Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

To my dear web family

Results of drinking too much green beer

Fun Facts about St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick’s Day is observed on March 17 because that is the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. It is believed that he died on March 17 in the year 461 AD. It is also a worldwide celebration of Irish culture and history. St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland, and a provincial holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The actual color of St. Patrick is blue. Green became associated with St. Patrick's Day during the 19th century. Green, in Irish legends, was worn by fairies and immortals, and also by people to encourage their crops to grow.

St. Patrick did not actually drive snakes out of Ireland; the snakes represent the pagans that he converted to Christianity.

The very first St. Patrick's Day parade was not in Ireland. It was in Boston in 1737.

In Chicago, on St. Patrick's Day, the rivers are dyed green. Mayor Daley is also of Irish descent.

In Seattle, there is a ceremony where a green stripe is painted down the roads.

Most Catholics attend mass in the morning and then attend the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Shamrocks are worn on the lapel on this day.

In Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day, people traditionally wear a small bunch of shamrocks on their jackets or caps. Children wear orange, white and green badges, and women and girls wear green ribbons in their hair

Many young people dye their hair green for the special day.

Many people wear green on this holiday to avoid being pinched.

The phrase, "Drowning The Shamrock" is from the custom of floating the shamrock on the top of whiskey before drinking it. The Irish believe that if you keep the custom, then you will have a prosperous year.

Many bars in the United States, and abroad, serve green beer to celebrate St. Patty's Day.

Lucky Charms, a favorite cereal brand among many, young and old, was created in 1963, with its popular mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun. Its jig is a memorable tune for many, including the young at heart:

Hearts, Stars, and Horseshoes
Clovers and Blue moons
Pots of gold and rainbows,
And the red balloon

That’s the luck of me lucky charms!
Their magically delicious!

Have a little fun with Lucky the Leprechaun, and help him get home! CLICK HERE for a fun-filled game, safe for all ages!

Fun Facts about the Irish

34 million Americans have Irish ancestry, according to the 2003 US Census. That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland, which has 4.1 million people.

Nine of the people who signed our Declaration Of Independence were of Irish origin, and nineteen Presidents of the United States proudly claim Irish heritage -- including our first President, George Washington.

Some American towns have “Irish” names. You could visit: Mount Gay-Shamrock, West Virginia; Shamrock Lakes, Indiana; Shamrock, Oklahoma; Shamrock, Texas; Dublin, California and Dublin, Ohio.

The harp is the symbol of Ireland. The color green is also commonly associated with Ireland, also known as “the Emerald Isle.”

The Irish flag is green, white and orange. The green symbolizes the people of the south, and orange, the people of the north. White represents the peace that brings them together as a nation.

The name “leprechaun” has several origins. It could be from the Irish Gaelic word “leipreachan,” which means “a kind of aqueous sprite.” Or, it could be from “leath bhrogan,” which means “shoemaker.”

Fun Facts about Clovers

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the highest number of leaves found on a clover is 14.

One estimate suggests that there are about 10,000 regular three-leaf clovers for every lucky four-leaf clover.



Legend says that each leaf of the clover means something: the first is for hope, the second for faith, the third for love and the fourth for luck.

KEEPING IT REAL WITH FRIZZY LIZZY

Hi dear friends and followers. Today is time for Frizzy Lizz, take five and have a good read

KEEPING IT REAL WITH FRIZZY LIZZY

Like I said, I've been a newlywed three times and you know the rest, but those times were not without some memorable moments. Take, for example, when my first husband and I left my duty station in Portsmouth, Virginia to live on a farm somewhere in central Pennsylvania. I affectionately refer to the area as “Poverty Pocket.” And the farm onto which we moved to live and start a new life was strictly from hunger.

I am a city girl. I grew-up in a city of 125,000 people. We lived in a Cape Cod house on a paved street that had lights and sidewalks. The grocery store was a five-minute walk in one direction, the church 7-minutes in the other, and the high school was 15 minutes' walk from my father's house. My grandparents and uncle lived just across the back alley in their own home. We all had a backyard and a front yard and that was enough space for us.

My first ex, Kevin, as born in New Jersey but his family was from up there in the region of Poverty Pocket. I call it that because if you don't own a farm, or if you're not a doctor, lawyer, or other business owner, you're destined to be broke. There are no jobs or employers of any size there.

So Kevin's family was finished with city life in New Jersey and they return to Poverty Pocket. Mom, dad, and six children, and they settle as renters on a certain farm that was called the “Potato Farm.” And where do you think Kevin wants to settle after I am released from active duty in the Coast Guard? You guessed right – on the Potato Farm. I was not quite 23 years old and knew no better so I went along with him. If I was 24 or 25 I would have given him another answer!

The place was about a five-minute drive from his family's home in the village. I never thought of that as being bad. Right. It was a very old house with a red metal roof and green shingles on the sides and had not been lived-in for at least a year prior to our arrival there.

Kevin left Portsmouth a month before I did so he could prepare the place for both of us, and I have to say that he did as good a job as one can with a 140-year-old house. Most of his efforts went into the kitchen. He hung new cabinets, installed a new sink and counter tops, new gas range, new refrigerator, new sheet vinyl on the floor, and a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling. There were a new washer and dryer in a corner of the kitchen. He also closed-off the older portion of the house that we were not to live in.

I got a ride from Portsmouth with a fellow Coast Guardsman who was passing through the area, right to Kevin's family's house in the village, where I was welcomed with open arms. I wish it was with an open bottle of whiskey as well!

We had supper and Kevin took me up to where we were supposed to live. That's what I signed-on to do, so I was ready.

