) ( ( ) Good Morning Family! ( \ .-.,--^--. ( Come on in. . . \* ) \\|`----'| - The coffee pot's on. . . .=|=. \| |// ...and we even have decaf, |~'~| | |/ tea, and hot chocolate! | | \ / _|___|_ ------ (_______) Today's topics include: 1. Welcome to new cousins 2. Holiday CHAT: forum is open 3. A few Christmas traditions 4. Just for fun: guess the Christmas song 5. Christmas tree legends & traditions TO OUR NEWEST COUSINS ~~ On behalf of the entire family, I'd like to extend a most hearty welcome to those cousins who came into the family fold this past week. We are very glad to have you with us and hope you'll stay and remain a part of our online family. As soon as you're comfortable with us and the list, please send in your Bower[s]/Bauer, Baur or Bowra lines so we can all see how we're related to you. We do not have a fancy format for sending in records or queries to the list. Post as many as you wish! If the data has anything to do with Bower[s]/Bauer, Baur or Bowra ancestors or any of the 81+ variant spellings we research that might help someone, please feel free to post it. Every scrap of information is appreciated. If you haven't visited the homesite of this list yet, you are encouraged to do so. Our home is Bower Community, located at <http://bowercommunity.com>. There, we currently have two sites: The Bower Family Homestead [a.k.a., the Homestead] is our primary homesite and the gathering place for much of our information. It waits to join us all in welcoming you into the family at <http://bowercommunity.com/homestead>. Smaller is our sister site, the Bower Cottage, which houses most of our projects including an online GEDCOM fed by cousins from our research groups. Find the Cottage is at <http://bowercommunity.com/cottage>. NEW COUSIN?... HOLIDAY CHAT: FORUM IS OPEN The holiday season is what most people call the "family time" of year. Just as we do every year, I've opened the list for any family discussion outside of our normal genealogy. Every year, between Thanksgiving and New Year's, the CHAT: forum opens for everyone to discuss holiday traditions and memories, pass greetings and recipes along, etc. The CHAT: forum is the safe harbor for off-topic discussion. If you have any holiday family traditions or memories you'd like to share, this is the way to do it: As long as CHAT: starts out your subject line, you are considered to be in the CHAT: forum and you can safely discuss non-genealogy subjects. HOWEVER, so everyone understands how this works, there are a few guidelines for the CHAT: forum: 1. You MUST start your subject line with CHAT: 2. Absolutely NO genealogy is to be put in CHAT: forum messages because not everyone in the family wants to read CHAT: messages. Those people know to simply delete messages with CHAT: in the subject line knowing they won't miss any genealogical data. CHAT: format messages are not an everyday occurrence. They normally happen here and there. The only, and longest, time the CHAT: forum is actively open is the holiday season ... now. After January 2nd, the CHAT: forum closes and resumes its normal inactivity with occasional messages only. Please remember everyone, to use the CHAT: forum for all your holiday greetings and traditions messages. And for your own protection, step into the CHAT: forum and start your subject line with CHAT: A FEW CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS There isn't a family alive that doesn't come with its own traditions ... little things handed down through the generations that build together to make a day special. Even a smell will stir the senses and bring back those days gone by. Perhaps it's a small trinket brought out only on certain occasions, or a specific dish prepared just for "that" day, "that time of year." The traditions below may not stir memories of your ancestors, but each will give you a corner on the life of the people who lived at the time these memorable pieces of nostalgia originated. Little Jack Horner, Sat in a corner Eating a Christmas pie. He stuck in his thumb And pulled out a plum, And said, "What a good boy am I!" What in the word would this have to do with anything ~ well, other than the fact that Jack was eating Christmas pie? Jack Horner was chief steward to the abbot of Glastonbury in the early sixteenth century. The abbot, worried that Henry VIII was going to pull down the abbey, tried to bribe the king with the gift of some lands. The abbot ordered a great pie to be baked and in it he put the deeds to twelve of the manors of Glastonbury. Jack Horner was sent off to the king with the pie, but when the king received his gift there were only eleven deeds inside. Jack Horner had indeed pulled out a nice "plum." Remember the nursery rhyme...? Sing a song of six pence, A pocket full of rye. Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie. When the pie was opened, The birds began to sing. Wasn't that a tasty dish to set before the King? A favourite Twelfth Night joke was a surprise pie. A very large amount of pastry was prepared and baked as an empty pie case. Holes were cut in the bottom and live birds and frogs were put inside the pie. Then, as the old nursery rhyme says, "When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing." **Christmas Pudding This dish is a spin-off of one originally enjoyed in the Middle Ages by both rich and poor ~ a spicy porridge called frumenty. To make it yourself, boil wheat in water until it turns into a soft porridge or gruel, add milk, currants and other dried fruit, then add egg yolks and spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon. Finally, cook the frumenty mixture into a kind of stiff pudding. In some Scandinavian countries porridge is still part of a traditional Christmas meal. **Plum Pudding According to a very old tradition, everyone