Halloween?

I always wanted to know more about Halloween in the United States. I decided to find out more about Halloween and what people knew about this celebration in the US. As I asked my friends no one could really give me an answer but only that it was a celebration where you could dress up and kids go out for candy. No one knew FROM WHERE it originated and why we use pumpkins, scary ghost, witches and many other scary characters for decorations.

When I arrived in America, I came on the month that Americans dressed up and go around begging for candy. Of course, I was only 6 years old and timid at the time, not knowing English and was interested because my mama told me that we would go around the neighborhood and ask for candy. I was confused why we needed to ask for candy ( estan locos aqui...tocar la puerta y te dan dulce por decir unas palabras!). She explained to me that kids dress up in costumes on the 31st of October, a tradition to go around and trick or treat knocking on doors and saying: trick or treat, as she kept telling me the story my eyes grew bigger and bigger with so much excitement about receiving dulce, something that was not done in South America. I started to like America more and more. I then asked my mom, “are there any other holidays I should be aware of like this that America gives free stuff by knocking or doing something weird?” Mi mama started laughing and my sister looked at me with a look that told ME that YOU are so dumb.’

Now that I am older, I still dress up in costume and try to have all my friends gather for this special day and go dancing. I use this special celebration to catch up on our lives and just be us without our men next to us, who do not know how to have fun or are just boring. We get together and go out for a few hours to laugh, catch on each others lives, and enjoy the night out. It also lets all of us take a few hours off our busy schedule to enjoy our lives instead of worrying about bills, school, kids and any typical daily life stress.

So I decided to find out what Halloween was about in the US and where it originated from and here is a little summary written by Jill Neitz on what and where Halloween first started. So, if anyone ever asks you when did Halloween start or originated from you can tell them the story below:

Halloween:
The history of Halloween goes back more than 2,000 years. The earliest celebrations of Halloween were among the Celtic people who lived in the areas which are now Great Britain and Northern France.
The Celts were people who worshiped the beauty of nature. They worshiped a Sun God and believed that without him, they would not live. They also worshipped Samhain who was the lord of the dead and of the cold, dark winter season. They believed that on October 31 Samhain would call together all of the dead and these souls would take on the shape of an animal. They believed that all creatures wandered the Earth on that night. This was called the Vigil of Samhain.
The Druids, which were the priests of the Celtic people, would build fires on the hilltops in belief that the large fires would help to strengthen the Sun God, and give him power enough to overcome the lord of darkness so that the sun season could continue. They believed that the fires were sacred, therefore they burned dried crops and sacrificed animals to help strengthen the Sun God. At midnight they stop worshipping the Sun God and start to worship Samhain because he will be the ruler for the next six months. This is the starting of the new year. They perform ceremonies through the night to ask the spirits to tell the future of the upcoming year. In the morning each household receives an ember from the fire, this ember is used to start fires in their own homes with the belief that it will ward off evil spirits in the new year.
The Celts continued with their ceremonies until they were conquered by the Roman Catholics. The Roman Catholics brought with them their own customs and traditions. They had established All Saints Day or All Hallows Day on November 1. This was a day in which all saints who did not have their own declared holiday were honored. The church had hoped that by establishing this holiday, it would do away with the Vigil of Samhain and the other ceremonies and celebrations held on October 31 through November 1. But this was not so. Soon witchcraft came about, and October 31 was renamed Night of the Witch. It was believed that the devil and all of his followers (demons, witches) would come out on this night to perform unholy acts to make a mockery of the All Hallows Day celebration. These ceremonies and celebrations continued and October 31 was then called All Hallows Even. It was a night for superstitious beliefs and mystery. Through the years the name was shortened to Hallowe'en and then to Halloween.

Credits to Jill Neitz

Drinking promotes career advances!

Drinking promotes career advances!

In our Sparta newspaper was an article stating that drinking promotes career advancement for women more than men. It demonstrated that women make 14 percent more of income and men 10 percent more by drinking.

I thought about the whole idea of what the editor was trying to say, but as I kept reading the article, it basically told me that I should drink in order to have a better job. Yes, the editor did mention what others thought about the study done and the effects of drinking socially. But never did any other research to verify the facts on this study done.

As I kept reading, it sounded like the study she read about was mostly on networking, although it focused more on "drinking" as the key to having a better career.