We drove out of the village, down the main road, and off to the right, up into the hills where the electric and telephone lines ended, along with civilization, or so I thought. Along the dirt roads, we went until we turned left and went down a long land, where we stopped. Kevin announcer, “We're home!” I'm glad somebody felt like that!

Over the next week, I tried to get accustomed to the house. We had a well for water and a jet pump in the basement that acted-up like a spoiled child. Our heat came from an oil-fired furnace that was far too small for the size of the house that it was in. The house was so drafty that you could not light a match in the kitchen without the breeze blowing it out. The kitchen floor was sagging so badly that a marble could roll from any point on the floor to the center. The basement had a dirt floor that was about four feet from the floor above it, so you had to duck your head to be down there at all. But that was home.

We were there for a week when Kevin, who was never sick, came down with the worst flu that both he and I have ever seen. The man was sick. I mean, so sick that he could barely get out of bed to go to the bathroom! And the fact that the bedroom was upstairs and the bathroom downstairs, right off the kitchen, did not make it any easier for him. I know that if he had died, he would have been thankful. He was that sick.

About a week into the illness, I was able to coax him to come to the kitchen and have some tea and toast. He descended the stairs with the speed of an arthritic old man and shuffled his way to the table, where he sat in his pajamas and robe while I made him some toast with butter and grape jam and a cup of tea. It was the first he had eaten in a week. I remember it well.

Kevin sat at the table, bent over with aches and pains, slowly taking nourishment, as I was folding clothes from the dryer. I had an armful of things to take upstairs and put on the dresser and I walked towards the stairs. I turned right and got about half-way up the stairs. That's when Kevin reports having heard the wash hit the steps and me come flying back downstairs.

He asked me what was happening. I told him that there was a snake in the hall at the top of the stairs.

Kevin slowly rose from his chair, and all bent-over, he shuffled to the stairs, walked-up, looked, and judged two things to be true: 1/ There was no snake up there, and, 2/ I was seeing things.

Now I am not necessarily afraid of snakes in their right setting, but my house is not that setting. However, if Kevin said that there is no snake in the hallway, then he might be right. So I ventured to the stairs to pick-up the clothing that I had dropped. I got about half-way up the steps and again, I returned without touching any steps on the way down.

I shouted to Kevin that there was most certainly a snake up there!

He again arose, this time with more resolve, and he saw the tail of a large black snake hanging down from the window sill where the snake was getting some sun.

“It's a black snake, “ he told me, “It's not harmful and it eats rats and mice. Let me get my gloves on and I will throw him outside.” That course of action did not set well with me and I told him as much, in the strongest of terms. “Kill it!,” I told him. “I don't care how, just kill it.”

Kevin was feeling awful with the flu and the snake disturbing the peace did not do him any good. He shuffled to the back door and took the .22 caliber rifle in his hand, checked it for ammunition, put a round in the chamber, and went upstairs.

I heard 3 gunshots. Kevin returned to the kitchen looking worse than when he went upstairs. “Snake's dead,” he said, and put the rifle back where he had found it. Then he reached for the aspirin and took 6 of them and went back up to bed.

I was petrified to go upstairs and I needed help so I called my mother-in-law and told her what had happened. She sent her husband, a gem of a man whom I shall fondly remember, to help me.

Together we went upstairs. We could still smell the gunpowder in the hallway. It looked like a scene from the Wild West or a gunfight at the OK Corral. There were bullets gouged into the base moldings on the left side of the hallway and evidence of where one bullet had gone through the folds of the drapes and into the ceiling. And there was the black snake, healthy and cut down in the prime of a black snake's life. He was a fair-sized specimen. I had the creeps as my father-in-law carried it out of the house and threw it over the fence and into the pasture.

Kevin's health gradually returned but my love for living on that damn farm, as little as it ever was, became even less after that snake got shot in the hallway.

We left that farm to return to city life, with a vengeance, after 4 years there. After problems with the well, frozen plumbing, being snowed-out, and having strange visitors come knocking at 02:00 on the night of the new moon.

I don't miss that place any more than I miss Kevin.
Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

The dear and the Jajuar

Hi dear friends and followers. Today we have one more tale from the Maya.

The dear and the Jajuar

A deer went to look for a place to build himself a house. There was also a jaguar who was out looking for a place to set up a house. He came to the same place the deer had chosen, and thought he would build there also.

The next day the deer came and thoroughly cleared the ground with his antlers. The jaguar came later and said:

"It seems somebody is helping me." Then he stuck some big poles in the ground and set up the framework.
The next day the deer came back and when he saw this, he said: "It seems somebody is helping me."

Then he covered the house with branches and made two rooms, one for him and the other one for whomever was helping him.

The next day the jaguar saw that the house was finished. He went in one room and fell asleep. The deer came later and went to sleep in the other room.

One day the two came home at the same time. When they saw each other, the jaguar asked the deer: "Was it you who was helping me?

The deer answered: "Yes, it was me."

Then the jaguar said: "Let's live together."

"Yes, let's live together in the same house," said the deer. They went to sleep and the following morning the jaguar said:

"I'm going hunting, so sweep the floor, prepare wood and water, because I'll be hungry when I come back."

The jaguar went to the woods to hunt and got a very large deer. He brought it home and said to his companion: "Let's eat what I have caught."

But the deer didn't want to eat; he was very much afraid. He couldn't sleep all night long on account of fear. Early the next morning he went to the woods and met a very large jaguar. Later he met a large bull and said to him:

"I met a jaguar who was bad-mouthing you."

