What's This Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day ... Stuff?

So, what's the origin of Halloween? Is there more to it than creepy people in freaky dress at your door?

The tradition goes back to Pope Gregory III (731 - 741), who set a new date for All Saints Day, on November 1st. It was to happen around the same time as the scary but popular Celtic ghost-and-harvest festival of Samhain. On All Saints Day, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates its "saints," special people who were really good and went straight to Heaven when they died.

(The following day, November 2nd, is All Souls Day. This is when the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the regular people who are dead. These ordinary folk are "souls" and not "saints." They include most people who go to church. They are not good enough to enter directly into Heaven. According to the church, when these people die, their souls are punished in a place called Purgatory. There, they will burn until their sins are completely removed and they're finally good enough to get into Heaven.)

But back to All Saints Day--it's also called All Hallows Day, or Hallowmas. The old English word hallow does not mean "hello" but means "holy" or "saint." The day before Hallowmas, October 31st, would be called Hallow Evening, which when pronounced quickly becomes Hallow E'en' or Halloween.

Today, Halloween is more or less a secular rather than religious event in North America. Kids, like many we've seen tonight, run around the neighbourhood in costume collecting cavity catalysts with their parents' supervision and encouragement. At some LINC schools, people carve pumpkins, dress up, act funny, take pictures, and hand out candies to children.

But not all churches follow the Roman Catholic calendar. Eastern churches (those located east of Rome!) observe All Saints Day around Pentecost, a holy day in late May or early June each year.

Other churches look back to the Halloween of 1517. On that day, a German monk named Martin Luther placed a notice on his church door. Although he did not know it then, that one action would change the world. At that time the Roman Catholic Church needed lots of money to build St. Peter's Basilica. That is the large church building located at the Vatican in Rome. When completed, it would become the biggest church building in the world, which it still is today. To raise funds, the church told ordinary people that their dead relatives ("souls") could get out of Purgatory and enter Heaven faster if they did something special for them. If they bought God's forgiveness on an official church document, called an "indulgence," those souls in Purgatory would immediately go up into Heaven and stop suffering in Purgatory.

Luther felt something wasn't right. He read his Bible and discovered that there was no such thing. God does not move souls to Heaven faster when people pray or pay for their dead relatives. Instead, God accepts people into Heaven simply when they receive His gift of His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus took all our punishment on Himself on the cross so that those who accept God's gift can have eternal life. So the whole work of getting saved is not our work at all. It is all God's work, and we must do nothing but trust Him completely!

This discovery made Luther very angry. On October 31st, 1517, he nailed a list of questions, or his "95 Theses," on his church's door. In Thesis 86, he questions, "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?" He wanted to have a debate. But someone stole his notice and printed and distributed it all over Europe. Many people who read the 95 Theses agreed with Luther and the Bible.

The rest, as they say, is history. Europeans were free to read the Bible for themselves in their own language rather than in Latin only. Scientists were free to explore the universe rather than wait for a priest to tell them. People had the option of living under a different government, one that tolerated their faith, or voting for their own governments. Immigrants could learn ESL rather than Latin. New freedoms and rights were granted in lands wherever they went, especially in North America. Best of all, the gospel was clearly communicated: it offers freedom from the wrath of God and freedom to live right through the power of God. Ordinary souls are saints before God. By reading the Bible for ourselves, we are free to be confident of things concerning Heaven, Hell, and how to be saved.

To those who love their freedoms, that Halloween of 1517 means something special. It took one man on that last day of October to change the world. If Martin Luther had not had the guts to speak up almost 500 years ago, if there had been no Reformation Day, the world today would have been very different, indeed.

Honest, What Another Drip, Um, Trip!

As the heavens opened for us, so did the west of Yonge and some of its famed neighbourhoods and landmarks.



Things started a little late due to "mechanical problems" on the Finch subway line south of Lawrence, but all of us from MicroSkills' 200 and 250 Consumer's Road Language Centres (LINC Levels 4 - 7) found our way to Honest Ed's, ready for a walking tour of the Annex and Koreatown.

Led by who else but our Dauntless Donald, we learnt about trees, architecture, conservation, immigration, and the mafia.

The mafia? Yes, the shoe-tossing kind that Maryam noticed.



The multiplied varieties of maple, the importance of maintaining a visual connection with the past, the low-rise architecture, and the waves of immigrants--from Hungary and then South Korea--these were some of the lessons shared.

Participants also got a first-hand introduction to the weather in Canada and how to bundle up.



Some who were on an earlier field trip posed in front of the lunch place from the previous trip.

