Ink Pen by Phil Dunlap for September 19, 2024

So Halloween is “cultural appropriation”? We had better stop celebrating it. Christmas and Easter too, except Easter eggs are OK if you observe lent.

Did anyone say Halloween is “cultural appropriation”? Many of the things we associate with holidays like Easter, Halloween and Christmas come from a variety of different cultures and have accreted over a long period of time. That doesn’t mean people can’t enjoy them, though it does mean that we should ignore anyone who insists a holiday has to be celebrated in a particular manner, or that a character associated with a holiday (e.g. Santa Claus) has to be portrayed a certain way.

Harry Porker

Note that Samhain is pronounced “sow-wen”, or something like that, depending the dialect. It’s definitely not pronounced using English phonetic rules.

At the opposite side of the year was (still is) Beltaine (the night of April 30-May 1), celebrating the beginning of summer. Build two bonfires, and lead your cow between them. But whatever you do, don’t give milk to a neighbor on Beltaine or their cow will steal your cow’s ability to produce milk!

Is that true? I may have to look that up later.

Zagnut is a piece of history.

Why don’t we spell it Sahwin? Celtic isn’t English, so why not spell it like it sounds?

I sensed history about five weeks ago, at a colorful display in The Home Depot.