The bull went looking for the jaguar and found him resting. The bull came quietly up to the jaguar and leaped on top of him and gored him. Then the deer went off dragging the dead jaguar. When he got home, he said to his companion:

"Let's eat what I have caught."

The jaguar approached him, but he didn't want to eat; he was very frightened. That night he couldn't sleep thinking about the deer killing jaguars; and the deer couldn't sleep thinking about the jaguar killing deer. Both were very frightened.

At midnight as the deer moved his head, his antlers struck the wooden walls of the house. The jaguar and the deer were frightened by the noise, and both of them ran out of the house without stopping. And so the deer and the jaguar each went his separate way.

Trust is a gift. Don't throw it away.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

*Rabbit and The Crab*

Rabbit and The Crab

Hi dear friends and followers.

The Maya have many stories available on the web. Before we move on to any other subjects, let's have a final visit with Rabbit. This time his dealings with the Crab leave him rather surprised. I hope you enjoy this little tale about Rabbit and The Crab.


Rabbit and The Crab

Once upon a time the Rabbit teamed up with the Crab to grow some carrots. They worked for several days together in harmony. First they chose the seed and then they planted it. Then they took care of the young plants, the two of them always in agreement. They harvested the crop and separated the tops from the carrots.

But the arguments began when the time came to divide the crop. The Rabbit wanted to deceive the Crab with sweet talk:

"See? We have two piles there, a big one and a little one. You can have the big one and I'll take the small one."

After seeing that the big pile was of tops and the small one was of carrots, the Crab answered:

"Thank you very much, my dear friend, but I like to be fair. Let's divide the two piles in half, I'll divide and you choose, or you divide and I'll choose, as you prefer. What do you say?"

"No, no! I can't agree," said the Rabbit. Let's walk some thirty paces from here and we'll come back running. The first one to get there gets the carrots and the other one gets the tops. What do you say?"

"Well, all right, it seems fair to me," answered the Crab.

"Finally we're in agreement!" said the Rabbit. He was very happy, because he was sure he was going to win: "I'm so pleased about this, that if you win, I'm prepared to give you all the carrots and all the tops. Do you agree?"

"I agree!" repeated the Crab.

"There's one other thing," said the Rabbit, "since I know you're slower than me, I'm going to give you a ten-pace handicap."

"No, that's too much! I can't accept that," said the Crab, pretending that he didn't want to take advantage of him. "You're the one that ought to have a ten-pace handicap. I won't take no for an answer."

"I accept, I accept," the Rabbit hastened to answer, not wanting to contradict him, and glad to do what he asked. That way the other fellow wouldn't get angry, and he threw himself in behind the Crab.

With this agreement they went together in a friendly fashion to the place where the race was going to start. The Rabbit went ahead to take the ten-pace handicap. But, as soon as he turned his back, the Crab, who was neither slow nor lazy, seized the Rabbit's tail with his claws, without him realizing it.

When they came to where the carrots were, the Rabbit turned around thinking that he had left the Crab far behind. But then the Crab opened his claws and fell real quietly on top of the carrots.

"Where are you, friend?" the Rabbit asked happily when he didn't see him anywhere.

"Here I am!" answered the Crab behind him.

The Rabbit jumped with surprise and then stood frozen in his tracks, not believing what he saw. There was the Crab, climbing over the piles of carrots:

"Here I am! And I got here before you did!"

That day was the first time ever that the Rabbit lost. He was very sad because he could not understand how the Crab got ahead of him. That's how the Crab got to keep the carrots.

This was the story of the Rabbit and the Crab.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Rabbit and His Cap

Rabbit and His Cap

Hi dear friends and folowers

As I have already exhausted the supply of easy-to-find myths and legends of the Aztecs, I will now move on to their neighbors, the Maya People. Their culture grew and flourished at about the same time and in the same region as that of the Aztecs: from around 1000 B.C.E., to about 1200 C.E., when they lost their independence. Their empire was built adjacent to that of the Aztecs, on the Yucatan Peninsula ofsouthern Mexico.

Although the Mayan empire no longer exists, about 4 to 6 million people in southern Mexico and Central America have Mayan roots and some continue to speak Mayan as their first or only language.

The Sun was worshipped by the Mayans and was central in their pantheon. Other major deities included the rain, the moon, Venus, crops, a war god, and many more gods related to their daily living.

They were expert farmers, civil engineers, builders, and timekeepers. Their calendar was accurate and recently was discussed because it did not go beyond a certain date in 2012. For that reason some people thought that it foresaw the end of time. They built huge pyramidal temples to their deities without the aid of complex machines or metal tools. In a few words, they were an advanced people.

Today's selection from Mayan legends features Rabbit whose position as a trickster in Native folklore is well-established. Usually Rabbit is sufficiently smart to keep out of trouble but at timeshe gets caught-up in his own schemes. Let's see how he does in this tale.

Rabbit and His Cap

Once when the rabbit, that is, the mayor**, still had his antlers, he met a deer. The rabbit said to the deer:

"Brother, look at the cap [antlers] our Father gave me."

"Come here, brother," said the deer, "lend it to me. You're too small, it doesn't fit you, but I'm big. Maybe your cap will fit me, I'm going to try it on my head."

The rabbit handed his cap to the deer and the deer put it on his head

"Look brother, how nice it looks on me. I'm going to dance so you can see. Then I'm going for a walk and afterwards I'll come back here to you and I'll give you your cap back," said the deer to the rabbit. The deer went off and didn't come back with the rabbit's cap.

The rabbit was waiting for him, just waiting and crying because he didn't have his cap any more. It occurred to him to get up from where he was crying and go notify his king.

