by Molly Owen | Nov 19, 2012 | Anna Kathryn Lanier, Blog
By Anna Kathryn Lanier
I substitute teach during the school year and last year I was at the local high school for Veteran’s Day. In my school district, we don’t get the day off, but each school holds a Veteran’s Day program. I was subbing ninth grade English classes that day and I asked each class “Why is Veteran’s Day held on November 11th, as opposed, say, October 21st?” Now, remember, these kids had been going to programs each year and half the classes had attended THAT day’s program, which gave the answer to this question. Yet, only a few had even an inkling and overall, maybe two students out of a 100 knew the answer. As it turned out, I subbed for that particular teacher and class several times during the rest of the year and each time I did, I’d ask, “Why is Veteran’s Day held on November 11th?” By the end of the year, most of them could answer the question. Earlier this year, I subbed for a tenth grade class and, yes, some of those students remembered me and my question. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Sep 3, 2012 | Blog, Ruth A. Casie
While you’re preparing for your Labor Day BBQ today, getting the backyard in order for your family and friends, and cheering that it’s time for the kids to go back to school, let’s not forget what the day is all about. It’s a day set aside to pay tribute to the achievements and contributions of the average America worker.
The movement to establish Labor Day began in 1882. There is some confusion whether the idea originated with Matthew Maquire, a machinist, and secretary of the Central Labor Union (CLU) in New York, or Peter J. McGuire, secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and co-founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) after experiencing the annual labor festival in Toronto, Canada. Regardless of who initiated the idea it was the CLU who adopted the idea and established a committee to organize the celebration on September 5, 1882 in New York City. (more…)
by Molly Owen | Jul 3, 2012 | Blog, Ruth A. Casie
Tomorrow, Americans celebrate Independence Day. It’s a time for waving flags, marching in parades, and eating grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. We speak about our Founding Fathers and the sacrifices they made. We don’t hear very much about the women.
How it started: Spurred by what the colonists considered unjustly levied taxes on imported tea, the British commanders in the colonies and the colonists came to an impasse. The colonists rebelled and dumped the tea that was waiting to be off loaded into Boston Harbor (the Boston Tea Party). The British Prime Minister, Lord North, passed a series of laws in retaliation, the Intolerable Acts, which resulted in the American Revolution.
Loyalists and Rebels: Some people sides with the British and others with the colonists. Women of the day did not, for the most part, hold jobs but were responsible for the household. But the feelings and activities of the revolution permeated political, civil, and domestic life. Some women stayed loyal to the Crown. Other women rebelled by boycotting British goods, spying on the British, following and working with the army, and some even fighting,
Organizers: Women organized various associations to help the war effort. Esther Deberdt Reed (wife of the Pennsylvania Governor), Sarah Franklin Bache (daughter of Benjamin Franklin), in Philadelphia, collected funds which Martha Washington took to her husband, General George Washington. Women in other states followed their example and raised over $340,000 for the American war effort.
Baggage: Other women, whose men went off to war, were left the hardship of holding onto their homes and protecting their families with little help. Many of these women were easy prey for marauding soldiers. Some women refused to stay behind and followed the army. The commanding officers called these women “necessary nuisances” and “baggage.” But these women played an important role, too. They served the soldiers and officers as wash women, cooks, nurses, seamstresses, supply scavengers, sexual partners and even prostitutes.
Fighters: There were women who did not follow the army but joined the army, some disguised as men. Some, like Anna Maria Land and Margaret Corbin, did it to be near their man and others, like Anne Bailey (under the name of Samuel Gay) and Anne Smith, joined for the enlistment bounty, money for enlisting. Several women, Deborah Samson and Hannah Snell, were able to hide their gender and were given honorable discharges from the service.
Spies: There were women who acted as couriers and rode through enemy lines carrying documents and letters under their petticoats. Deborah Champion, Sara Decker, and Harriet Prudence Patterson Hall all managed to sneak documents past the British.
Not Quite Equal: The ideals of liberty, equality, and independence the Founding Fathers professed didn’t impact women. Women continued to be associated with home and hearth and they were not welcome in politics. They confined their political views to their personal writings. Only a few, like Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis Warren became public figures. But the woman’s role held importance none the less. It was the woman’s role to pass on the ideals of independence to their children so it would prosper, grow, and become part of the very fabric of the colonist’s lives.
The Power of the Female Pen: One woman would be looked upon by President Lincoln as “…the little woman who made this great war.” He was speaking of the American Civil War and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her story, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ignited a spark in the North while she indicted slavery in the south. Her story sold over 300,000 copies in America and Britain which may represent only 1/10 of the audience it really reached. She definitely demonstrates the power of the pen. There is a great review by Andrew Delbanco, director of American studies at Columbia, of David S. Reynold’s book, Mightier Than the Sword, in a Sunday New York Times Sunday Book review printed last year.
Tomorrow, Americans celebrate Independence Day. It’s a time for waving flags, marching in parades, and eating grilled hot dogs and hamburgers. It’s also a great day to relax and read a book. Who knows, it could change the world.
by Molly Owen | Dec 19, 2011 | Anna Kathryn Lanier, Blog
By Anna Kathryn Lanier
Okay, here’s a pet peeve of mine….those who don’t know when the twelve days of Christmas are. These days I’m seeing all sorts of references to the Twelve Days of Christmas. Between now and Christmas: get free books, recipes, or enter a contest. The only problem is that NOW is not the Twelve Days of Christmas. They are not the twelve days BEFORE Christmas. They are the twelve days AFTER Christmas. This mixed-up reference, is to me, as maddening as those who object to Christmas decorations before Halloween. We are putting one celebration before another.
Part of this confusion comes from people who are not part of a liturgical church tradition. This is not a bad thing, it’s just a misunderstanding of when and what the Twelve Days are all about. The churches that follow a liturgical year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost) have set the time-line for the celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas….the Christmas season, which is from December 25th through January 5th, the day before the Epiphany or the traditional day of celebration for the visit of the Three Kings to the baby Jesus.
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by Molly Owen | Dec 14, 2011 | Angelyn Schmid, Blog
Heaped up upon the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
–Stave Three, the Second of the Three Spirits — A Christmas Carol
This beloved work of Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) was written in 1843 when Twelfth Night was still the primary winter holiday in England. January 6th, and not December 25th, was the focus of the Season. Christmas Day was a very simple, almost unnoticed affair when church services were the highlight of the day. In contrast, Twelfth Night involved feasting, games and the traditional cake–an elaborate affair that contained a dried bean and a dried pea. Their discovery conferred royalty status on the finders, even if they were ordinary servants.
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By Anna Kathryn Lanier
