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Writers Corner |
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The February Blahs
It's not really fair to say "February" blahs as if no other month had blahs. Each month has its own blahs and hurrahs. When I was a child, it seems like eons ago now, February expressed itself in specific happenings which I did not interpret as "blahs".
I may not be totally correct here, but my memories of February included the feast days of Lent. The initial feast day preceding Ash Wednesday was Shrove Tuesday and I years believed that Shrove meant pancake.
Mom made hundreds of pancakes and in each one she put stuff like medals, dimes, matches, rings and nails. Each thing was supposed to indicate what would happen to you when you grew up - medal meant nun or priest. Once my brother got a medal and said: "Pope, for sure !" A dime indicated riches, a nail meant one would be a carpenter and a ring - oh, how we loved to get a ring - you would find love.
On Ash Wednesday, we got our ashes reminding us that we were dust and would return to dust. My same brother who had eyes on the Papacy, looked under his bed and said: "there’s some dust in there, someone must be coming or going!"
Two other practices we had to do during Lent were giving up something and making the Stations at least twice a day. I could never understand why I had to give up candy when I barely saw it anyway.
Making the Stations not only helped us spiritually, but gave us a physical workout that would challenge New World Fitness. This prayer was taken very seriously and once, when my sister forgot to make the Stations, I caught her in our living room going from picture to picture on the wall and saying the appropriate prayer. Her first station was Granny Mooney, second, J.R Smallwood, third, the Company store calendar etc…
Another feast day in Lent was St. Blase. On this day all hands would get their throats blessed and to those of us who still had the hacking cough since Christmas, Mom would say:"St. Blase will take care of that." Well, sometimes he did and other times he left it to Vicks and sulfur and molasses. The sulfur and molasses was like Mr. Clean. It took care of the three Bs - brain, blood and bowel. Now about the February weather. In Buchans many people used "creepers" on their boots to keep them vertical as they plowed their way through the bitter blustery wine and treacherous ice.
The good thing was that, sometimes in the folklore rhymes and riddles the promise of Spring would peek out through such sayings as: "If Candlemas Day be fine and fair, you'll have two winters in one year." But: "If Candlemas Day be overcast, half the winter is gone and past." And..."Put your lanterns and candles away and eat your supper by the light of day…”
So may we handle the blahs and celebrate the hurrahs.
Catherine Kelly
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