He came before the king: "Father," said the rabbit to the king. "What have you come to tell me, my son?" the king asked the rabbit. "My brother went off with the cap you gave me, Father. My brother, the deer told me he was just going to try it on, and I gave him the cap you had given me, Father.”

“Why did our Father give it to you?” the deer asked me. Our Father should have given it to me, because I'm big. Your cap fits me well,” my brother said. I thought he was my brother. So I gave it to him, but he just went off with it any way. He left, and I just sat waiting for him to come back with my cap. He didn't come back and I got tired of waiting for him so long. That's why I have come to ask you, Father, to give me another cap in place of the one my brother took, and also make me taller because my brother deer said I was too little.”

“'That cap doesn't fit you,'” he told me, Father. That's why I want to grow as big as my brother deer."

"Alright, I'll make your taller, my son. I'll make your body grow. If you do what I say, I'll give you what you ask for," said the king to the rabbit.

"What shall I do for you, Father?" asked the rabbit.

"Now I'm telling you that if you want to be as big as your brother the deer, I'm going to grant your wish," said the king to the rabbit. "Now, go and bring me fifteen loads of skins. If you bring them to me I'll make your body grow and I'll give you your cap back."

"Alright," said the rabbit, and went off to the fields, to the mountains and to the sea. The rabbit bought himself a guitar. When he came to a plain he sat down to rest. He had been playing music with his guitar for a while when an old snake came up to him.

"What are you doing, brother?" the snake asked brother rabbit.

"I've come to play music for you, uncle," said the rabbit to the snake.

"Oh, your song* is sad, uncle," said the snake to Uncle Rabbit.

"Yes," said the rabbit to the snake.

"May I dance a little?" the snake asked Uncle Rabbit. The rabbit answered:

"Of course you may dance. That's why I came to play a song for you. But I would just like to ask you, uncle, where is your weak spot? Because my marimba stick*** might reach your weak spot. Show it to me, so I can see where it is," said the rabbit to the snake.

"All right, brother," said the snake. "Here's my weak spot, right at the end of my tail."

"All right, brother, now that I've noticed where your weak spot is, you can dance without worrying," Uncle Rabbit told the snake. The rabbit needed to collect skins, but the snake didn't suspect what the rabbit was planning to do to him.

"Dance! Go ahead and dance. Enjoy your dance," said the rabbit to the snake, because that's why I came to play near your house. Dance, enjoy, and don't be afraid. Here, come close to me." When he saw him nearby, the rabbit thought:

"He's mine now. I know where his weak spot is." The snake danced and came near the rabbit. "Bring your tail near," said the rabbit to the snake. The snake raised his tail near the rabbit. The rabbit saw that the snake was near him and he killed him. Then he skinned him and went off with his skin.

The rabbit came to a mountain and began to play his guitar once more. Shortly after he had come to the mountain a big old lion**** approached Uncle Rabbit. He was playing his music when the lion arrived.

"Hey, uncle, why have you come here to play?" the lion asked the rabbit. "I just have come to play, brother," the rabbit said. "Do you like music?"

"Yes, I like music." said the lion.

"Do you like to dance?" the rabbit asked the lion.

"Yes, I like to," the lion answered. "If you'll play a song for me, I'll be wanting to dance," said the lion.

"I'm going to play some music for you, because the reason I came to your house was to play music. Dance, enjoy your dance. Don't be afraid, Good, dance, only tell me where your weak spot is. I'd just like to ask you where your weak spot is. Dance, enjoy your dance," said the rabbit to the lion.

"All right, brother, here's my weak spot, right here, on the back of my neck."

"All right brother," said the rabbit. "Dance uncle, dance, dance, dance. Don't be afraid, come closer, come here beside me. I know where your weak spot is, so I won't hit you there. I know where it is. Try to dance a little bent over." The lion became careless while he was dancing, and the rabbit hit him on the head. The lion died, the rabbit skinned him and took away two more skins, two large skins.

The rabbit walked, and walked and walked. He took his skins to a place on the beach, and played there once more. An alligator heard the rabbit playing a song and came up to him: "Is that you playing, Uncle Rabbit?" the alligator asked. "Yes, I'm the one who is playing for you," said the rabbit, "for I want you to dance. I thought maybe uncle would like a song. So I came to play a song for you.

"Oh, is it true what you say? I like songs and I would like you to play one for me," said the alligator.

"All right, I'll play you a song, but you have to dance." "Yes, I'll dance, for I really like to," the alligator told Uncle Rabbit.

"I'd like to ask you where your weak spot is. Just tell me where your weak spot is. Don't worry, just show me where it is. If my marimba stick hits you, you could die," said Uncle Rabbit to the alligator.

"Alright, brother, my weak spot is here, right at the end of my tail," said the alligator.

"Alright, so dance. Dance with all your might and stretch out your tail." While he was dancing the alligator became careless and the rabbit hit his weak spot. The alligator died and the rabbit skinned him.

The rabbit left the beach and came near a plantation where there was sugar cane, where there were bananas, where there were oranges, where there were sapotes. Near the plantation there was a house with monkeys and coatis, as well as two other households. He came to one of the houses bringing bananas.

"Ah," the monkeys said to him "do you have bananas, uncle?"

"Here, have some." said the rabbit to one of the monkeys.

"All right," said the monkey. The monkey ate the bananas. Then the rabbit said:

"Here you're just starving, but I have a plantation nearby where there are a lot of good things to eat. There are bananas, there is sugar cane, there are oranges, there are sapotes," said the rabbit to the monkeys.

"All right, uncle, give us some," said the monkeys to the rabbit.

