What Would Jimmy Do?

I’ve often said that the world was getting too complicated for me…. yesterday there was a fire in a building in Utah — that prevented my blog from being updated. We are not alone has never been more true, and apparently we can’t even function being alone. Anyhow, here’s what you would have read yesterday… if — there hadn’t been a fire in Utah.

One year in the early 70s, we were in Hong Kong over Easter. Almost the entire city was closed for most of the weeks preceding and following Easter. It was even hard to find a place to eat, outside of some hotels. I thought this was interesting, especially since the population isn’t primarily “Christian.” 

We refer to Easter Monday around here, but it isn’t considered anything special — almost all stores are open… but people in more than eighty countries of the world celebrate the day after Easter as a holiday..

A little of my extensive research revealed that Easter Monday stands as the last remnant of a once much longer season of post-Easter festivities. In the early Middle Ages people treated the entire week following Easter as a holiday. People tended to their religious devotions in the week before Easter and celebrated with feasts, parties, games, relaxation, and attendance at religious services in the week after.

By the thirteenth century this two-week period had shortened and shifted to the latter half of Holy Week and the ten days following Easter. These last two days, the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter somehow acquired the mysterious name of Hocktide. In 1552 Parliament passed a law restricting post-Easter festivities to the Monday and Tuesday directly following Easter. This practice lasted until the 19th century, when lawmakers further reduced rejoicing to the Monday following Easter, known as Easter Monday. 

In the US, there are only a few activities celebrated on Easter Monday — probably the most famous one is the White House Easter Egg Roll, held on Easter Monday. Claire took our kids there on some years.

Easter Monday was formerly regarded as unlucky and was known as Black Monday (White Monday in Greece.) For some reason, Monday itself was generally considered unlucky… maybe because it meant returning to school for many school children after the Easter break.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter and Easter Monday isn’t unlucky for you… and be glad you’re not in Hong Kong if you’re hungry.
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Today, of course, is Easter — but it’s also a special day in Chinese culture. Both faithful readers know that I/we celebrate a lot of Chinese holidays — not because either of us have any particular ties to China, but because they’re interesting and almost all seeped in tradition.

Today, is one of those interesting Chinese holidays. Every year on the 15th day after the Spring Equinox, Chinese people celebrate Qīngmíng jié — the Tomb Sweeping Festival. This year it happens to fall on Easter — April 4.

It is said that the Qīngmíng Festival was originally held to commemorate a loyal man living in the Spring and Autumn Period (770 – 476 BC,) named Jié Zitui. Jié cut a piece of meat from his own leg in order to save his hungry lord who was forced to go into exile when the crown was in jeopardy. The lord came back to his position nineteen years later, and forgot Jié Zitui. But later he felt ashamed and decided to reward him. However, Jié had locked himself up in a mountain with his mother. In order to find Jié, the lord ordered that the mountain should be set on fire. Later Jié was found dead with his mother. In order to commemorate Jié, the lord ordered that the day Jié died was Hanshi (Cold Food) Festival — the day that only cold food could be eaten. 

The second year, when the lord went to the mountain to sacrifice to Jié, he found the willows revived, so he gave instructions that the day after Hanshi Festival was to be Qīngmíng Festival. Later, the two festivals were combined as one.

The Qīngmíng Festival is a time for a number of different activities — one of the main ones being tomb sweeping. Others include taking a spring outing and flying kites. Some customs have been lost over the years like wearing willow branches on the head. The festival is a combination of sadness and happiness. 

But of all the activities, tomb sweeping is regarded as the most important custom in the Qīngmíng Festival. Cleaning the tomb and paying respect to the dead person with offerings are the two important parts of remembering past relatives. Weeds around the tomb are cleared away and fresh soil is added. The dead person’s favorite food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money, that is burned in the hope that the deceased are not lacking in the afterlife. In return for this it is believed that ancestors will bless their living family members and help them have a prosperous year in the temporal world. At the end of the entire ceremony all the family members gather around the tomb and throw up colored papers in the air to heaven for blessing.

