Good evening, Kibitzers! Welcome to the Samhain edition of Kitchen Table Kibitzing, where we are also marking the related holiday, Halloween, and the related-only-in-our-minds holiday, the birthday of our friend Glen The Plumber.
For Wiccans and some other Pagans, Samhain (say sah-wen -- think of the "mh" as "w") is the start of a new year, the end of the harvest and the onset of the dark and contemplative time of year. It's also a time to remember people who have passed on. The traditional belief that the "veil between worlds" is thin on this night is the likely origin of the association of ghosts with the eve of the Christian holiday All Hallows Day, whose name got shortened from All Hallows Eve to Hallowe'en. However, the intent of pagans on this day is to honor the dead rather than to tell scary stories.
There's plenty of discussion (much of it visible at the impending link) about the connection between the old Celtic Samhain and the Christian All Saints Day and All Souls Day, and between those and modern observances of Halloween. There's a suggestion that people fearing retribution disguised themselves as a way of hiding out from vengeful souls on the prowl. Roll in the custom of children going house to house begging for "soul cakes" in exchange for their prayers for the dead, and you end up with trick-or-treating! (Fascinating note: in Ireland and Scotland, the traditional vegetable to hollow out and use for a lantern is a rutabaga. Immigrants to the Americas switched to the native pumpkin, which I'd guess is much easier to hollow out. I speak as one who has never tried to core a rutabaga, however.)
For myself, I observe Samhain, and since Halloween is beloved by the predominant culture, it's pretty unavoidable, but my friends' birthdays are of course the biggest deal of all. I'd like this thread to be a big Halloween-y Plumber Birthday Party, complete with costumes, because why not? So I went rummaging for costume shots, as I could scarcely expect you all to post your costume photos if I will not post my own. It develops that there are a couple, and they are a study in how to take the same black shirt and jeans, rummage through your jewelry box, stick some stuff on your head, and voilà. The tag on my kitty collar is my chorus medal from the Greater New York region of Sweet Adelines International for the year in question; I'm holding the far end of my tail. (Take that, side pocket!) The splendid Medusa hat hails from Portland, OR.
If I convey nothing else in this diary (and I am damn close), I'd like to wish a
very happy birthday to my friend
Glen The Plumber. He is a true liberal, open of mind and heart and hand. He's always a good sport, and always ready to offer kindness and encouragement. I believe his picture is in the New York area dictionary next to the word
mensch. Probably not one of these pictures, though. ;)
Late addendum from navajo: Glen and his beautiful family.
Happy birthday, Glen, and many, many more!
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of their evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, interesting videos, and so forth. We would also appreciate links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate.
Please note that pie fights will be unwelcome in this community, just as in most other series at DKos.
Finally, readers may notice that most who are posting diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but that definitely does not mean that newcomers will be excluded or unwelcome. We're happy to welcome guests to our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.
KTK posts nightly at 5:00 Pacific, 6:00 Mountain, 7:00 Central, 8:00 Eastern.