"There's a lot of food, and it's just going to waste, because there's no one to eat it," said the rabbit to the monkeys. "Tomorrow we'll go to my plantation, all of you and your families, and if there are some others they can come with us too. Aren't there some other friends of ours here?" the rabbit asked the monkeys.

"Oh, if you please, there's another family of our friends that are hungry; they have no food," the monkeys told the rabbit.

"Tomorrow you're all going to go with me," the rabbit said to the monkeys. The next day all the monkeys and all the coatis set off for the plantation and arrived there.

"Eat, brothers, enjoy the food," said the rabbit to all of them.

"All right," they said and they were happy. That day passed.

"Are you all satisfied?" the rabbit asked them.

"Yes, we're fine, brother."

"So let's go. Each one of you can take something along," the rabbit said to them.

"Alright, uncle," they said and set off. They came to a plain.

"We're going to rest," the rabbit said to them. They rested on the plain. The monkeys were playing with the coatis and didn't know that the rabbit was plotting against their lives. The rabbit said to them:

"Bring two nets, brothers."

"What are you saying uncle, are we going to play?"

"I want you to make me two nets," the rabbit said to them.

"Why?" they asked.

"I'm going to weigh you, so we can see who weighs the most," said the rabbit.

"All right," they said, and got into the nets.

"All you monkeys, get in there, and all you coatis get in over there. Push your snouts out through the net so you'll be able to breathe and won't suffocate."

"All right," the fools said. The rabbit closed up the nets and went to look for a club, saying: "When I come back you'll get out of the nets." But when the rabbit came back with the club he was ferocious, and struck them on the snout:

"Now uncles, you're going to pay for the bananas you ate." He killed the uncles in the two nets. All those that were in the two nets died, and he skinned them all. He used an armadillo as a pack animal, the armadillo carrying the skins for him. He had collected them as the king had ordered, so that he would increase his height and give him back his cap.

He returned and came before the king with fifteen loads of skins. The king didn't believe the rabbit was going to succeed, and so he didn't realize he was bringing all those skins. When he came before the king with the skins, the rabbit said: "See, Father, I have brought the skins." The king was astonished. "Did you really go and get them?" he asked. "I don't believe you." "No Father, they're here."

"Let's see them," the king said.

"Here they are, Father." He took them out of his net one at a time and the king saw him take out the alligator's skin, the lion's skin, the big snake's skin, the monkeys' skins and the coatis' skins.

"Oh," said the king," getting angry, "What do you want in exchange for these skins?"

"I want you to make me taller and give me my cap back."

"Oh," said the king, "what a shameless rabbit you are. In spite of everything you want to be big. You actually killed your own brothers. You actually killed them. You're so small. If you were larger, if I made you bigger, you'd kill all your brothers. Look here, you killed the lion, the alligator, and the snake, even though you're real little. Well, now, you're going to have to forgive me, my son, but this is the punishment I've decreed:

Bring me your ears so I can stretch them. You shameless thing, you already killed your brothers who are bigger than you. Now never come back here again. You're going once and for all, I'm just going to make your ears grow.
** No one seems to know why the rabbit is called "the mayor."

** Slow, traditional Mayan dance, and the melody which accompanies it. The word also means 'marimba' and 'music' in the Q'anjob'al Mayan language.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Keeping it real wit Frizzy Lizzy

Hi dear friends and followers. Today is Frizzy Lizzy day, take five, relax and enjoy a good read

I've been a newlywed twice more than I hoped that I would be. I've committed serial monogamy a total of three times, each time hoping against hope that it would be the one that would take me from here to hereafter, but it just never worked out that way.

Each time that I said “I do,” I was hoping to also have a new circle of friends with whom to share things like supper, shopping, holidays, work stories, even maybe vacation together! I've heard of others doing that, so why not my “forever love” and I?

Well, the first time I was married it just never happened because I was not in my element. We were living 3 kilometers from his mother and siblings and he passed a lot of his time down there. He was there more than I thought healthy because I almost had to make reservations to meet him after work at our house! The notion of having a circle of friends just was not in his mind.

So after 10 years of being married to Henry VIII's 20th Century reincarnation (I say that for reasons I might explain some other time) I filed for divorce and was on my own again. Then I met my second ex, Frank.

I figured that being with Frank would be a different life from the one I had left, and it was. We worked in the same building, knew some of the same people, had some work knowledge in common, and we both enjoyed socializing with a certain group of people outside of work hours. We were able to have lunch some days with a couple with whom we became rather close, and I liked that a lot.

When we first went to the campground, Frank and I were not yet married. We shared a caravan trailer with Frank's mom, Catharine. She was a wonderful woman in every way and a joy to know but she did let us know from time-to-time that we were not fully benefiting from marriage. She and Frank also had some friends including a couple, Tommy P and his wife, Peggy.

Talk about opposites! This pair must have gotten together in a lottery! Peggy was as pretty as the lilacs in June with a sunny personality and the most infectious laugh I have ever heard! She was a prize as a friend, companion, and I felt sure that Tommy saw her as the perfect wife.

Tommy was her polar opposite. He was tall, skinny, noisy, abrasive, difficult, and a sight to see. He was mostly bald with a few hairs on top of a suntanned head that resembled a ripe coconut more than a cranium. Aside from having a loud mouth, he was missing most of his teeth. I have no idea of how he lost them but they were gone and no dentures or bridgework to close the gap. And he sold used cars for work. Get the picture?

When we did get together, Frank was able to handle Tommy's boisterous ways very well. He didn't pay a lot of attention to Tommy when he was being loud or acting like a show-off or playing the fool. Nancy and I appreciated that.

