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Shrove Tuesday is the term used in United Kingdom,, Ireland, and Australia to refer to the day after Collop Monday and before Ash Wednesday (the liturgical season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday). In these countries, this day is also known as Pancake Day, because it is customary to eat pancakes on this day. The reason that pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent is that it was the start of the traditional 40 days of Lent liturgical fasting, during which only the plainest foodstuffs were eaten. Therefore, rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, sugar and flour are disposed...

On Christmas Eve the house must be thoroughly cleaned, all the bed linens changed and all family members must bathe and don clean clothes before the evening meal. For the Christmas Eve dinner, the table is prepared as follows: a handfull of fine hay is spread evenly on the table. This is a reminder that Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger on hay. The table is then covered with a pure white tablecloth, set with plates and decorated with candles and fir boughs. Live flowers are inappropriate for the table, in particular red or white...

I'd like to hear about the different Christmas Day and Eve traditions of freepers. We always vow not to repeat Thanksgiving Day, but usually end up with the whole roasted turkey and trimmings event -- plus some fresh Florida seafood, more desserts than usual, etc.

NEW YORK - Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton got into the holiday spirit Wednesday, describing her family's Christmas traditions, as well as the political mood, hinting it might be time for a mom to occupy the Oval Office. "We've never had a mother who ever ran for or held that position," the former first lady told the all-female cast of ABC's "The View." Clinton appeared on the show to promote the rerelease of "It Takes a Village," the book she penned a decade ago on the importance of community involvement in raising children. The New York lawmaker, who tops every national...

Countdown: One week left for Christmas… and Hanukkah begins today at sunset. Many have been ready for months. Many haven’t started preps. Many will have NO preps but just go out elsewhere. For those last minute gifts….last minute food prep… last minute decorating… Let’s share our ideas. Gifts Gift cards, gift certificates are ALWAYS great. For gasoline, Malls, specialty shops, book stores, food stores etc. People really like to pick out their own stuff. They really do. Budget tight? Homemade is so nice..or make your own “gift certificates”.. Good for one(or more)..back-rubs, foot-rubs, car washes, window cleaning, car cleaning,...

In August of A.D. 258, the emperor Valerian ordered that all deacons, priests, and Bishops be put to death. Tradition via the Golden Legend tells us that Pope Sixtus II met with Lawrence, saying to him: "I shall not leave thee, my son, but greater strifes and battles be due to thee for the faith of Jesu Christ. We, as old men, have taken more lighter battle, and to thee as to a young man shall remain a more glorious battle of which thou shalt triumph and have victory of the tyrant, and shalt follow me within three days...

Traditions related to Palm Sunday Father Weiser gives a short lesson on the liturgy and history of traditions related to Palm or Passion Sunday. DIRECTIONSLITURGY — As soon as the Church obtained her freedom in the fourth century, the faithful in Jerusalem re-enacted the solemn entry of Christ into their city on the Sunday before Easter, holding a procession in which they carried branches and sang the "Hosanna" (Matthew 21, 1-11). In the early Latin Church, people attending Mass on this Sunday would hold aloft twigs of olives, which were not, however, blessed in those days. The rite of the...

I am sure I grew up with many of the same memories as many of you. Christmas was magical. The music and lights of the season made my heart leap with love, excitement, and anticipation. We remember the food, relatives, and traditions. I can still feel the hope I felt as a child. You know, that swell in your soul that made you want to do cartwheels for no reason other than utter joy of the season. I recall those mornings when one of us awoke and ran through the house, “Wake up! Santa came! Santa came!” The whole family...

I have excerpted this from the long, meritorious article by Roger Sandall called Tribal Yearnings: The Enemies of Society Today. The total paper includes a fine discussion of why traditions are necessary including Karl Popper and Friederich Hayek. I have excerpted the Hayek portion of the article authored Gerald Vouga and published in 2004. If Friedrich Hayek were alive today he would have no difficulty explaining these paradoxes. Famous for his The Road to Serfdom, he is usually associated with free market economics. What is less well known is that his later life was devoted to cultural studies and the...

"Police told to respect traditions," from the Herald Sun, with thanks to Terry: POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits. Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together. Women's groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence. The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background... Police...