Donald led us all the way down Bloor Street to Christie Subway Station and the park there. We then turned around and shivered our way back east through the cold drizzle.

But not before we stopped outside a Korean walnut cake shop and sampled their goodies.



And then it was back to what might be Toronto's most famous discount store. Three or four floors of kitsch and merchandise awaited, mingled with corny sayings and black-and-white photos of famous and forgotten shoppers.

Evidence of drug gangs?

CHANGE OF PLANS: Destination Honest Ed's

Due to an administrative problem, there is a change of plans for our field trip. Instead of going to the ROM, we're headed to Honest Ed's instead.

Honest Ed's is a cultural, historic, and philanthropic icon of Toronto, and his flagship store has been visited by just about every tourist to our city, from royalty and Hollywood stars to poor ESL instructors like, um, me. In fact, the whole area, Mirvish Village, is named after its famous founder.

So, please meet INSIDE the entrance of the store (Honest Ed's, not the subway station) at 10 a.m. As the weather report says it will be cloudy with showers, with 15 - 20 mm of precipitation, what should you bring? How should you dress?

Those going by subway should get off at Bathurst Subway Station (east of Yonge-Bloor), walk south on Bathurst Street, cross Bloor Street, and enter the store on Bloor.

It's hard to miss the flashing lights of Honest Ed's, but ask anybody in the area, and they'll know the great man, Ed Mirvish, and his great store!

For pictures of a previous field trip to Honest Ed's, check out:
http://celebr8.blogspot.com/2009/02/post-trip-what-some-saw-at-honest-eds.html

Prepping for the Next Field Trip--Where are we going?

So, where will we have to go to see the following things on our next field trip, on Friday, October 23rd?




Submit your answers under Comments!
(Hint: It's not a library near Lake Ontario, and it's not about Elvis Presley in Memphis, Tenessee!)

Also, list three things you'd like to find out when you get there.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If not for the following Declaration by Queen Victoria, we might never have gotten the holiday!

The Ecclesiastical Gazette

November 8, 1859, p. 114

http://books.google.ca/books?id=oJ0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA114&ci=330%2C35%2C359%2C764&source=bookclip

COLONIAL.

CANADA.--PUBLIC DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

_________

PROCLAMATION

PROVINCE OF CANADA.

EDMUND HEAD.

Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Queen, defender of the faith, &c., &c., &c.

To all to whom these presents shall come--greeting:--

John A. Macdonald, Attorney General.

Whereas it hath pleased Almighty God, in his great goodness, to vouchsafe unto our province of Canada the blessings of an abundant harvest; we, therefore, adoring the divine goodness and duly considering that the blessings of peace and plenty now enjoyed by our people in the said province do call for public and solemn acknowledgments, have thought fit by and with the advice of our executive council of our province of Canada, to issue this proclamation, hereby appointing that a general holiday and day of thanksgiving to Almighty God for these His mercies be observed throughout our said province of Canada, on Thursday, the 3rd day of November next, and we do earnestly exhort all our loving subjects therein that they do observe the said public Day of Thanksgiving.

In testimony thereof we have caused these our letters to be made potent, and the great seal of our said province of Canada to be hereunto affixed: Witness our right trusty and well-beloved the Right Honorable Sir Edmund Walker Head, Baronet, Governor General of British North America, &c., &c. At our Government House, in our city of Toronto, in our said province, this 13th day of September, A.D. 1859, and in the twenty-third year of our reign.

By command, CHAS. AILEEN, Secretary.

____________

A FORM OF PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING TO ALMIGHTY GOD, TO BE USED

In all the churches and chapels of the United Church of England and Ireland within the province of Canada, on Thursday, the third day of November, 1859, being the day appointed for a general thanksgiving to Almighty God:

FOR THE LATE ABUNDANT HARVEST.

BY AUTHORITY.

_________

THE ORDER FOR MORNING PRAYER.

__________

....

O merciful God, at whose bidding the earth withholdeth her increase, or again rendereth her fruits in their seasons; Give us grace that we may learn alike from Thy mercies and from Thy judgments our entire dependence on Thee for the supply of our daily bread, and that being fully persuaded that whatever blessing we receive at Thy hands is designed for our trial as well as for our comfort, we may impart a share of Thy bounty, in dutiful accordance to Thy holy will, to the afflicted and indigent, the widow, the orphan, and the aged, and thus obtain for ourselves that mercy which Thou in Thy word hast promised to the merciful: through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

....