Of course, the modern world has effected the way the Qīngmíng Festival is celebrated today… the modern version has gotten more materialistic. Paper goods in the form of cars, smart phones, iPads and other technological gadgets are made especially for this occasion, but people still ask for wealth and luck in return. And today, people that live too far from their ancestors tombs are now able to send flowers, candles or food through the Internet.

So even though in many places, the festival has been modernized, it’s still not only a day for remembering and honoring the departed, but also a day to be spent with family outdoors or traveling in the colors of spring after a long, gray winter.
Happy Easter — and — Qīngmíng.
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Happy Easter — one of those annual events that falls on a different date each year. If you’re interested as to how the date of Easter is calculated, you can check this blog’s entry of December 22, 2020 for my attempt to explain it.

Easter is a Holy Day — the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after 3 days in the tomb following his execution by Jewish officials. That’s what Easter is really all about, but there other things that have become “tradition” that are about as complicated as arriving at the date for Easter every year.

The early Christians decided they needed to come up with familiar (and relevant) ways to help get their new religion off the ground, so they used familiar symbols to get the ministry moving and help explain what they were trying to say.

Take the Easter Bunny, for instance. Just like Santa Claus has no Christian significance to Christmas, the Easter Bunny has no real connection to Easter. 

None of the Gospels ever mention the Easter Bunny, but rabbits have a long history of being a symbol of fertility and new life. Another Pagan symbol was eggs — a symbol of the preciousness of life. In the middle ages, it was forbidden to eat eggs during lent, so once Easter arrived, they painted the shells to celebrate the end of this period and that Christ rose from the dead.

The origin of the term “Easter” comes from the pre-Christianity goddess, Eostre. In the late 7th and early 8th centuries, a Monk, named Venerable Bede, wrote about his observations of how the early Christians celebrated the Resurrection (Easter.) They called their celebration Eosturmonath after the Germanic goddess Eostre. She was recognized as the bringer of springtime and flowers and after all the celebrations in her honor, the name stuck for the Christian celebration of the Resurrection. 

When we think of Easter, we usually think of chocolate, hot-cross buns and eggs — but Pretzels are also an Easter snack. Pretzels are associated with Easter because the twists resemble arms crossing in prayer. It was a tradition for Germans to eat a pretzel and a hard-boiled egg for dinner on Good Friday.

Easter, like most everything, has evolved over the years, but it’s true meaning remains the same. So if an Easter egg hunt is in your plans for today, just remember that these egg hunts are proof kids can find things when they really want to….
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I’m not really a basketball fan, although I do seem to pay a little closer attention to college teams than pro teams. But one thing I usually look forward to is “March Madness.” I admit that one reason is that when March Madness arrives that means that spring is here or right around the corner.

March Madness is the yearly college basketball tournament held by the NCAA that runs from mid-March to early April. Today, March Madness is pretty much the pinnacle of sports in the month of March. Football is in the distance in the rear view mirror and baseball hasn’t started yet — hockey season is underway, but it takes a back seat to the basketball tournament. 

Well, I got to wondering why the tournament is called “March Madness,” so my extensive research mode kicked in…. here’s what I discovered, in case you’re interested. 

March Madness actually wasn’t the first postseason college basketball tournament — the National Invitational Tournament (NIT) began in 1938. That was the most popular tournament for a few years, but what is now referred to as March Madness has long since overtaken the NIT as the top college basketball tournament.

The first NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament was held in 1939 — a year after the first NIT tournament. The 1939 tournament featured just eight teams. Over the years, the tournament grew from an eight-team tournament to 16 teams in 1951. In 1975, it doubled to 32 teams and doubled again in 1985 to 64 teams. Currently, 68 teams make it into the tournament with eight teams participating in play-in games to make the official first-round field of 64.

Now back to the name “March Madness”— the term was first used in 1939 by an Illinois high school official, Henry V. Porter. He referred to the original eight team tournament by that name, writing in a high school athletic magazine, “A little March madness may complement and contribute to sanity and help keep society on an even keel.” But — the term didn’t become associated with the NCAA tournament until 1982, when CBS broadcaster Brent Musburger used it during his coverage of the tournament. Interestingly, Musburger claims that he got the term from car dealership commercials he saw while broadcasting the Illinois state high school basketball tournament.