So it was one Saturday in June of 1985 when Frank and I wanted to surprise his mom by going out with Tommy and Peggy and returning with a marriage certificate. I don't recall the exact date, but we did. Tommy volunteered to drive us to the marriage commissioner's office but first we went to a restaurant for a few stiff drinks. That was Tommy's way: everything goes better with vodka.

So we were married in the basement of the court house in a small town in Virginia and we got the certificate to prove it, and Tommy and Peggy were our witnesses. Mama was so surprised when we returned with that piece of paper! She gave us a wedding gift of whatever she had in her wallet, God rest her soul.

Anyway, we hung with Tommy and Peggy and frequently went out with them in their boat to marinas and restaurants for supper or Sunday brunch, always to a place that served liquor. That was Tommy's way. Frank was really cool and never even raised his voice to Tommy when he was playing the fool or making Frank the butt of some “I'm better than you because ______ “ joke.

Things must have been OK with Frank because in September of that year we made plans to go on vacation with Tommy and Peggy for 2 weeks in Fort Lauderdale the following February. Tommy called the Bahia Cabana Motel and made the reservation and we began to count the days.

The time came for us to drive to Florida to meet Peggy and Tommy who were already there. It was 21 hours driving but it was worth every minute of it. When we left our home in the Washington, DC suburbs it was snowing and the temperature was -12C. We arrived on a day of sunny skies and 23C. And Tommy was being Tommy: loud, obnoxious, and full of himself and vodka. I felt sorry for poor Peggy.

Before we left, Frank had a business acquaintance who had a condo in Fort Lauderdale, so he asked him where he thought they served the best seafood. He got the name and address of a place in the town of Davie, Florida. As we had never been in Florida before, the location meant nothing to us. It was just a place on a map.

So we get in Tommy's car and go to this seafood place on Highway 441 in Davie.

We arrived at the address and it was a large shack on stilts over a canal that might have had alligators in it. Two skiffs were tied-up outside and there was a fair crowd having supper.

The server showed us to a table and someone came over and asked us if we wanted a drink. Naturally Tommy ordered first and loudly asked for a Bloody Mary with a double shot of vodka. The table server told him that there was only beer and wine available, no liquor. Tommy went crazy.

He proceeded to yell about what kind of shithouse place was this restaurant that they only served beer and wine; about how this was south Florida and everyplace served vodka, and how pissed-off he was about the lack of hard liquor.

Peggy and I wanted to hide under the table, but we were able to calm him long enough for him to order a Budweiser and for the poor, beleaguered table server to get the drinks and give us a menu. Than the fun really began.

Frank ordered the linguine ristorante for both of us. It was a huge platter of pasta with every kind of shellfish one could find in Florida under home made marinara sauce. Tommy ordered the surf and turf, but asked if the steak that came with it was cold-aged filet mignon. When he found out that they served a New York strip steak, he went off like a Roman candle, exploding at the poor table server about why they could not legally call it a surf and turf.

Suddenly a rather large man in black trousers and a white sport shirt appeared and asked what was all the commotion. He gently moved the server out of the way and leaned his face right into Tommy's. He asked again about all of the noise and yelling. Tommy gulped hard and his eyes got very large as he pulled his head away from this guy who was undoubtedly the bouncer. And this guy would have loved to bounce Tommy. For all I know, he was ready to take him outside and put his sorry ass in that canal as a snack for the alligators.

The supper order went in. Tommy's rare steak was done just fine and Peggy enjoyed hers, too. Frank and I demolished a mountain of pasta and shellfish, all the time enjoying a conversation at reasonable tones. For Peggy and I it was a nod and a wink and a pleasant night after “Bubba” restored order. For Tommy it was a bruised ego and maybe being thankful that he wasn't in that canal after all.

Other things took place on that vacation that I might talk about later but that was one strike against sharing vacation time with anyone ever again.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

Aztec Poetry

Aztec Poetry

HI dear friends and followers

I was fortunate in finding some Aztec poetry. I'm sure that more must exist but it has not yet been placed on th eweb where I can find it. It must be in a university library, waiting for me in the stacks, in volumes and shards and fragments of a once-powerful civilization. This poetry deals with life, both here and hereafter, and how one might gain passage there. There was nothing very militaristic about this society, was there?

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The earth shakes: the Mexica [Aztec] begins his song:

He makes the Eagles and Ocelots dance with him!

Come to see the Huexotzinca:

On the dais of the Eagle he shouts out,

Loudly cries the Mexica.

The battlefield is the place: where one toasts the divine liquor in war,

where are stained red the divine eagles,

where the tigers howl,

where all kinds of precious stones rain from ornaments,

where wave headdresses rich with fine plumes,

where princes are smashed to bits.

There is nothing like death in war,

nothing like the flowery death

so precious to Him who gives life:

far off I see it: my heart yearns for it!

And they called it Teotihulcan

because it was the place

where the lords were buried.

Thus they said:

'When we die,

truly we die not,

because we will live, we will rise,

we will continue living, we will awaken

This will make us happy.'

Thus the dead one was directed,

when he died:

'Awaken, already the sky is rosy,

already dawn has come,

already sing the flame-coloured guans,

the fire-coloured swallows,

already the butterflies fly.' 

Thus the old ones said

that who has died has become a god,

they said: 'He has been made a god there,

meaning 'He has died.'

Even jade is shattered,

Even gold is crushed,

Even quetzal plume are torn . . .

One does not live forever on this earth:

We endure only for an instant!

Will flowers be carried to the Kingdom of Death:

Is it true that we are going, we are going?

Where are we going, ay, where are we going?