in the family has to stir the Christmas pudding mixture. This brings good health and luck to each member of the family in the coming year. The day reserved for the stirring was "Stir-Up Sunday," the fifth Sunday before Christmas, the reason being that in the prayer book for this Sunday of the year, it says, "Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the will of thy faithful people." In the nineteenth century, instead of fresh plums it contained prunes which are dried plums. Gradually the prunes gave way to other dried fruit, especially currants, sultanas and raisins. **Mince Pies Reaching popularity in the Victorian age, the history of mince pie is a long one. In the twelfth century, knights returning from the Crusades in the Holy Land introduced to Europe many Middle Eastern ways of cooking, which mixed sweet tastes with savoury, and recipes of meat cooked with fruit and sweet spices were popular. In Elizabethan times, mince pies were still a mixture of meat and fruit and were called "shrid" pies because they contained shredded meat and suet. The meat and suet were mixed with dried fruit such as raisins and currants, and it was traditional to add three spices - cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg - which stood for the three gifts given to Jesus by the Wise Men. The mixture was baked in an oblong pastry case to represent Jesus' crib. A little pastry baby often decorated the lid. It was thought lucky to eat a mince pie on each of the twelve days of Christmas. Each pie would be eaten in a different house in order to bring good luck to the household and the eater for the next twelve months. JUST FOR FUN ... GUESS THE CHRISTMAS SONG Example: Bleached Yule = White Christmas 1. Boulder of the Tinkling Metal Spheres 2. Castaneous-colored Seed Vesicated in a Conflagration 3. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors 4. Righteous Darkness 5. Arrival Time: 2400 hrs - Weather: Cloudless 6. Loyal Followers Advance 7. Far Off in a Feeder 8. Array the Corridor 9. Bantam Male Percussionist 10. Monarchial Triad 11. Nocturnal Noiselessness 12. Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers 13. Red Man En Route to Borough 14. Frozen Precipitation Commence 15. Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle 16. The Quadruped with the Vermilion Proboscis 17. Query Regarding Identity of Descendant 18. Delight for this Planet 19. Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings 20. The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Intervals Answers are at the end of the Coffee. No fair peeking! :) CHRISTMAS TREE LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS The Egyptians were part of a long line of cultures that treasured and worshipped evergreens. When the winter solstice arrive, they brought green date palm leaves into their homes to symbolize life's triumph over death. The Romans celebrated the winter solstice with a fest called Saturnalia in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture. They decorated their houses with greens and lights and exchanged gifts. They gave coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness, and lamps to light one's journey through life. Centuries ago in Great Britain, woods priests called Druids used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. The Druids used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits. The Celts for example decorated trees with apples and nuts during the winter solstice (around December 21), encouraging the sun to return to bring spring. Late in the Middle Ages, Germans and Scandinavians placed evergreen trees inside their homes or just outside their doors to show their hope in the forthcoming spring. Our modern Christmas tree evolved from these early traditions. Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One crisp Christmas Eve, about the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods and was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches, dusted with snow, shimmered in the moonlight. When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lighted in honor of Christ's birth. Until about 1700, the use of Christmas trees appears to have been confined to the Rhine River District. From 1700 on, when lights were accepted as part of the decorations, the Christmas tree was well on its way to becoming a tradition in Germany. Then the tradition crossed the Atlantic with the Hessian soldiers. According to legend, the Hessian mercenaries were so reminded of home by a candlelit evergreen tree that they abandoned their guardposts to eat, drink and be merry. Washington attacked that night and defeated them. Learning about the traditions handed down through the generations enables us to appreciate just what prompts us to annually restore those trappings of a joyous and decorative holiday season. It's family ... and that's what we're all about. I so enjoyed spending this time with you today. Thank you for sharing it with me. I wish each of you a week filled with health, productivity, fun, and above all, filled with love and inner peace. ) ( ) _.-~~-. (@\'--'/. Colleen ('``.__.'`) `..____.' CHRISTMAS SONG ANSWERS: 1. Jingle Bell Rock 2. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire 3. All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth 4. 0 Holy Night 5. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 6. 0 Come, All Ye Faithful 7. Away in a Manger 8. Deck the Hall 9. Little Drummer Boy 10. We Three Kings 11. Silent Night 12. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen 13. Santa Claus is Coming to Town 14. Let it Snow 15. Go, Tell It on the Mountain 16. Rudolph, the Red-nosed Reindeer 17. What Child is This? 18. Joy to the World 19. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 20. The Twelve Days of Christmas