There have been 80 NCAA tournaments between 1939 and 2019 (there was no tournament in 2020 because of CoVID.)
Kentucky has the most NCAA tournament appearances (58) and NCAA tournament wins (129.)
UCLA has has the most NCAA men’s basketball national championships with 11
Duke’s Mike Kzyzewski has the most NCAA tournament wins by a single coach — 97.

So we’re down to the final four and in a few days we’ll know who the 2021 March Madness champion will be. All four teams deserve to be there — they all beat everyone they faced in the tournament… I wish them all luck and good shots — Charles Barkley said the only difference between a good shot and a bad shot is if it goes in or not.
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Today is Good Friday — the day commemorating the Crucifixion of Christ. The question of whether to observe Jesus’ death and Resurrection created a major controversy in early Christianity. Until the 4th century, Jesus’ Last Supper, death and His Resurrection were observed in one single commemoration on the evening before Easter. Since then, those three events have been observed separately with Easter, as the commemoration of Jesus’ Resurrection, being considered the pivotal event. 

The Mass of the Presanctified is observed on Good Friday. Its name is derived from the fact there is no consecration of the sacred elements of bread and wine — Communion is ministered from the Reserved Sacrament (consecrated elements retained from previous celebrations.) 
There are no other Masses until Easter.

Why this day is called “good” has alway puzzled me. About the best explanation I’ve heard is from Randy Alcorn — “What is good about Good Friday? Why isn’t it called Bad Friday? Because out of the appallingly bad came what was inexpressible good. And the good trumps the bad, because though the bad was temporary, the good is eternal.”
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I know what today is, but this no April Fool’s joke — fifteen (15) years ago today, we moved into our house in Shepherdstown, WV. We had been “homeless” since November of 2015 — a lot longer than we had planned. We were “assured” that our house would be ready in December (2015.) Based on that information, we agreed to move our of our house in Vienna before Thanksgiving. Our plan was to stay with Kelly and Chris in their new house in Leesburg for 2 or 3 or maybe 4 weeks. 

Well of course our house wasn’t anywhere near being ready by December, or January, or February, or March, or — to be honest — April. But on April 1st, we did move in. Almost a year later, the house was probably “ready to move in.” Needless to say, we had a few problems with the builder.
But we survived it all, and we’re happy here in Shepherdstown.
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Most April Fool’s experts agree that April Fool’s Day originated in 16th-century France, when Pope Gregory Xiii mandated that the new year begin on January 1 instead of the end of March. Those who failed to follow the new calendar were dubbed “April fish.” Those experts that don’t agree with that explanation think that it originated from ancient spring festivals that included mischief making.

But for whatever reason, today has evolved into a day to play pranks on people. Over the years even major companies and corporations have gotten in on the fun and, in fact, pulled some of the best pranks including….

In 1980, pranksters at the BBC announced that Big Ben, London’e historic clock tower, would undergo a face-lift and become digital to keep up with the times. 
In 1965, a Copenhagen, Denmark newspaper reported that parliament had passed a law that all dogs be painted white to improve road safety because they could then be seen clearly at night.
In 1994, PC Magazine ran a column about a bill making its way through Congress that would prohibit the use of the Internet while intoxicated.
In 2009, BMW ran an ad promoting its new “magnetic tow technology.” The invention enabled driver to turn of their engine and get a “free ride” by locking onto the car ahead via a magnetic beam.
In 2015, Cottonelle tweeted that it was introducing left-handed toilet paper for all those southpaws out there.
In Norway in 1986, after reading that the government was planning to distribute 10,000 liters of wine confiscated from smugglers, hundreds of citizens turned up caring empty bottles and buckets.

So while corporate America is typically ruled by information and strategy and is all business, today is the one day of the year that their business turns to funny business. This year, Volkswagen has already announced that they’re rebranding their electric vehicles as “Voltswagen” — can’t wait to see if someone will come up with a better one this year….
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“It is with some sadness that we had to announce the demise of the Williamson/Stracensky Family Web Site.” Fourteen years ago today, if you happened to be at this place on the Internet, you read those words. For a number of years I put in a fair amount of time and effort to maintain and keep up-to-date a web site dedicated to the Williamson/Stracensky families. I thought at the time, and still do, that a centralized location to keep up with all the family events and activities was a good idea. 

