Archives

A Lesson from the Day of the Dead

November 2, 2012 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Time comes to a halt on All Souls Day (Todos Santos), November 2, a day of ancient ritual. I learned that lesson when I spent the day with a Mexican family in Puebla, Mexico. To miss this celebration of death was simply unheard of. Our place was the cemetery, where the grandparents lay under thick slabs of cement, their fading photographs a testimony to the relative shortness and impermanence of earthly life. After packing up various mole sauces, tortillas, pozole, […]

Categories: Photography • Tags: All Saints, All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Death, Meditations, Mexico, Photography, Puebla

La Toussaint:* The Saints and Souls Who Preserve Us

November 2, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

A novel about an arrogant food critic could only happen in France. Bien sûr! Some time ago, I set myself the challenging and Sisyphean task of reading Muriel Barbery’s first novel, Une gourmandise, in French. (Barbery’s reputation rests on her extremely philosophical second novel — The Elegance of the Hedgehog [what a title!], which took France by storm. The heavy larding of the text with academic philosophical bits proved to be the downfall of many American readers. But not all.) […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Food writing, French Cooking, Lit & Food • Tags: All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Book Reviews, France, French Cooking, Gourmet Rhapsody, Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Idylls of Cuisine, #36

November 1, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Halloween, Photography • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Food Photography, Halloween

Halloween: Art

October 31, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! For more on the Day of the Dead in Mexico, see my previous post: Día de los Muertos (Todos Santos)/ Day of the Dead Food-Laden Altars .

Categories: Art, Halloween, Mexico • Tags: All Souls' Day, Art, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Mexico, Skull

Saints, Souls, and Haints: More Soul Cakes

October 30, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

About All Souls’ Day (November 2), Sir James George Frazer wrote detailed notes in The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, a classic in anthropology. Notice the mention of marigolds, also common in Mexico. In Lechrain, a district of Southern Bavaria which All Souls in existence along the valley of the Lech from its source to near the point where the river flows into the Danube, the two festivals of All Saints and All Souls, on the first […]

Categories: Europe, Germany, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Bavaria, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Soul Cakes

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Soul Cakes

October 29, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Trick-or-treating may well have originated in the old custom of “souling,” as people went from house to house, begging ( “mumming”) for “soul cakes,” actually prayers — in sweet form. Sir James George Frazer wrote about this practice in The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, a classic in anthropology, first published in 1890: In Bruges, Dinant, and other towns of Belgium holy candles burn all night in the houses on the Eve of All Souls, and the […]

Categories: Europe, Halloween, India • Tags: All Souls' Day, Belgium, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Soul Cakes

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Cider and Curds

October 28, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

About All Souls’ Day (November 2), Sir James George Frazer wrote in The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion, a classic in anthropology: The day of the dead or of All Souls, and other as we call it, is commonly the second of November. Thus in Lower Brittany the souls of the departed come to visit the living on the eve of that day. After vespers are over, the priests and choir walk in procession, ” the procession […]

Categories: France, French Cooking, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Cider, Curds, Day of the Dead, Golden Bough, Halloween, James George Frazer

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Honey Cakes

October 27, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Some interesting comments from 1845 about All Souls’ Day, by Charles Knight in Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (!), Volume 14, p. 441: To do a Tarentella as it ought to be done requires room, and although the palaces of the nobility and gentry be large (in ninety cases out of a hundred far too large for their shrunken fortunes), the lodgings of the poor and humble, especially in Naples [Italy] and in the […]

Categories: Halloween, Italian Cooking, Italy • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Italy

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Here Come the Pumpkins

October 26, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Some pumpkin-laden advice from Janet McKenzie Hill, sounding like the Martha Stewart of a much earlier generation in her Practical Cooking and Serving: a Complete Manual of How to Select, Prepare, and Serve Food (1902, p. 566): CENTREPIECE OF FRUIT FOR THANKSGIVING DINNER OR HARVEST FESTIVAL [Halloween] Select a golden-colored, medium-sized, well-shaped pumpkin. With a sharp knife fashion into the shape of a basket with an old-fashioned tub handle on each side. Carefully scoop out the seeds and pulp, leaving […]

Categories: American Cooking, Cookbooks, Pumpkin • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Janet McKenzie Hill, Practical Cooking and Serving, Pumpkins

Idylls of Cuisine, #35

October 25, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

[A photograph, and nothing more, for silent contemplation.]