Terror Sanitized After the terror attacks in London, a few TV commentators said they would go after those in the media who want to sanitize terrorism. Such bravado may be admirable, but it is a bravado that does not recognize how terrorism has already been sanitized. The leaders of Western democracies have sanitized terrorism because they cannot publicly admit they are helpless to prevent more attacks. Most analysts who study the so-called war on terror could have told you a year ago that there would be a terrorist attack targeting the London subway. Likewise, there are those who will tell...

The upcoming Supreme Court vacancy resulting from Justice Sandra O’Connor’s retirement, when considered in conjunction with the ongoing terror war, highlights the pivotal times in which Western Civilization finds itself. On the one hand, the slaughter of innocent civilians is the chosen weapon that Islamists ruthlessly employ to subjugate their enemies. Among liberals, it is by the iron-fisted use of judicial power that they intend to further their cause. Certainly, nobody is suggesting that liberals engage in terrorist bombings, beheadings, or the torture of their political enemies. Although, the left regularly makes just such accusations against the United States military,...

“A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.” --Barry Goldwater “The most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’.” --Ronald Reagan As a young black conservative, I am happy to see more black people taking an interest in or switching to the Republican Party. It’s a party of inclusion for people of all races. If you like to work hard to achieve your dreams and you are conservative in your views, you will find a place in the Republican...

July 4th is more than a time to celebrate America’s birthday by grilling hot dogs and buying on credit. It is an opportunity to reflect upon the deeds of our founding fathers and to consider the means by which we might continue to guard those essential freedoms that we associate with happiness. Over two centuries ago, these men sacrificed their lives, their families, their homes to create conditions by which every American has a chance to better himself, to determine his own fate, to pursue happiness on his own terms, and most importantly, or simply to be left alone. In...

The other night Ann Coulter asked my boss, Chris Ruddy how old I am. That got me thinking that since late next week I'll be having a birthday, it might be instructive to recall not how old I am chronologically, but how old I am to be able to remember a whole lot of stuff. My friend Michael Reagan, no spring chicken himself, was kind enough the other day to tell me that I am as old as dirt, and suggested that I had been around long enough to have been baptized by John the Baptist. That's not quite true,...

If Democrats like Dick Durbin believe the vicious attacks they so relentlessly spew against America and America’s military then I wouldn’t blame them for hating this country and seeking its overthrow. After all, if America were truly led by Adolph Hitler (as the Democrats repeatedly call George W. Bush) and our soldiers were “only following orders,” like the Nazis that Durbin compared them to, and the American people not only solidly returned Hitler to power but did so with even more support at every level of government, all good people should seek its demise. What is more likely, however, is...

Naval Academy Next Target For ADL After success with Air Force, effort to stop imposed prayers at Annapolis. Stewart Ain - Staff Writer After receiving assurances last week from the superintendent of the Air Force Academy that religious intolerance on campus will end, the Anti-Defamation League is now setting its sights on the mandatory mealtime prayer recited at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s national director, said he plans to go to Washington next week to meet with members of the armed forces committees of the House and Senate to discuss religious coercion at both the...

It is at this time of the year that some sentimental Americans reflect on the greatness of the Founding Fathers. Albeit, in the face of “political Correctness,” the “pop culture” mindset, and a government school system that has abandoned American history, the numbers who ponder such topics is shrinking. Nevertheless, several profound essays have been written on the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and their fates in the wake of that momentous occasion. It is worthwhile to consider just a few from among those perhaps greatest of Americans, how their examples spoke to the nation at its inception, and...

In a recent appearance at the Heritage Foundation, an author who has written many great histories gave some insight as to why the Ivory Tower produces such, at best, lackluster ones. "Many people say, 'Why bother with history?,' and unfortunately many of them are in education," best-selling writer David McCullough said at the Heritage Foundation last Friday. McCullough has penned best-selling historical biographies of American Presidents John Adams and Harry S. Truman. "Why is it possible that an otherwise intelligent person does not know that the original 13 colonies were on the East Coast or who George Marshall was," McCullough...

The old media is on the ropes. Newspaper circulations are at an all time low and still slipping. Network news is having trouble competing with PBS for ratings, having lost many of their viewers to cable news, notably - the much hated and loved Fox. Once respected news journals like Time and Newsweek now share rack space with other sensationalized headline merchants like The Globe and The Enquirer, which sell better because their headlines are more reliable. Even the household term old media itself describes the fading glory of a once mainstream news establishment turned tabloid rag, now permanently engaged...