Will we be dead there or will we live yet?

Does one exist again?

Perhaps we will live a second time?

Thy heart knows:

Just once do we live!.

Like a quetzal plume, a fragrant flower, 

friendship sparkles:

like heron plumes, it weaves itself into finery.

Our song is a bird calling out like a jingle:

how beautiful you make it sound!

Here, among flowers that enclose us,

among flowery boughs you are singing.

******************************************

All the earth is a grave and nothing escapes it, nothing is so perfect 

that it does not descend to its tomb. Rivers, rivulets, fountains and 

waters flow, but never return to their joyful beginnings; anxiously 

they hasten on the vast realms of the rain god. As they widen their

banks, they also fashion the sad urn of their burial.

Filled are the bowels of the earth with pestilential dust once flesh and bone, 

once animate bodies of man who sat upon thrones, decided cases, presided in 

council, commanded armies, conquered provinces, possessed treasure, destroyed 

temples, exulted in their pride, majesty, fortune, praise and power. Vanished 

are these glories, just as the fearful smoke vanishes that belches forth from 

the infernal fires of Popocatepetl. Nothing recalls them but the written page.

HUNGRY-COYOTE (NEZAHUALCOYOTL)
King of Texcoco (1431-72)

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✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

The Priest and the Rag Picker

The Priest and the Rag Picker

Hi dear friends and followers.
I know that there are more myths and legends of the Aztec People to be found but without an exhaustive effort and in-depth research, I will not be able to find them. Not being a full-time anthropologist or researcher into the ancient literature of anyone, including the Aztecs, leaves me rather limited in terms of how much material I can present for your enjoyment.

With that said, I present to you the last of the "easy finds" of Aztec legends, The Story of the Priest and the Rag Picker
This legend was shared with us by Andrea López Delgado.

Once a Nahua (Aztec) rag-picker happened to discover a painted book near the Temple of Huitzilpochtli, where he worked his trade. He brought it to a priest and asked him what the glyphs said. It turned out the book told of a magical casket hidden inside the ninety-third step of the pyramid. 

So the rag-picker and the priest agreed to split the treasure they found, and counted the stairs of the pyramid until they got to 93. When they pried up the stone, there was the casket, bound in a silver chain. Inside it were wonderful things: a magical rattle and drumstick, a mirror that could show the future, a magic wand, an almanac and a book of sorcery.

The priest said, "These are sacred things. You don't know how to use any of them, so they're no use to you. But since I know how to use them, they are valuable to me. Why don't I give you three hundred pieces of gold for your half of the treasure."

So the rag-picker agreed to that, but while the priest was counting out the money, he hit him in the back of the head with the magic wand and killed him. "See, it's not so hard to use these things." So he threw the priest's body in the lake, kept the money and the treasures and began trying to study the sacred artifacts. 

But it didn't go well. The rag-picker didn't know what he was doing. He couldn't read the almanac. He looked into the future and saw things he didn't understand. He shook the rattle and the noises frightened him. And he couldn't sleep, because strange spirits disturbed him constantly. "A curse on these things! They are bringing me nothing but grief." 

So the rag-picker packed them back up in the casket and threw them into the lake. But no sooner did he do that then the priest jumped up out of the lake and caught the casket in his hands. He was alive again! The priest took out the magic wand and hit the rag-picker with it and killed him instantly. And from then on the priest carried the sacred items with him, where they never did any more harm to anyone.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿

The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs

Hi dear friends and followers

Today I was most fortunate to find an excerpt from an epic poem of the Aztec People, about the birth of their Sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Everything that follows this paragraph is taken from the work cited and is not mine. It is the intellectual property of one M. Leon-Portilla. I thought about including pictures with this work but I felt it best to not "gild the lily," as it were. I hope that you find this nugget as enjoyable to read as I did.

From Leon-Portilla, ed., Native Mesoamerican Spirituality, New York: Paulist Press, 1980.

The Birth of Huitzilopochtli, Patron God of the Aztecs

This is a teocuitatl, "divine song," a sort of epic poem in which the birth of Huitzilopochtli is recalled. The portentous patron god of the Aztecs was the son of Coatlicue, "she of the skirt of serpents," a title of the Mother goddess. This text has been the object of various forms of interpretation.

According to some researchers, the myth has to do with an astral primeval confrontation. Huitzilopochtli is the Sun who is born from Cuatlicue, the earth. His sister, Coyolxauhqui, the moon incites her four hundred brothers, the innumerable stars, to attack the Sun. In the astral struggle the moon and the four hundred stars are defeated.

The triumph of the Sun, the patron god of the Aztecs, anticipates the destiny of the latter. This idea leads to a different or complementary interpretation. If the destiny of Huitzilopochtli has been to defeat his enemies and to deprive them of their possessions, the Aztec people, by siding with their patron God, will become "the people of the Sun," those chosen to impose their rule on many other nations in the four quadrants of the universe.

The Aztecs greatly revered Huitzilopochtli; they knew his origin, his beginning, was in this manner:

In Coatepec, on the way to Tula,

there was living,

there dwelt a woman

by the name of Coatlicue.

She was mother of the four hundred gods of the south

and their sister

by name Coyolxauhqui.

And this Coatlicue did penance there,

she swept, it was her task to sweep,

thus she did penance

in Coatepec, the Mountain of the Serpent.

And one day,

when Coatlicue was sweeping,

there fell on her some plumage,

a ball of fine feathers.

Immediately Coatlicue picked them up

and put them in her bosom.

When she finished sweeping,

she looked for the feathers

she had put in her bosom,

but she found nothing there.

