THANKSGIVING IN THE UNITED STATES

A day that celebrates PLENTY.  

In the United States there are many Thanksgiving meals that are given freely at churches, homeless shelters, senior centers, and other food distributions or outreaches.

 

GIVE THANKS

 image from powderkegwebdesign.com

SHELTER OF LOVE

 

HOW DO YOU CELEBRATE A HUNGARIAN-AMERICAN CHRISTMAS?

Do you continue or include Hungarian traditions into your Christmas time celebrations?

Leave me a comment!

PUMPKIN PIE

THANKSGIVING may be the most popular American Holiday because anyone - any religion - can celibate it.  The tradition of eating Turkey - an All American bird - is strong but now there are so many people who are vegetarian or vegan - and so many people who have not adjusted culturally to eating the turkey.  I thought I'd feature a favorite desert - the pumpkin pie.  Pumpkin is extremely nutritious and the canned puree is available all year in American groceries.

That dollop of whipped creme cannot be avoided.  Give me three dollops!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

 

MEMORIAL DAY : SHOULD REMEMBER THE OLD PRICE OF GROCERIES?

I'm not sure most Americans are celebrating Memorial Day as

a remembrance of those who lost their lives fighting in our wars. 

Rather,

I think the day is perceived as a well earned day off,

 and a day to greet summer and to have

a picnic or barbeque outdoors.

The grocers are jammed with people buying 

hot dogs, chicken, ground meat for burgers, various

sodas and sparkling waters, fresh corn on the cob, eggs and potatoes for salad, and something else that has become unbelievably expensive lately : chips!

I suppose due to transportation costs, importing delays, the cost of living rising, and

an assortment of other issues, chips have become extremely expensive.

Looking closely at some of these products, it seems that the bags look about the same size but the ounces of product within has been reduced.

The leap of inflation has already made signs up at fast food restaurants

claiming up to $25. an hour pay a bit of a joke.

That's because a burger, fries, and a soda can easily cost $6.

C 2022  Magyar American BlogSpot

 

 

ADORATION

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

THANKSGIVING

 So much to be thankful for....

Annyira hálásnak kell lenni

ASK YOURSELF THIS

ARE YOU WILLING TO HOLOCAUST THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE HOMELESS?  DO YOU CONSIDER THEM TO BE SUBHUMAN and NOT WORTHY OF BASIC RESPECT or TO BE WITHOUT NEED?  Is it OK with you if they freeze to death?  Starve to death? Die in the street? Give birth in the street? Go hungry? Go without education?  Keep moving?  Do you care if people who not long ago had it all together are now at risk of going crazy? HAVE YOU DUMPED FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY RAN OUT OF LUCK?

If so, please do NOT celebrate Christmas.

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I don't know about your town, but I know that mine has a homeless encampment that keeps getting bigger down by the post office, which happens to have outdoor lighting on all night. There is also a motel that has been temporarily funded as a temporary homeless shelter.  I encounter homeless people everywhere I go, especially in libraries, and I believe the numbers are triple of that counted. I believe this because I believe that a good number of homeless are secretly so.  They have avoided being counted and do not want to go to shelters or other facilities either because they don't want governmental benefits or intrusion into their lives, or because there are horror stories about what it is to be in these places.  In talking to people I meet, I've learned about long wait lists as well and the feeling of despair.  Partners do not want to be separated.  Parents don't want their children put in foster care.  They would rather go on loving each other in a tent.

I thought about this the other day because basically I was reading through my old posts that are genealogy oriented,  I noted that the National Archive of Hungary and the databases that show who owned the land and how many people lived on it - as tenant farmers - as serfs - back in the Queen Marie Theresa's day. As well, the 1828 census counted how many slaves one had. I was thinking about how the land barons who had serfs on their estate owed them some very basics. They were better off than the homeless in the sense that if you were a serf on a baron's estate, you were not expected to be transient.  

You knew where you belonged and you knew what hut was yours for the night.  You probably had a sense of community and some pride in being able to work hard to contribute towards your upkeep.  You may have had rags on your feet, but you had family too. I'm not idealizing serfdom. I'm saying the freeing of the serfs was a great big deal and often they ran for another country and a better life, but how can we free the homeless who are living much like them?

