phillips (Phillip's daughter), Zara Phillips (Peter Phillip's sister), and finally about a million years later, Mia Tindall (Zara Phillip's daughter).  Well that was exhausting but really interesting.  I love all the fancy titles, Lady, Lord, Duke, Earl, and so on.

If you want to learn more, links are below. I also included a British slang site just for more fun!  Cheers!

Royal family tree.
Royal family history.
More royal family history.
British slang