Possibilities Real Estate

Archive for June, 2011

The “Twelve Days of Christmas” is today a popular fun Christmas song that most of us sing a long to without really knowing its origin or its meaning. While many may consider it a children’s nonsense song it is believed to have been written in England with hidden meanings to help English Catholic children remember different articles of faith during the persecution by Protestant Monarchs in the 16th century. This was a time when to be caught with anything in ‘writing’ indicating adherence to the Catholic faith could not only get you imprisoned, it could get you hanged!

During this time in England when it was a crime to be a Catholic, the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song has been suggested to originally have been an “Underground Catechism” used as an aid to understand and spread the teachings of the religion. It was a way to camouflage and uphold their religion which was illegal to be practiced publicly or privately!

Let’s take a look at the symbols. ‘True love’ does not represent a suitor in fact it represented ‘God’, the “me” who receives the gifts is suggested to be every baptized person. The gifts themselves represented different ideas as follows:

The “Partridge in a pear tree” was Jesus.

2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments of The Bible

3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity – the Theological Virtues.

4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the “Pentateuch”, which relays the history of man’s fall from grace.

6 Geese A-laying = the six days of Creation.

7 Swans A-swimming = the seven sacraments – gifts of the Holy Spirit.

8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes (solemn blessings)

9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit.

10 Lords A-leaping = the Ten Commandments.

11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles.

12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed.

However not all believe this version of the history of the song to be true. In the book “A Celebration of History” by Leigh Grand, the words to the song were written around the late 1700′s and the music came some time earlier from France. He suggests that the song is nothing more than a child’s memory game. According to Grand the song has no religious significance whatsoever! He says that the object of the song was to facilitate a game where the child had to remember which gift came next and loose a turn if forgotten.

No matter what version you believe this song reinforces the idea of gift giving associated with the history of festivities. If one gift is given each day in this song then we can recount a total of 364 gifts given with 184 of them being birds. Birds must have been a prized gift back in the old days!

In recent times an economist computes each year the cost for all the gifts in this song adjusted to inflation. In 2005 the computed Christmas Price Index cost for all the gifts in the song was $72,608. This is done purely for fun from an economist’s point of view!

If you want to listen to this famous Christmas song you can download or play it for free over the internet at: http://www.christmasgifts.com/music.html or you can purchase a copy from Amazon.com – Enjoy, sing-along, get into the festive spirit and see how good your memory is!

Avatar costume ideas are set to be the biggest theme for Halloween in 2010, so it’s well worth coming up with yours as early as possible before everything sells out! The Na’vi (the blue creatures from Pandora) are not only hot right now, but they’re such a fun way to dress up this year!

Avatar Halloween Characters

The characters of the movie really forged a place in our hearts as soon as the movie was released, so base your Avatar costume ideas around the character you want to play. Will you be Jake Sully? The human whose Avatar found a new life and home in Pandora? There’s no doubt that this will be the character of choice for most boys and men this Halloween.

For the ladies and girls there’s the beautiful Neytiri, who managed to win Jake’s heart. Of course, you could also choose any other of the Na’vi characters for a completely unique and fun costume theme!

The Avatar costumes for Halloween 2010 are designed with men, women and children in mind. There are accessories for anyone to use, such as the bow and arrow, and you can even dress your dog up as a Na’vi if you want to get him involved!

Creating the Na’vi Look

Don’t be put off by Avatar costume ideas just because you think it’ll be too difficult! There are official costumes available that make it easy, or you could stick to certain accessories like the Avatar costume tail or ears.

Or, if you’re brave, why not make the whole thing yourself? You’ll need a blue body suit along with a lot of blue makeup, and some darker makeup to recreate those distinctive Na’vi stripes. Get your hands on a small apron, and an armband to complete the look.

You’ll also need to add some Avatar ears (for your own hand made costume you could use elf ears painted blue). You can then add a braided wig, perhaps with some beads at the end, if you want to look as authentic as possible!

Whether you’re buying an Avatar costume or coming up with your own Avatar costume ideas to make yourself, the important thing is to get started as soon as possible! It’s not the simplest of costumes to create, though it is a lot easier than you might expect as long as you follow a good guide and pay attention to the Na’vi characteristics.

When the nights begin to draw in and beautiful autumnal reds and browns start to color the trees, it’s a sure sign that the season of Halloween is approaching. Halloween is one of the most popular holidays in the calendar, and the National Retail Federation’s Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch, reports that nearly two thirds of consumers expect to celebrate it in 2006.

Halloween has come a long way from its Celtic origins, when the original festival of Samhain took place to mark the passage between the two main seasons, summer and winter. In this ancient culture, the celebration was closely connected with the importance of the harvest and the belief that spirits wandered free at this time of the year.

While supernatural beliefs may no longer play a central role in modern day Halloween celebrations, there are still many colorful traditions and customs that remind us of the legends and rituals of the distant past. The colors and tastes of fall still feature strongly in our Halloween recipes and decorations. Popular pumpkin carving patterns for our nighttime lanterns remind us of the ‘sacred fires’ of the Celtic tribes. And spooky homemade Halloween costumes bring to mind superstitions about mischievous fairies and sprites.

The Halloween spirit thrives in part because each successive generation finds new ways to re-invent its traditions and adapt them to its own sense of fun. Here are six ways to explain why this ancient celebration finds itself on a 21st century roll:

Halloween’s a holiday that everyone can take part in. It’s pretty: decked with the rich red colors of fall, Halloween is a treat for the senses and brings the sights and smells of harvest time to the fore. Everyone enjoys an excuse to dress up — and these days, the ‘horror’ theme is only one of several ideas that inspire inventive costumes and disguises. You can find an elaborate outfit for sale or hire, re-purpose that wacky gear you found at the consignment store or fashion your own unique costume based on an everyday item from your closet. Formality and complicated entertaining goes out of the window at Halloween, when the guests are likely to arrive in weird or comic apparel and finger food or buffet menus are the order of the day. Halloween brings out the hidden artist in us all, as imaginative craft projects go into making invitations and decorations and decking every creepy nook and cranny of the Haunted House. The Halloween season fosters community spirit as neighbors prepare for the first trick-or-treaters and get together for parties with friends and family.

The spirit of the old traditions lives on in the heritage, folklore and celebrations of Halloween: a modern take on an ancient festival.