WHEN THE SNOWMAN COMES ALIVE

 

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

SAINT NICHOLAS DAY IN HUNGARY

 

If you have BIG FEET it's a good thing...

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

LET US GIVE THANKS

 

THE RISE AND FALL OF PENN STATION : MAGYAR AMERICAN FILM REVIEW

The history of Penn Station, which opened in 1910, and which no longer exists, is quite interesting.  Trains were the greatest way to travel distances before airplanes and some would say they are still the best way to travel, though often more expensive.  The history of Penn Station is the history of of the Pennsylvania Rail Road which had extensive rails all over the state, a monopoly, but had to stop at New Jersey.  A plan was made to buy up  four blocks of the Tender Loin, a place where poor immigrants lived in tenements, and replace it with a station twice the size as the most beautiful one in Paris, France, the Gare d' Orsey.  An engineering and architectural feat, though partly a gift to New York,  this "civic deed" was also a successful attempt to corner the travel market, by tunneling under two rivers, to bring trains in underground.

Alexander Cassett, a man of wealthy whose sister was the artist Mary Cassett, went to Paris to visit her, and was inspired.  He also came out of retirement to head up the plan and died before the station opened. It started with a $50 million dollar buy - for cash - of buildings above ground but with exclusive access to the tunnels to be engineered, if only they would hold the water and earth above them.  Blow outs of river water happened. In the end this train terminal was awe inspiring.  And then the day came when it had to be torn down.


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If your immigrant ancestors came through New York, there's a very good chance they got on a train to their next destination. They buy of real estate to be torn down to make way for the project began in 1901.  Work was going on until 1910.

Thought this would be an interesting THANKSGIVING time post since so many travel to see their loved ones for the holiday.  With Covid-19 travel restrictions, I guess there are going to be a lot of Zoom Turkey Dinners.

APRICOT COOKIES - APRICOT KOLACHES - A CREAM CHEESE PASTRY and JAM

My mother made these around the holidays and stored them in tins in the cold closet.  They were so irresistible that they didn't last long.  This recipe on the Internet from Lindsey Farr seems to be the one my mother made.  Good photos and easy to follow.  Shes right about some of the sugar carmelizing.

AMERICAN HERITAGE - LINDSEY FARR - APRICOT KOLACHES

MY DOG FOR TRUMP IN THE RAIN

Ah well, Joseph Biden, on his third try for the Presidency of the United States, is President Elect. Meanwhile President Donald Trump is furious.  Some say he was in the shock stage of grief, and is now stuck in denial. I admit, I do want him to accept defeat and step down in the graceful way that a World Leader ought to. 

I used to walk my dog in a fairly wealthy neighborhood where there were lots of houses flying the American flag on a daily basis. I grew up in a household where my dad, a veteran, flew the flag on the important holidays.  Such as Memorial and Labor Days, Veteran's Day, and, if I remember correctly Columbus Day. Now I see the daily flying of the American flag as not just patriotic, but a way of signaling to neighbors that one is a Republican.  There were also average income homeowners in the area, from back in the 1970's when a double income could still buy average people a house there.  All these people are hanging in and on, not wanting to give up their houses until their value will finance their retirements, even when they have long ago become unable to afford the necessary repairs on a house.  So when my dog and I were walking along and a stranger would ask me in a demanding way how I was going to vote, I'd say, "Well, I'm a Democrat, but my little dog here, she's a Republican."

That usually brought out a laugh.

I suspected there were a few "mixed marriages" in the neighborhood, and it was Republican husbands with Democratic wives.

This morning I watched President Elect Biden talk to the nation about the Coronavirus and begin to create his task-force of experts prior to his swearing in. As well, he will soon assemble his Cabinet.  He actually has thousands of people to appoint or approve, most we will never hear of.

Yesterday it rained.  It was as if the sky, so filled with fire, took the sigh of relief that many of us felt.  A relief that there is some positive change that will include us.

C 2020 MAGYAR-AMERICAN BLOGSPOT

All Rights Reserved

Just a note  November 2024 : In case you were wondering, there is no third term for any U.S. President.  The law was changed after Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected four times in a row...

MY DOG IS NOW A FRAGILE LITTLE OLD LADY - SHE'S DOING MUCH BETTER - UPDATE

Some of you are wondering how my dog is doing.  Well, she's back to normal.  We had one more incident that had me scared and preparing for the worst.

A friend of mine has adopted four dogs, all from the local shelter.  In each case he was told he was the "last chance" for the dog.  The smallest one, five pounds, was the leader of the troop.  The barkiest.  In fact I would not have met this friend if it were not for this tiny pooch, who usually went around in hand. This dog barked at us as we talked out on the street for hours... And so finally, one day my friend invited me in.  The dog realized I was a friend.  When my friend went traveling, I stayed at his house and cared for them all.  This little one had such presence.  I would wake up in the middle of the night and there he would be, looking up.  I picked him up. He slept with me, much to my own little old lady dog's consternation.  And I grew to love this little five- pounder.  But he had, at sixteen years old, begun to have siezures.  He was on expensive medication for months.  Then one day he had a siezure that went on for six hours.  So to the vet he went to put the dog down.  The dog "knew" death was coming and started running all over the place in fear.  My friend was so upset. But he did it.  He came to tell me that it was all over for this dog.