I truly fear what is coming if there is no more governmental help coming, in particular if evictions are allowed to continue.  Even those who have been living on unemployment benefits are at risk at becoming homeless.  So very many here in Southern California live without savings.  And have nowhere else to go.  California has been a destination for people who became homeless in other places, in particular cold places.  You probably won't freeze to death here, but there are still places where you can be overexposed to cold.

I learned that the motel full of homeless people does not house our town's local homeless.  Social workers from all over the city have sent people who are very ill or incapacitated there.  It is full of people with stage four cancer, people who cannot walk without a chair and assistance, people who are recovering from heart surgery who lost their apartments in the process of their illness and recovery.  Some of them are awaiting placement in assisted living or apartments with governmental vouchers.

It was bad before Covid-19 and now it's just horrible.  Though my neighborhood is decorated with Christmas lights, the food bank has been setting up down by the school.  We are all grateful for what all we have but also worried. We have decided on token gifts and donations to charities.

If you are reading this from another place in America or the world, please consider that empathy and understanding of other people's plight is a first step.  Stop protesting the existence of tent cities or the existence of homeless people in your neighborhood. Learn the truth about why they are out there.  I suspect you will find that evil and greed is at the heart of it.

AND TO ALL OF YOU, A GOOD NIGHT!

C 2020 Magyar American BlogSpot

HAVE A HUNGARIAN THEMED CHRISTMAS AT HOME

If you are one of the many millions of us who will be staying home for Christmas and the Holidays, avoiding travel and otherwise staying as safe as we can be due to the horrific challenges of Covid-19, this may be the year when you can bring some forgotten traditions into your Hungarian-heritage home.

First Saint Nick Day is December 6th.  This is the day to fill shoes with small gifts and treats.  (It's up to you if you wish to also gift on Christmas Eve or Day.)

Next, remember that Christmas in Hungary is a religious holiday.  You may or may not be Christian or especially religious, so perhaps this will simply be a time for you to read around the subject.  Or you might want to get out your Bible and read the passages about the Nativity.  Your church might be closed or unable to provide a safe space for an indoor ritual, but you can create your own worship or lessons.

Try to make a Hungarian recipe or two. Goulash (stew) served in bread bowls, sausages, pork and sour kraut, or stuffed cabbages make for hearty meals.  Perhaps you will create a vegetarian themed meal using lentils and rice instead. Or make rolled breads with poppyseeds or walnuts or cookies with apricots.

Then there's wine.  Mulled wine with spices is popular.  Palinka - fruit brandy, also. 

But here are some very American ideas for you.

Have a backyard fruit tree harvest and distribute your excess lemons, oranges, grapefruits, around your neighborhood.  Believe me this will be good for the tree.  You may have grown accustomed to just walking into the yard and picking what your need, but your neighbors will love the gift of fruit. Some shelters and food banks also accept local fruit donations.

Get out the art supplies.  Children and adults as well can create personal greeting cards (you really can snail mail instead of e-mail) or Holiday art to be hung on string around the house.

Give yourself a news break.  It will be there tomorrow, and chances are very good that if the news is going to impact you, you will hear about it no matter if you check your phone every few hours or not.

Remember the old days when there were no cell phones or the Internet. TALK TO OTHERS.  If you have to stay on the sidewalk to greet your friends and neighbors and wear a mask - oh well - hopefully by next year the crisis will have resolved.

Record memories for family history books and genealogies.

Tell those you love that you do.

See you in 2021!

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS of PORTUGAL? - SECRETS and MYSTERIES - AMAZING TREK WITH THE EXPERTS

I just loved this documentary film and with the traditional Columbus Day holiday coming up in the United States on October 12th, I thought I'd tell you about it so you can watch it before then.  Oh the archives, the travel, the experts, the royalty (or aristocrats) involved in tracking down the truth of Christopher Columbus.  Italy has claimed him as one of their own, he is said to have gone sailing to discover the New World (the Americas) as financed by Spain, but Portugal is where he was born.

