Katrien Vander Straeten's Blog
Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten
Bali rules! It has so many festival and holidays and ceremonies, for this and for that... It has no less than 19 public holidays (compared to 10 in the US), many of them "bridge holidays" to extend the many religious or cultural festivals.
Check it out in the new article: Bali's 2007 Holidays and Festivals!
Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten
We have planned a trip to Singapore and Calcutta, India, in November. From Singapore we are planning to visit either Bali or Angkor Wat in Cambodia.
It is hard to decide which one we want to visit. I'm doing some research on these places, their history and culture (we're not ones for beaches).
Any suggestions are welcome!
Bali, I found, is the Land of Holidays. For instance, they celebrate at least four (4!) New Year's Days a year. Read more on these in this week's article.
I hope to have sorted out the many, many other Balinese holidays by next week. Be sure to tune in then!
Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten
In almost a month it will be Mother's Day, in my view one of the most important of secular holidays in the world - I held this belief even before I became a mother myself.
The holiday has fascinating origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures, and connections with the Virgin Mary. But we owe our modern Mother's Day to two brave women, Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, they fought for recognition of mothers all over the world.
Read all about that in The Historical Meaning of Mother's Day
So don't forget: 13 May is the day. There are many mothers to honor:
- the mothers who gave birth to us, who raised us
- the Mother Church, which you may interpret any way you like, as the fount of our spiritual birth and strength
- and last but not least, in these times of growing ecological trouble, let's also honor our Mother, the Earth (Rhea or Gaia among the Greeks)
Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten
I have always been interested in counting. You just have to be excited by it!
For instance, counting your blessings, eager count downs to special events - the coming of Sinterklaas, a highly anticipated visit from friends and family, the launch of a space shuttle, the exact second of the New Year...
My 19-month-old has started counting. She has known the numbers, from 1 to 10, in three languages, for a while now, but until now they were mere sounds. Even when she "counted" the five fingers of a hand correctly, some more prodding revealed it was from memory, not from understanding. Now, however, she is counting: one - two - three (then: four - four - four). You can see the excitement in her eyes, no doubt mirroring my own.
The Jewish people have always struck me as people who value the count: they often organize the world - natural, supernatural - in terms of orders and numbers. Imagine my joy when I discovered that they devote an entire "literugical season" to counting.
They "count the Omer": a 49-day period from the second day of Pesach to the festival of Shavuot. Every evening on those days they recite, out loud, solemnly, in Hebrew and using a precise formulation, the day and the week of the Omer.
I wrote two articles about this here:
I think we should all spend some time, at some point in the day, every day, counting. We could count the days of the New Year as it gradually grows old, the weeks we have spend with our loved ones, the years we have lived this life here on Earth. Just selecting what would be the best yardstick and starting point of our count would be a wonderful exercise in self-discovery and meditation.
It would be a reckoning of praise for the time and joy we have received so far. And a reminder that more is to come, and that we should make it count.
Posted by Katrien Vander Straeten
In the past I've written a lot about how many festivals mark the seasons. In many of my "Origins of" articles I've focused on how astronomical events, climate and the old agrarian calendar lie at the foundation of many of our holidays and celebrations.
In this week's article I've set them all in a row: all those Festivals that Mark the Seasons.
The list is not complete by far, and suggestions of more seasonal festivals are as always very welcome!
