Halloween

It's almost Halloween and that got me thinking about why we mark occassions such as this one. All Hallow's Eve originated with the Pagan Celts of the British Isles and Europe at the time of their harvest festival. In a treatment common with many Pagan festivals, the Christian feast of All Saint's Day was moved to November 1st to give Halloween a more Christian interpretation. So does this kind of treatment hold true for other festival days?

Christmas, Christ's Mass, 25th December, the birth of Jesus Christ. In fact it was timed to coincide with the Pagan winter solstice festival of Yule, and the Roman winter festival of Saturnalia. The true date of birth for Christ remains unknown, but by timing the celebration to coincide with other festivals the early Christians were able to popularise their own.

Even Easter, the most important event in the Christian calendar, is not without controvesy. It has been claimed that this feast may be derived from the Anglo-Saxon celebration of the spring equinox and its goddess Eostre.

Ever since the first Council of Nicea in 325AD the Christian church has hijacked Pagan festivals to suit there own purposes and further the message that Christianity sought to deliver. Whether this is a good or bad thing is not for me to say but for you, the reader, to decide for yourself. Bear it in mind though the next time you're tucking into the Christmas turkey or chomping on a chocolate egg.

The Muckin' o' Geordie's Byre

The following are the lyrics from a version of a lively Scottish song, usually sung at fast tempo - anyone care to offer a translation?

Noo when I want taw lauchin' I think on the scene
When a'body roub' aboot cam; ower tae clean,
And clairted themsel's richt up taw the e'en
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.
Wi Robbie the Rochie and Willie the Doo,
The auld wife hersel' an' Teeny McCrew;
And a'body else the left aff the pleugh
For the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

Oh! Siccan a sotter was a'body in,
Five mile awa' ye could hear the din;
Even the vera coo had to grin
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

Noo the bobby cam' roun' tae quell doon the soun'
The cratur got lost whaur the rucks hae their foun'
He feel in the midden and was like taw droon
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.
The weicht o' him syne sent the barrow in bits,
The wheel cairred on and the auld wife it hits;
Losh! ye should hae seen how she did the splits
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

Oh! Siccan a sotter was a'body in,
Five mile awa' ye could hear the din;
Even the vera coo had to grin
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

Oh the whisky gaed roun' Tammy flein' the doo'
And aye as they drank, the mair they got fou'
The only anes sober, the calf an' the coo
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.
Tammy roared oot "Ring the bell noo for mair"
Syne tuggit the coo's tail, and pu'd oot a hair;
When she kickit oot he gaed up in the air
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

Oh! Siccan a sotter was a'body in,
Five mile awa' ye could hear the din;
Even the vera coo had to grin
At the muckin' o' Geordie's byre.

The World in turmoil

In the Far East, North Korea is allegedly testing nuclear weapons. In the Middle East violence fuelled by Islamic zeal and intolerance is rife. In the USA an equally zealous breed of ultra-conservative Christianity is taking hold. In the midst of it all two hard-working souls are battling the forces of wallpaper and paint in an attempt to make their little corner of England a green and pleasant one.

Trouble in the World seems to come and go, but it is important not to get so swept up by events that we forget that we too have a life to live. We're no more likely to be blown up by suicide bombers, or nuked by the press of a red button, than we are to win the lottery and get knocked down by a bus on the same day. The reality is that the world can be a dangerous place, but that life isn't as frightening as we see on the news.

It would be easy to place blame for the world's ills on the shoulders of fundamentalist Muslim clerics and Christian preachers, or the socialist Communist leaders. The views of these people are often distasteful and irrational, but these days we perhaps spend a little too long focusing on such large issues when far more important is the time we spend with our friends and families, embracing life and all it has to give us.

And so endeth the sermon, peace be with you brothers and sisters.

Electric River

We did a bit of shopping at the weekend and, while walking up Canterbury high street, we came across a crowd of people watching a local band performing. I was about to walk on when I realised that they were playing a cover of Pearl Jam's classic "Alive", and followed it up by playing "Once". Now these guys can't have been any older than 16 or 17 but they rocked, and so did I. I even paid a fiver to buy a copy of their CD.



Now it seems I wasn't the only one impressed by their talent and taste in music. I've had a quick check of their myspace site and it turns out they're quite a popular group with a whole score of gigs lined up for the rest of this year (presumably when they're not revising for their GCSEs). I have a feeling they tend to draw the teenage rebel girls most of all as their audience but I don't suppose they're complaining. I'm gonna give their CD, which contains their own tunes, a bit of listen but if it is anything like the stuff the bands that influence them put out them I'm sure to like it - I mean, you can't go wrong with a bit of Dream Theater, Green Day or Thin Lizzy can you?!?! It'll be interesting to see if these guys get signed, they have the talent but just need the break.

Hello, Alo, Hallo, Dobrý den, Saluton, Sveiki

Welcome, everyone, to my second attempt at blogging. I began with a wordpress blog but abandoned it once I found out I couldn't change how it looked without paying for the privelege. I've seen blogger used by a number of my friends and everyone seems to agree it is pretty good, at least I can hack around with the css and get it looking a bit cool although some of these standard templates are funky.

So what is Texas Ian's Yeehaw all about? Like most people I'm just going to stick stuff on here that I find interesting, you may not of course but you're always welcome to tell me that. I'm hoping that I might be able to educate my readers a little by imparting a few choice facts that I've picked up in my 30 odd years. I was commenting only today to Ana (my wife for anyone who doesn't know her) that I seem to have a good memory for useless facts but don't always remember the important things. I prefer to draw a gardening analogy on this though because, like weeds, my facts are only flowers in the wrong place. Perhaps my blog is the place to plant and cultivate these comforting friends, let's see shall we...

The title of this entry is a simple greeting in 6 languages, all of which are spoken by some very good friends on mine. In order we have English, Romanian, Afrikaans, Czech, Esperanto and Lithuanian - what a cosmopolitan group of friends I have.