Yo Ho Ho and A Bottle of Fun! The History of the Pirate ( Costume)

Pirates  have been sailing the seven seas for time immemorial. Probably as long as there have been ships. As more than one classical scholar has joked...The first ship ever built was a merchant ship and the second ship ever built was a pirate ship. Ha Ha H...

OK moving on. 

Most of us aren't really into Classical Mediterranean, Greek or Roman Piracy. Snooooooze.

When I said, ...as a family we should dress up like pirates this year...

  No boring ol classical piracy for us, It's the "Golden Age" or nothin!    
           
If popular books...

 

T.V...
 

Black Sails: Starz. S'pretty good show, I didn't realize the F-word was used as a second language during the late 17th century

Movies...

 



 







 

Festivals...                                            

Fresno! Is there anything you can't do?!

This is my 248th Festival this Month

and Halloween costumes, are any indication of our love of all things pirate...and I think it is! Then yes, there is a definite attraction to the Golden Age of Piracy.

The "Pirate Costume" in all it's forms, can, and will vary from year to year depending on popular culture. But in it's core nucleus. "The Pirate Costume" In and of its self... has infinite possibilities. There's traditional Pirate, sexy Pirate, good Pirate, bad Pirate. The Captain, the crew, the captive, the wench, the Pirate King, the Pirate Queen. And on and on and on.

There are even Pirate costumes for kids, babies, dogs, and cats...Yes I know...kitties love Pirate costumes. They LOVE them! 









So Ladies lace up those bustles and head out to your favorite Halloween hangout. 
But remember when the clock strikes Midnight, 

and your with him...

 
But you think your with him...

It may be time to put down the rum and call it a night....Until next year, Happy Halloween everyone! 

Those Fun Victorians

In the third book, Whimsey and Co. move to their new home in the district of Highgate. It's down the street from the infamous and very real Highgate cemetery.
London is full of  cemeteries but Highgate (In my opinion) is the finest example of Victorian funerary architecture around. 

Highgate Cemetery or Indiana Jones Ride? 

From Wikipedia
  " The cemetery in its original form opened in 1839, as part of a plan to provide seven large, modern cemeteries, now known as the "Magnificent Seven", around the outside of central London. The inner-city cemeteries, mostly the graveyards attached to individual churches, had long been unable to cope with the number of burials and were seen as a hazard to health and an undignified way to treat the dead."  

London's population was expanding, both the living and the dead, so they built some super-cemeteries and made it into a whole popular culture thing. I think the use of the word "Big Production" would not be an over estimation of the all out pomp and circumstance that went into the funerals of the day.

Though inspired by sad circumstances. The Victorian funeral era certainly laid a rich, and historic foundation for the 20, and 21st Century Goth culture. As we can all appreciate the architecture,clothing, fabrics,sculpture, landscaping and traditions the Victorians put forth.     

There was even a railway called the London Necropolis Railway, that ran from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery, 23 miles outside of London in Surrey. The train carried passengers of both varieties back and forth for 87 years. But in the end the project was viewed as unsuccessful for many reasons and on the night of 16–17 April 1941, the London terminus was badly damaged in an air raid and rendered unusable.

The Midnight Society writes.. 
Being buried in one of the Magnificent Seven’s cemeteries was a costly affair that demonstrated social status as much as a willingness to commemorate their loved ones in the most ostentatious way possible. As the garden cemeteries appealed to the middle class, attention was paid to the flora, fauna, and even the monuments were (and still are) unprecedented in their elaborateness and elegance. As an art history nerd, 19th century sculpture sends me all a-twitter with excitement; add some verdurous foliage — ivy, creeper, lush hornbeam and yew, cypress, ferns, bluebells, holly — and you have your allocated plot for eternity nestled in a garden where butterflies, bees, foxes, even deer wander through. Victorians thought this treatment “took away the gloom of the grave,” and given the precedent, the Magnificent Seven became veritable paradises on earth..

The Victorians placed a great importance on death and dying. Daniel Pool writes in his book " What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew"  In some rural communities the ritual began even before one died, with the ringing of the "passing bell" in the parish church to signal that a member of the community lay on his or her deathbed."

Do I hear bells? 