But I was wrong — the site never got very much use. We surveyed the family as to whether we should keep it — or not. Four (4) family members responded that would be sorry to see it go.

So — on March 31, 2007 if you looked for the Family Web Site, you got a page, headlined “The Family Web Site is Dead — Long Live the Blogs.” If you read further, you learned that the Williamson/Stracensky Family Web Site had been taken down and replaced by blogs — one by Claire and one by me. 

Initially, my plan was to blog about family…. but that thought quickly went away and I decided the family wasn’t interested in the web site, and there was no reason they would be particularly interested in my blog. My blog turned out to be about nothing — it consists of my thoughts whenever I sit down to update it. Just whatever happens to be on my mind or pops into my head. 

Over the years, I’ve often addressed significant family events or activities and I’ve more often blogged about nothing in particular.

Claire maintained her blog for a while, but it is currently inactive. I continue to ramble on about nothing every day or so. Fourteen years seems like a long time, but the years pass fast. While today may not be a monumental occasion, it’s a special day here in the world of “What Would Jimmy Do?”
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Today is World Backup Day. You faithful readers know that for the last couple of years, I’ve blogged about this day because — well, it’s important. But— I still think it’s misleading. When I first heard about it I was very excited because it seemed like the kind of day I’d be in to celebrating. Of course, I discovered that the day didn’t have anything to do with going backwards… it’s a day when you’re supposed to backup all your computer files. I will continue to support the day, but my opinion is that World Backup Day should be about — backing up.

I suppose it’s appropriate, or an omen or something, that the day before April Fools is World Backup Day… this “day” originally started as World Backup Month and was originated by a hard drive company by the name of Maxtor. Maxtor was later acquired by Seagate Technology.

Before computers became the center of our world, backup seemed to mean to undo one’s actions or to reconsider one’s thoughts, but today when “backup” is used, most people immediately associate it with a computer. 

I think our data is backed up regularly, so I don’t need a special day to do it…. but as I said, for those that don’t this is an important day. So — since I won’t be doing a special data backup today, maybe I’ll do something else related to back or backwards, like maybe thinking of words that can be spelled the same backwards, such as level, madam, radar, noon, rotator, mom or racecar.

Celebrate the day any way you want, but don’t forget to backup the stuff on your computer….
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Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter and the sixth Sunday and final day of Lent. The day marks the occasion when Jesus rode on a donkey and entered Jerusalem. It is called Palm Sunday because people in Jerusalem cut palm branches and waved them in the air and laid them out on the ground before Jesus rode into the city.

In biblical times, it was common for kings and important people to arrive by a procession riding on a donkey. The donkey symbolized peace, so those who chose to ride them showed that they came with peaceful intentions.

Palm Sunday is one of the most important days in the Christian calendar after Christmas and Easter. Catholic churches bless palm branches with holy water and them distribute them to congregants.

Palm Sunday rituals vary by geography. When we were living in the Philippines, on Palm Sunday a statue of Christ riding a donkey (the Humenta,) or often the presiding priest on horseback, is brought to the local church in a morning procession. Congregants line the route, waving ornately woven palm branches, called palaspás, and spreading aprons (tapis) made for this ritual in imitation of the excited Jerusalemites. At the entrance to the church, children dressed as angels scatter flowers as they sing traditional tunes. The first Mass of the day then follows.

Once blessed, the palaspás are brought home and placed on altars, doorways and windows. The Church teaches that this is a sign of welcoming Christ into the home, but many believe that the blessed palaspás are apotropaic, deterring evil spirits, lightening and fires. Another “folk” custom is to feed pieces of blessed palaspás to roosters used in cockfighting. This practice was strongly discouraged by the Archbishop of Manila. In the provinces in the Philippines, the flowers strewn by the angels during the procession are added to the rice seeds being planted, in the belief that these will ensure a bountiful harvest. 

So no matter how you celebrate Palm Sunday, it is an occasion for reflection on the final week of Jesus’ life — a time to prepare our heart for the agony of His Passion and the joy of His Resurrection.
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