Spectrum

Friday, January 21, 2011

The Origin of St. Valentine's Day

The celebration of Valentine's Day owes its existence to an ancient pagan ritual. With the spread of Christianity, priests had numerous heathen practices to deal with among their constituents. One of these ancient rituals was the Feast of Lubercus which they changed to St. Valentine's Day changing the pagan practice of drawing girl's names with drawing Saints' names. Young people would draw the names from an urn or box and then were expected to emulate that Saint's life during the following year. Unfortunately, by the 14th century they had reverted back to drawing girl's names, in the 16th century they tried again to have saintly valentines but it failed.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Hammond Castle: One of America’s Great Haunted Mysteries

Hammond Castle: One of America’s Great Haunted Mysteries
by Michele Cameron Drew

Imagine being a ten-year old little girl and being surprised with an amazing visit to a "castle in the clouds". Hammond Castle was all that a medieval castle had to offer and far more. My sense of adventure was intrigued as I learned about the place…

Thirty-something years ago, my dear mother packed us all into the car for road trips and we would head off to these exotic never-never lands that she liked to escape to on occasion. Little did I know at about ten years old that this trip would change the face of life as I knew it. We headed up route 128 from Boston, seemingly for parts unknown and landed somewhere in the middle of the woods in Gloucester, MA.

I was bored out of my mind an hour into the trip and began my protest from the rear seat. I was abruptly told that no back-seat drivers were allowed, when suddenly we came over a hill and down into a wooded area and then I saw it. Looming high above the great Atlantic was a giant stone building. The entrance was formidable with two stone towers that seemed to end at the sky!