He left and I went to feed my dog and she had a siezure.  Years ago, just one time, she had an episode of what they call "shaky white dog."  In this case, she looked afraid, and her teeth were chattering. I could hear them clacking.  But her tongue was out.  And the shaking stopped.  For the next couple days I watched her closely. But she ate and pooped normally.

I've resolved that I simply can no longer take her out with me, even in a wheeled carrier, if it is too hot outside.

People tell me that in Hungary a dog is a dog and almost always owned for their expertise at a task such as hunting or protecting property.  I suppose my dog would be considered rather "foo-foo." She has loved me, this I'm sure of, and sometimes I think more than any human, and that is her task.

C 2020 Magyar-American BlogSpot

ELECTION DAY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA - WE AWAIT HISTORY

There has been early voting, mail in voting, drop of voting, and today, in person voting. California has a way of checking every ballot that comes in for authenticity and so that there is no duplication. I, and most of my friends, chose to drop ours off in a special box near the closest library, where there is also a security guard watching the library property.  We know this box gets emptied at least once a day by vetted personnel and trust it.

From the media I've learned that voting has gone impressively UP for this election.  That's good.  We participate in Democracy.

I'm a little anxious about today.  I will be watching or listening to election news much of the day.  I really have no idea how it will go.

There are some vigorous Trump supporters out there - sailing their boats and driving their vehicles in MAGA caravans. I'm worried about violent clashes.  I know stores are boarding up windows to prevent looting, should that begin to happen.

Last election I was watching the votes come in and states go from red to blue, blue to red, and sometimes back again, and about 6 PM I just knew Trump was to be our next President.  The next day I went to a library and a lot of people were waiting outside to be let in when it opened.  Several of them said things like, "Don't tell me who won. Don't ruin my day."

I believe that the stress of Covid-19 and our economic problems, that being limited in where we can go and what we can do to alleviate that stress, and the time off from the workplace, has meant that more people are willing and able to protest.

But peaceful is peaceful - not violent.  Also protesters whose intention it is to protest peacefully might want to take a little class on what makes that so. How should one behave? Once a peaceful protest becomes an excuse or opportunity for looters and violent people, I believe the leadership needs to responsibly call that off.

I also feel great concern to Europe.  If you're in Europe reading this, we know about the 400 mile traffic jam of people leaving Paris before their month-long lock-down was to begin, the lock-down situation in England, and the situation in Germany.  These European countries seem to be in our news frequently.  When it comes to Hungary - Poland - Slovakia, one must search out news. 

Mask wearing has gotten to us all, and what if it doesn't work?  BUT WHAT IF IT DOES?

I remain masked up.  I now own a wardrobe of hand-sewing, purchased, and gifted masks, including one use masks, and masks that have been laundered repeatedly.

And hand-washing.  We are hand-washing several times a day.  It seems we always did do that first thing, coming in to the house after being out somewhere, but now we never forget.

And so we await history.

C Magyar-American BlogSpot

ALL SOULS DAY IN HUNGARY - ALL SAINTS DAY IN HUNGARY

Perhaps if it is allowed at the cemetery your ancestors are in here in the United States you might want to go and light a candle.  RED VOTIVE CANDLES and YELLOW CHRYSANTHEMUMS are key, but white candles will do, as will the favorite flowers of your loved ones. 

FROM PAGANS TO NOMADS TO CHRISTIAN KNIGHTS

WITCHCRAFT IN ROMANIA (GYPSY WITCHES FOR HIRE)

 This YouTube video is quite interesting.  In Romania this Gypsy witch family makes a lot of business but if you're wondering why the politicians don't make their workings illegal, well, the politicians are afraid of the witches.

At this point I think I can say that the witchcraft of Romanian Gypsy witches is not based in ancient Magyar or Hungarian tribal paganism, that what they do is of their own culture.

Does it work?  It certainly has an effect on the mind of the believer...

HUNGARIAN WOODEN GRAVE POSTS : A THESIS by László Ferenc Novák

This is a PDF file, quite interesting, if you want to learn more about a unique Hungarian - Protestant Hungarian - tradition.

DAVID PUBLISHER : HUNGARIAN WOODEN GRAVE POSTS by LASZLO NOVAK

TELKIBANYA CEMETERY - THE KOPJAFAK GRAVE MARKERS - MAGYAR HISTORY (KOPJAFAS TEMETO)

I invite you to learn more about these unique grave-markers which are carved to tell the tale of a person's life.  Telkibanya translates to good mine. Gold, Copper, and Tin were mined there.

Forgive me as I lost the link to the site that reported the following excerpted information.

This is about the Grave Posts or Markers. The top of the square column is always beveled if the deceased was married.  The front side of a married man's marker is higher.  If it's the grave of a married woman, the front side is lower and the back higher.  Young boys were marked with an orb.  Young girls with a four-pronged crown.  The horizontal scores on the markers front indicated the age of the deceased.

A family marker is a combination of the male and female marker with a top shaped like a roof. 

Some authors say that wooden grave post were embraced by the Protestants but there are posts older than Protestantism, so ???

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/szatmarcseke-calvinist-cemetery relink December 2024