O Almighty God and Father, of whose only gift it cometh that the earth is made to yield its increase for the sustenance of man; vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, to accept this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, that Thou hast crowned the year with Thy goodness and caused the earth to bring forth abundantly, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater. We acknowledge, O Lord, that it is of Thy great mercy that we are not consumed, and that Thou art kind and good to the unthankful and the evil. We might have sown

p. 115

much, and brought in little; the heaven might have been stayed from dew, and the earth stayed from her fruit. But Thou hast dealt graciously with Thine unworthy servants, and hast blessed the labours of the husbandman, and filled our garners with all manner of store. And now, Lord, we entreat Thee, together with these temporal mercies to bestow the inestimable gift of Thy Holy Spirit, that a due sense of Thy goodness toward this land may awaken in us a more sincere repentance toward Thee, and a more earnest faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Grant that the mercy and preservation, which we have in manifold instances experienced, may lead us to a more active obedience of Thy laws, a more earnest endeavour to conform to Thy will, and to advance Thy glory. Dispose the hearts of those to whom abundance has been given, to use that abundance in relieving the necessities of the poor and destitute: that whilst many have gathered plenty, none may pine in want and penury. Thus may Thy judgments and Thy mercies alike work together for the spiritual benefit of all the people of this land, and tend to graft in their hearts an increasing love and fear of Thee, our only refuge in time of trouble. Hear, we beseech Thee, O Lord, these our humble petitions, and receive these our thanksgivings, for His sake, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance, that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the words, which we have heard this day with our outward ears, may through Thy grace be so grafted inwardly to our hearts, that they may bring forth in us the fruit of good living, to the honour and praise of Thy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, who knowest our necessities before we ask, and our ignorance is asking; we beseech Thee to have compassion upon our infirmities; and those things, which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask, vouchsafe to give us for the worthiness of Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord; and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you, and remain with you always. Amen.

See you all on Tuesday!

What a Field Drip!

Around 10:15 this morning, a whole horde of us Microskills participants from the two LINC/Language Centres at 200 and 250 Consumers Rd descended on College Park for our long-awaited field trip to Riverdale Farm. Washroom break over, we head on up and out. But wait, a quick picture first, which almost gets the photographer arrested for taking pictures "on private property" without the owner's permission.

And what a horde we were--it takes two shots on my digital camera's Canadian-invented CCD.

It's a toss-up between Plan A, Riverdale Farm, or Plan B, our wimpy rainy-day alternative--Toronto's PATH network. Forget the weatherman! Blow wind, come wrack, it's just water on Donald's back! Plan A wins out!

Surprise, an off-leash dog run in the middle of the city!

Pity, none of us qualified to enter. But what about mad dogs and Englishmen out in the midday rain?

Allen Gardens ... are we there yet? (Not quite!)

A teachers' moment ...

Thinking of Castle, Frank?

The horticultural conservatory seemed bigger back then.

Ken still going strong, under the banana and screw trees.

Linda with the Great Donald

The Mister Allen behind the namesake Garden!

"Called to the bar" he was, eh?

Crowded, but at least it's sanctuary from the rain!

Bamboo kalashnikov?

Raise thy rod, O Donald!

The Brolly Brigade cometh!

It's still a long trek ... turning east off Carlton.

Finally, a farm! Whoa, it's Riverdale Farm! Time to scratch and sniff!

This bird won't talk turkey.

A happy customer!

The barnyard swine flew not.

Bah, grim joke. I'm outta here.

Okay, Frank's gotta go. So go we. Headed home, via the Necropolis. Lovely chapel, eh?

Casket goes on those rollers.

At the TTC bus stop, headed for Castle Frank, we say, "Thanks a BILLION, George! We luv ya!"

Field Trip on Friday, October 9th: Riverdale Farm

Hello folks,

It's time again for another field trip, this one led by the Great Donald himself!

We're going to the Riverdale Farm, home of "cows, horses, donkey, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, and farm cats."

A group called The Friends of Riverdale Farm state on their website that:

Dogs, pets of any sort, bicycles, rollerskates, recreational scooters,
in-line skates or children's riding toys are not allowed within the Farm
compounds.

But picnic tables are available; so we should have a jolly good time there. Wear comfortable walking shoes, bring water and snacks/lunch, and pack an umbrella, just in case. Children are welcome!

Here's how we get there:

As usual, we'll leave from the Southbound Platform of Yonge-Sheppard Subway Station at 9:30 a.m. and get off at College Subway Station. There, we'll meet Donald at the College Park Food Court, underground.

Donald will leave from the food court at 10:15 a.m. to take us on a walking tour that will go past Allan Gardens and end at Riverdale Farm.

You're free to go once you're dismissed at the farm, and you can choose to take off, go back home with a group of participants, or hang around throughout the afternoon.