At that moment Coatlicue was with child.

The four hundred gods of the south,

seeing their mother was with child,

were very annoyed and said:

"Who has done this to you?

Who has made you with child?

This insults us, dishonors us."

And their sister Coyolxauhqui

said to them:

"My brothers, she has dishonored us,

we must kill our mother,

the wicked woman who is now with child.

Who gave her what she carries in her womb?"

When Coatlicue learned of this,

she was very frightened,

she was very sad.

But her son Huitzilopochtli, in her womb,

comforted her, said to her:

"Do not be afraid,

I know what I must do."

Coatlicue, having heard

the words of her son,

was consoled,

her heart was quiet,

she felt at peace.

But meanwhile the four hundred gods of the south

came together to take a decision,

and together they decided

to kill their mother,

because she had disgraced them.

They were very angry,

they were very agitated,

as if the heart had gone out of them.

Coyolxauhqui incited them,

she inflamed the anger of her brothers,

so that they should kill her mother.

And the four hundred gods

made ready,

they attired themselves as for war.

And those four hundred gods of the south

were like captains;

they twisted and bound up their hair

as warriors arrange their long hair.

But one of them called Cuahuitlicac

broke his word.

What the four hundred said,

he went immediately to tell,

he went and revealed it to Huitzilopochtli.

And Huitzilopochtli replied to him:

"Take care, be watchful,

my uncle, for I know well what I must do."

And when finally they came to an agreement,

the four hundred gods were determined to kill,

to do away with their mother;

then they began to prepare,

Coyolxauhqui directing them.

They were very robust, well equipped,

adorned as for war,

they distributed among themselves their paper garb,

the anecuyotl [the girdle], the nettles,

the streamers of colored paper;

they tied little bells on the calves of their legs,

the bells called oyohualli.

Their arrows had barbed points.

Then they began to move,

they went in order, in line,

in orderly squadrons,

Coyolxauhqui led them.

But Cuahuitlicac went immediately up onto the mountain,

so as to speak from there to Huitzilopochtli;

he said to him:

"Now they are coming."

Huitzilopochtli replied to him:

"Look carefully which way they are coming."

Then Cuahuitlicac said:

"Now they are coming through Tzompantitlan."

And again Huitzilopochtli said to him:

"Where are they coming now?"

Cuahuitlicac replied to him:

"Now they are coming through Coaxalpan."

And once more Huitzilopochtli asked Cuahuitlicac:

"Look carefully which way they are coming."

Immediately Cuahuitlicac answered him:

"Now they are coming up the side of the mountain."

And yet again Huitzilopochtli said to him:

"Look carefully which way they are coming."

Then Cuahuitlicac said to him:

"Now they are on the top, they are here,

Coyolxauhqui is leading them."

At that moment Huitzilopochtli was born,

he put on his gear,

his shield of eagle feathers,

his darts, his blue dart-thrower.

He painted his face

with diagonal stripes,

in the color called "child's paint."

On his head he arranged fine plumage,

he put on his earplugs.

And on his left foot, which was withered,

he wore a sandal covered with feathers,

and his legs and his arms

were painted blue.

And the so-called Tochancalqui

set fire to the serpent of candlewood,

the one called Xiuhcoatl

that obeyed Huitzilopochtli.

With the serpent of fire he struck Coyolxauhqui,

he cut off her head,

and left it lying there

on the slope of Coatepetl.

The body of Coyolxauhqui

went rolling down the hill,

it fell to pieces,

in different places fell her hands,

her legs, her body.

Then Huitzilopochtli was proud,

he pursued the four hundred gods of the south,

he chased them, drove them off

the top of Coatepetl, the mountain of the snake.

And when he followed them

down to the foot of the mountain,

he pursued them, he chased them like rabbits,

all around the mountain.

He made them run around it four times.

In vain they tried to rally against him,

in vain they turned to attack him,

rattling their bells

and clashing their shields.

Nothing could they do,

nothing could they gain,

with nothing could they defend themselves.

Huitzilopochtli chased them, he drove them away,

he humbled them, he destroyed them, he annihilated them.

Even then he did not leave them,

but continued to pursue them,

and they begged him repeatedly, they said to him:

"It is enough!"

But Huitzilopochtli was not satisfied,

with force he pushed against them,

he pursued them.

Only a very few were able to escape him,

escape from his reach.

They went toward the south,

and because they went toward the south,

they are called gods of the south.

And when Huitzilopochtli had killed them,

when he had given vent to his wrath,

he stripped off their gear ,

their ornaments, their anecuyotl;

he put them on, he took possession of them,

he introduced them into his destiny,

he made them his own insignia.1

And this Huitzilopochtli, as they say,

was a prodigy,

because only from fine plumage,

which fell into the womb of his mother, Coatlicue,

was he conceived,

he never had any father.

The Aztecs venerated him,

they made sacrifices to him,

honored and served him.

And Huitzilopochtli rewarded

those who did this.

And his cult came from there,

from Coatepec, the Mountain of the Serpent,

as it was practiced from most ancient times.2

***************************************

1 The meaning of these last lines is particularly eloquent. When Huitzilopochtli defeated and killed his brothers, he took possession of their insignia and attributes and he introduced them into his own destiny. For the Aztecs this was an anticipation of their own future. They too had to take possession of the riches of others to introduce them into their own destiny.

2 Florentine Codex, book 3, chapter I. Translation by M. Leon-Portilla.

Thank you very much again, dear friends, for visiting my blog. Please share your thoughts with us, if you will. have a great Week.

✿ ڰۣ❤In Loving Light from the Fairy Lady❤ڰۣ✿