WINTER-SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS

Both these ancient holidays were observed around the winter solstice- the day of the year with the shortest period of daylight. “From the Romans also came another Christmas fundamental: the date, December 25. When the Julian calendar was proclaimed in 46 C.E. [A.D.], it set into law a practice that was already common: dating the winter solstice as December 25. Later reforms of the calendar would cause astronomical solstice to migrate to December 21, but the older date’s irresistible resonance would remain“ (Tom Flynn, The Trouble with Christmas, 1993, p.42).

Why was the date significant? “The time of the winter solstice has always been an important season in the mythology of all peoples. The sun, the giver of life, is at its lowest ebb. It is [the] shortest daylight of the year, the promise of spring is buried in cold and snow. It is the time when the forces of chaos that stand against the return of light and life must once again be defeated by the gods. At the low point of the solstice, the people must help the gods through imitative magic and religious ceremonies. Te sun begins to return in triumph. The days lengthen and, though winter remains, spring is once again conceivable. For all people, it is a time of great festivity (Gerard and Patricia Del Re, p. 15)

During the days of the apostles in the first century, early Christians had no knowledge of Christmas as we know it. But as a part of the Roman Empire, they may have noted the Roman observance of the Saturnalia while they kept their customary “feast of the Lord” (listed in Leviticus 23).

The Encyclopedia Britannica tells us: “The sanctity of special times was an idea absent from the minds of the first Christians... [who] continued to observe the Jewish festivals, though in a new spirit, as commemorations of events which those festivals had foreshadowed” (11^th edition, Vol. VIII, p. 828, “Easter”).

Over the following centuries, new, humanly devised observances such as Christmas and Easter were gradually introduced into traditional Christianity. History shows that these new days were forcibly promoted while the feast days of the apostolic times were systematically rejected. “Christmas, the [purported] festival of the birth of Jesus Christ was established in connection with a fading of the expectation of Christ’s imminent return” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 15^th edition, Macropaedia, Vol IV, p. 499, “Christianity”).

The message of Jesus Christ and the apostles – “the gospel of the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15) - was soon lost. The Christmas celebration shifted Christianity’s focus away from Christ’s promised return to His birth. But is this what the Bible asks Chistians to do?

(taken from Holidays or Holy Days Does it Matter,p.6, 2006 reprint)

THE ANCIENT ORIGINS OF CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS

During the second century B.C., the Greeks practiced rites to honor their god Dionysus (also called Bacchus). The Latin name for this celebration was Bacchanalia. It spread from the Greeks to Rome, center of the Roman empire.
“It was on or about December 21st that the ancient Greeks celebrated what are known to us as the Bacchanalia or festivities in honor of Bacchus, the god of wine. In these festivities the people gave themselves up to songs, dances and other revels which frequently [sic] passed the limits of decency and order” (Walsh, 1854-1919, The Story of Santa Klaus, p. 65).
Because of the nocturnal orgies associated with this festival, the Roman senate suppressed its observance in 186 B.C. It took the senators several years to completely accomplish this goal because of the holiday’s popularity.
Suppressing a holiday was unusual for the Romans since they later became a melting pot of many types of gods and worship. Just as the Romans assimilated culture, art and customs, from the peoples absorbed into their empire, they likewise adopted those peoples’ religious practices.
In addition to Bacchanalia, the Romans celebrated another holiday, the Saturnalia, held “in honor of Saturn, the god of time [which] began on December 17th and continued for seven days. These also often ended in riot and disorder. Hence the words Bacchanalia and Saturnalia acquired evil reputation in later times” (Walsh, p. 65).
The reason for Saturnalia’s disrepute is revealing. In pagan mythology Saturn was as “ancient agricultural god-king who ate his own children presumably to avoid regicide [his own murder while king]. And Saturn was parallel with a Carthaginian Baal, whose brazen horned effigy contained a furnace into which children were sacrificially fed” (William Sansom, A Book of Christmas, 1968, p. 44).
Notice customs surrounding the Saturnalia: “All businesses were closed except those that provided food or revelry. Slaves were made equal to masters or even set over them. Gambling, drinking, and feasting were encouraged. People exchanged gifts, called strenae, from the vegetation goddess Strenia, whom it was important to honor at midwinter. . . Men dressed as women or in the hides of animals and caroused in the streets. Candles and lamps were used to frighten the spirits of darkness, which were [considered] powerful at this time of year. At its most decadent and barbaric, Saturnalia may have been the excuse among Roman soldiers in the East for the human sacrifice of the kings of the revels” (Gerard and Patricia Del Re, The Christmas Almanac, 1979, p.16).
(taken from Holidays or Holy Days Does it Matter,p.6, 2006 reprint)

Dance with my father

This supposedly be posted on the 10th if not due to connection problem.

I am not in the senti mood now but unknowingly the song ”Dance with My Father “ was played in my computer. Alas, I remembered my father. Today is his birthday. The other day was mine. Whichever will fall in the weekend or near the weekend, that’s when we celebrated our birthday then. It’s no longer the same now.