Categories: Halloween, Mexico • Tags: All Souls' Day, Bread of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Halloween, Mexico, Pan de Muertos

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Ghoulish Goodies

October 24, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Check this out — a recent cookbook all about Halloween, for kids young and old: Ghoulish Goodies: Creature Feature Cupcakes, Monster Eyeballs, Bat Wings, Funny Bones, Witches’ Knuckles, and Much More! (Frightful Cookbook), by Sharon Bowers (2009). Eat, drink, and enjoy the creepy yuckiness of Monster Eyeballs, Chocolate Spider Clusters, Buried Alive Cupcakes, and Screaming Red Punch. In her colorful collection of frightful foods, Sharon Parrish Bowers shares the fun of baking, decorating, and indulging in delicious treats that celebrate […]

Categories: Book Reviews, Cookbooks, Food News, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Book Reviews, Day of the Dead, Ghoulish Goodies, Halloween, Sharon Bowers

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Still Nuts

October 23, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Jonkheer L. C. van Panhuys, in Proceedings, Vol. 2 (p. 698, 1904), from the Internationaler Amerikanisten-Kongress held in Stuttgart in 1904, said: In the different names [for Halloween] we find also an explanation. The first of November, still called New-Years day on the island of Man, was the new years day on the beginning of the winter half year among Fins, Scottish, Danes, Swedish, Britons and Germans; and called Calan gaeaf, i. e. the Calends of winter, by the Welsh […]

Categories: England, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, England, Halloween, Nuts

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Nuts

October 22, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

Nuts, being a delicacy associated with autumn, seem to naturally be part of the Halloween pantry of the past. And Robert Chambers elaborated on this in his 1883 The Book of Days: a Miscellany of Popular Antiquities: Indeed the name of Nutcrack Night, by which Halloween is known in the north of England, indicates the predominance of the former of these articles in making up the entertainments of the evening. They are not only cracked and eaten, but made the […]

Categories: England, Halloween, Ireland, Nuts, Scotland • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, England, Halloween, Ireland, Nuts, Scotland

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Apples

October 21, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In Rustic Speech and Folk-lore (1911, p. 299-300), Elizabeth Mary Wright describes a Halloween custom we still practice: October 31 is Halloween, the Eve of All Saints’ Day, a night specially devoted to love-divination ceremonies, and other superstitious customs such as we have noticed in a previous chapter. The game of hanch-apple is a favourite Halloween pastime, so much so that in some districts Hanchin’-neet is another name for Halloween. The game consists in biting at an apple floating in […]

Categories: Apples, England, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Apples, Day of the Dead, England, Halloween

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Cabbages and Rings

October 20, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

In Rustic Speech and Folk-lore (1913, p. 300), Elizabeth Mary Wright wrote: In parts of Ireland a dish called colcannon, made of potatoes and cabbage mashed together with butter, used to form part of the Halloween dinner. In it was concealed a ring, the finder whereof would be the first of the company to be married. In St. John’s, Newfoundland, the popular name for Halloween is Colcannon-night, so named because colcannon is generally eaten then. Colcannon 1 1/4 pounds russet […]

Categories: Cabbage, England, Halloween, Ireland, Irish Cooking • Tags: All Souls' Day, Cabbage, Colcannon, Day of the Dead, England, Folklore, Halloween, Irish Cooking

Saints, Souls, and Haints: Eggs

October 19, 2009 by Cynthia Bertelsen

From Memoirs of the American Folk-lore Society, Volume 4, published in 1896, by the American Folklore Society, folk beliefs about Halloween from early America. Most U.S. Halloween practices came from Scotland. 311. On Halloween put an egg to roast before the fire and leave the doors and windows open. When it begins to sweat a cat will come in and turn it. After the cat will come the man you are to marry, and he will turn it. If you […]

Categories: Eggs, Halloween • Tags: All Souls' Day, Day of the Dead, Eggs, Folk Beliefs, Folklore, Halloween

Gherkins & Tomatoes

Meditations and Photographs about Food, Cooking, and Life