 Another interesting Victorian funerary rule, was that each mourner, depending on their relation to the deceased, had a specific amount of calendar time that they had to remain in mourning, black clothes and the works. it ranged from 6 weeks on up. Some even making it a life long commitment. 

Only 40 more years and I can take off this dress. 

 So to commemorate Whimsey's new and very quiet neighbors down the street, and also because it's the Halloween Season, I thought I would share a few facts about Victorian mourning practices...
and hey how did this wallaby get into Highgate?!

G'day Mate!

   

Halloween, 70's style vs. 90's Style

Everyone has their favorite childhood Halloween memories. And depending on your trick-or-treating decade, 70's, 80's, or 90's. Your memories will have varying degrees of story power. Example: 1970's, Running around a spooky neighborhood, that is just a little farther than you were supposed to go.

Your Street

One Street Over

It's unfamiliar and mysterious. What dangers might befall you there? (Nothing is going to happen, but your a kid. It's Halloween and you have a big imagination. A decade later, when your sitting at the bar reminiscing with your friends, it will seem like one of the greatest nights of your young life.) Or if you Trick-or-Treated in the 1990's,you would have been driven to the safe and well lit local mall, to trick-or-treat under the florescent lights of Forever 21 and Lane Bryant.

Kill me now

Your parent (the one that drew the short straw) trailing behind. You have to jockey for position between the annoyed looking shoppers, and the kid on a leash, just to get a fun size Twizzler. Which is really just a Twiz, it's so small. By the time you, and your siblings, and parent hit the food court, the florescent lights have made you tired, and sleepy, and you have lost the will to live. From a distance you hear your parent repeatedly asking you if you want Ivar's or Sbarro?

And you think to yourself...maybe I want Orange Julius.

A Brief History of Gingerbread

  Have you ever met someone who doesn’t like gingerbread? I haven’t, and    probably never will. It’s universally loved…well maybe just Earthly loved. I don’t know how they feel about it on other planets. 

Take me to your bakery

      Gingerbread dates way back to ancient times. An early form of gingerbread can be traced to the Greeks and Egyptians who used it for medicinal and ceremonial purposes.

                  

Take two Gingerbread men and call me in the morning

There are several different versions of how gingerbread made its way to Europe.

 One story is that 11th-century crusaders brought the spice back from the Middle East. 

Another is in 992 CE. an Armenian monk, Gregory of Nicopolis left Nicopolis, 

Pompeii, to live in Bondaroy (France), near the town of Pithiviers. He stayed there 

seven years and taught gingerbread baking to French Christians. He died in 999.CE

             From then on gingerbread could be found in many countries and cultures. Each making it unique in their own way. Until it eventually evolved into the delicious, versatile, sweet treat, we all know and love today.

 

Go fetch me some gingerbreadius yummius

     According to Amanda Fiegl@smithsonian.com

 " Gingerbread was a favorite treat at festivals and fairs in medieval Europe. Often shaped and decorated to look like flowers, birds, animals or even armor—and several cities in France and England hosted regular "gingerbread fairs" for centuries. Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a tournament, or superstitiously ate a "gingerbread husband" to improve their chances of landing the real thing.”

I  made you this shield out of gingerbread, good luck. 

From medicinal ginger root to sweet tasty treat and back again.

            Tory Avery writes in her article The History of Gingerbread

 "Ginger root was first cultivated in ancient China, where it was commonly used as a medical treatment. From there it spread to Europe via the Silk Road.

During the Middle Ages it was favored as a spice for its ability to disguise the taste of preserved meats.

This chicken tastes terrible. I gots ta get me some gingerbread!

 Henry VIII is said to have used a ginger concoction in hopes of building a resistance to the plague.

 

A Gingerbread a day keeps the plague away

 

Even today we use ginger as an effective remedy for nausea and other stomach ailments. In Sanskrit the root was known as srigavera, which translates to ‘root shaped like a horn’ – a fitting name for ginger’s unusual appearance."

Ginger, in its many uses, and forms, has brought health and pleasure down through the ages.

We may now be as creative as we like, and bake and decorate...

  and write...

and draw...

       and make very sweet little wearable friends...

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               Wonderful, Wonderful, Gingerbread.