I started to think and went to research on drinking socially. I found one study done by Brown University Digest stating that they observed non-drinkers and socially drinkers. The drinkers had slow memory, their reflections were slow, and after having 100 drinks within a month they showed signs of slow brain functions.

So how could "drinking promote better pay?” as the editor used for her heading. It only provokes your body to have serious consequences in the end after drinking so many times within a month; provokes slows Brain functions; risks incurring a DUI that will automatically cost you more money for drinking and driving. It may also result in some becoming alcoholics and losing their jobs in the end. The study also made it seem as if women use their looks and drinking to obtain a higher percentage of pay or career advancement.

Articles like this really make me think about what journalists write and if they actually do research. Perhaps they are under such pressure to write something within a given time that they simply repeat facts or agree with an article or just write whatever they want.

I just do not know anymore about people being so ignorant on the side effects of alcohol and that this study if telling students to go ahead drink all you want, network but make sure you are holding an alcoholic beverage in your hand if not you will never have a promotion or career advancement in your job.

I do not believe that people are still ignorant about the side effects of alcohol. It seems that this story suggests that the study is actually saying students should go ahead and drink all they want rather than network. Or it recommends you make sure you are holding an alcoholic beverage in your hand or you will never have a promotion or career advancement in your job.

My point on this article is that alcohol does not promote career advancement. I feel that the editor misleadingly title her article to give the wrong impression about the subject matter. Also, women do not make more money than men do by drinking alcohol at a network event. I feel journalist should start to do more research on topics they write about before publishing it.

Dating!

Dating can be such a positive or negative experience, but once you date a person they seem so nice and almost perfect.

The reason I am writing about this topic is that one of my friends was looking for someone and she started with the website myspace.com. I told her to be careful when dating people from the web as I heard many weird and funny stories. She happened to tell me that she met this man or young boy who was cute and great body. Listening to this I asked myself what does a great body and being cute have to offer you? She then told me the next day that she will meet him for lunch after class. She was dressed to impress her date. She told me that she felt that something was wrong with him and could not think why she had a weird felling about him that something was just not right. After seeing him for lunch and talking on the phone she started to say that he was stubborn, demanding and that their relationship would only work if she fallows his rules. She figured that maybe it is because he has a strict father.

The second week came and she went to see him, they decided to watch a TV show that was with a cast of African American actors. He came out with a racist remark that made her mad, because to her it seemed that he was contradicting himself. Contradicting himself as being ignorant because he watches shows with characters who are African American. She asked him, "are you against African American?" and he tells her no, I am racist and my family used to own them!

She was shocked to hear this and told me that for him to make such a remark made her see him as "ugly"! I asked her why would he say something like that? She was even shocked because he attends SJSU and talks like that! She told me that after he opened his mouth to say that remark, he kept going on how the blacks are only looking for easy ways to make money and have a talent for dancing and singing but no brains. It made her so mad to hear all this comments that she decided to go home. She has also decided not to talk to him anymore and she was glad that she listened to her instinct telling her there was something wrong with this guy.

I told her that in the first place she should not be looking for someone, that the right person will come along. Secondly, that she really should not have gone to their home when she had only met them twice and felt something was wrong with them. Thirdly, I feel badly for those who are lonely and think they have to go through a dating process. Finally, I told her that she should just focus on school and might meet Mr. Right who will have the same interest as her. Of course, I hugged her in the end to let her know that it will all be okay and I am there for her no matter what.

I am glad that I do not have to go through the dating phase. I remember how hard it was to date and most of the time I didn't like the men I would meet. I even went on blind dates and let me tell you what a mistake it was. I would ask one of my friends call me within 15 minutes and tell me that I had to come home because of an emergency. This would happen on all my dates because they didn't look like the picture posted on their profiles. I would always have a funny story to tell the next day to my friends and they would laugh at me. Some would also tell me that it was mean to do that and what goes around comes around. I told them that I was honest with my profile and had nothing to hide.

Now I have a good man who helps me in any way he can, but at times we have our arguments. I guess it helps that he is not from the United States; he does not think of just taking the girl and sleeping with her as most men here in the US only think of; he has everything that I looked for in a man and a family person. But this will have to wait for another blog story for me to tell you all.