Would you believe that alive today is Christopher Columbus the 20th or Vasco De Gama the 19th?  Well,  you get to hear them talk about their ancestor while the hunt for DNA that could help convince those for whom the paper trail of archival documents is not enough.

So, most amazing to me is that Christopher was not a Christopher or a Columbus at all.  He is said to be the illegitimate son of a noble and his Jewish Mistress.  Instead the Christopher Columbus translation is more of a salutation such as Peace Dove.  At the time of his suspicious death his two sons were begging to know the truth of their heritage and dad wasn't talking.  He may have been related to the monarch King John II of Portugal and he may have stopped over to talk to him before he went on to Spain to report in when he returned. 

There is so much more to learn so tune in. 

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot
Film Review
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A LOVELY VALENTINE

FOURTH OF JULY

ICING IS NOT A HEALTH FOOD

I say this having eaten more thickly iced cupcakes.

It seems to me that over the last few months I have eaten more bread, more sweets, more cookies, slices of cake, and candy, than I may have in many prior years.  It's not showing on my body (yet) because I have also been using more calories.  I really must get back to my vegetable-loaded diet.

This is not a New Years Resolution.  It is an acknowledgement that I'm courting health disaster if I don't reform!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

THE CHRISTMAS CAROLING PARTY LAST NIGHT WAS THE BEST

I was invited to the home of a couple who are instrumental in a local Christian church last night to attend a tradition of theirs - Christmas carol singing in the home.  I took my dog with me.  After we had both eaten plenty from the great variety of foods offered  - including a tasty Russian meat strudel and the home made Mexican enchiladas  a guest brought with onions not too raw - not too cooked - and a hunters stew, and had one glass of wine, we gathered in the living room.  My host played the piano.  Also there, a young man - a violinist, a guitar player,  and small percussion instruments such as bells, rattles, and tambourines were passed around. 

We must have sung fifteen songs, happy to have the lyric sheets in hand.  We got inventive.  One man made the sounds of cows, donkeys, and sheep, for the song Do You Hear What I Hear.  We sang one song that was a German carol I had never heard before, alternating between English and German phrases with violin solos between stanzas.  We finished with the Twelve Days of Christmas - those "five golden rings" brought out the operatic and dramatic.  My dog fell asleep under a table despite all the kids swirling around and the clamor. 

Oh I hated to go.

C 2018  Magyar American BlogSpot  All Rights Reserved.

Happy Holidays to all my readers, who I feel sure, will have their decorations up until January 6th. 

COUNT YOUR BLESSSINGS

GETTING UP TO SPEED FOR THE NEW YEAR

This past holiday season was a bit unusual for me because I joined up with a relatives huge family celebration that included new traditions they had adopted over the years and since I'd last seen them all.  This included a birthday cake for Jesus that included candles, the children singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and one of them blowing the candles out: of course this included the trick candles that refuse to blow out the first and second try.

(Seems no one is ever concerned about breath on cake tops being germ-filled!)

My memory of this family was that everyone watched the Pope say Mass from Rome on a cable station and then opened presents.  My memory was also of there being turkey, ham, and lasagna, plus many platters and tins full of desert cookies and cakes.  Well, there was no watching the Pope say Mass and they had gotten into healthier and more minimalistic holiday eating, but one of the daughters spends an afternoon making several of grandma's cookie recipes so was carrying on some of the tradition.

About a week before the holiday we went to the cemetery to decorate the graves for Christmas, totally new to me.  The Italian branch of the family had also put photos of the person in the grave on the gravestones.  The extreme expensive of burial these days has me quite concerned.  I don't think I will be.  I'm feeling pretty sure I'll be cremated and there is a spot on earth where I would like a simple cardboard box of ashes to be buried.  When we got to this cemetery though I was surprised to see so many families out decorating the burials, and when I saw the burial for a child that included an entire decorated fake Christmas tree I felt some tears come to my eyes.

Soon after this visit I and everyone else got sick - be it allergies, sinus, the flu, a virus, an infection, we were all coughing, hacking, exhausted, and sleeping too much or up all night.

So I'm still trying to step on the gas and get up to full speed for the New Year - 2018!

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WISHING YOU A HAPPY NEW YEAR