Back when I was a child, before life removed all the innocence
My father would lift me high and dance with my mother and
me and then
Spin me around ‘til I fell asleep
Then up the stairs he would carry me
And I knew for sure I was loved
If I could get another chance, another walk, another dance
with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end
How I’d love, love, love
To dance with my father again
When I and my mother would disagree
To get my way, I would run from her to him
He’d make me laugh just to comfort me
Then finally make me do just what my mama said
Later that night when I was asleep
He left a dollar under my sheet
Never dreamed that he would be gone from me
If I could steal one final glance, one final step, one final dance
with him
I’d play a song that would never, ever end
‘Cause I’d love, love, love
To dance with my father again
Sometimes I’d listen outside her door
And I’d hear how my mother cried for him
I’d pray for her even more than me
I pray for her even more than me
I know I’m praying for much too much
But could you send back the only man she loved
I know you don’t do it usually
But dear Lord she’s dying
To dance with my father again
Every night I fall asleep and this is all I ever dream


Four years had passed when we last celebrated our birthday. But his memories especially on his last days remain so clear to me. But what is clearer to me was the love my mother had given to him despite of his irritating and irrational childish tantrums. Still, my mother treated him dearly, understands him to the thinnest thread of patience, and never showed him that he is a burden.
I’d love to dance with my father again. He is not a good dancer, in fact, we made fool of him when we dance. Yet, that was one of the best times we had.
I can see even my mother wanted to dance with my father again.

HOW CHRISTMAS GREW

Since the time I became aware of the Christmas season, I was always looking forward to the day I will receive gifts and feast on the bountiful food on the table. Few years back, I learned that celebrating Christmas in not at all a religious activity. I doubted it.

I will post in my succeeding entries articles that pointed why it is not a religious celebration at all. Don’t get me wrong, Im a Christian. But its up to us to believe what we think weigh more in our conscience. This may not be the true birth of Christ, what is most important is that there is indeed God who came to this sin-marred Earth through a virgin to save me and you from sure death because of love. God’s birth may not be known, what is reassuring is that he died for us so that we may live.


This first article shows what made Christmas merry, as how it is celebrated today, is not the celebration but the economic activities attributed to it.

In view of centuries of criticism of the commercialization of Christmas, it is interesting to note that the holiday’s secular, not its religious aspect, has been most responsible for its popularity. In the United States “retailers have to count on yuletide sales for up to 50 percent of their annual profits. The shopping season now pumps an estimated $37 billion into the nation’s economy- making the American Christmas larger than the gross national product of Ireland” (Jeffrey L. Sheller, U.S. News and World Report, “In Search of Christmas”, Dec. 23, 1996, p. 64).
The lure of profit has proven so strong that, since t he 1870s, merchants have vigorously promoted Christmas. Initially they even laid out their stores with more religious trappings, such as pipe organs, choirs and statues, than some churches could muster. Convinced of the economic impact of Christmas, Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving from November 30 to November 23 to add another week of shopping before Christmas (Sheller, p.62).

“What many historians find most fascinating about the reinvention of Christmas is that its commercialization, now so frequently denounced, is what spawned the transformation in the first place. The ‘commercial form’ associated with Christmas and other holidays, says Schmidt of Princeton [Lee Eric Schmidt, Consumer Rites, 1995), ’have become integral to their survival.’ The consumer culture ‘shapes our holidays’, Schmidt says, ‘by taking in diverse, local traditions and creating relatively common ones. To turn Christmas into a purely religious celebration now might cheer those who want to ‘take back Christmas’, he says. But such an observance ‘would lack the cultural resonance and impact of a holiday deeply rooted in the marketplace.”If Christmas came to that, adds Restad [Penne Restad, Christmas in America, 1995], we probably wouldn’t keep it as a society (Sheller, p.64)

(Holidays or Holy Days Does it Matter,p.6, 2006 reprint)

Technical Report writing

Writing an idea and thoughts can be done in any style and format any writer wanted. He can present his point in whatever attack he may use. There may be rules that don’t matter whether those were followed or neglected. What matters is the writer is able to present the message he wanted to convey. Technical report writing is different.

I was fortunate enough to attend the training with Dr. Ofelia K. Bautista and Mr. Roberto K. Bautista as speakers. Some of the learning I’ve learned and I wanted to share and wanted to keep are:

Ø Any research should be published to make it complete. According to Dr. Bautista, a research work is incomplete if not published. It will never contribute to the body of knowledge and never added to the advancement of science. Personally and for the institution where the researcher is connected also have a benefit of having their work been published.

Ø Before anyone can start to write, one must consider first that he has done a good research. Good research means that it follows a proper procedure, must have statistical analysis, has sufficient data presented to justify conclusion, must be done in the last five years, consider the journal style, and decide whether it is a short note or a full length paper.

Ø There are several types of journals:

o Unedited journals - scientifically not edited. What is submitted is what will come out in the journal.

o Edited non-refereed journal with or without ISSN- edited but not by individuals from the same field as that of the author.

o Local refereed journal – edited by individuals of the same field of the author.

o International journal - generally are refereed journal.

Ø Technical paper is written for fellow scientist and not for popular writing. This is the reason why it is difficult to understand the entries in the journal if not your field.

Ø Lastly, consider the cost of publishing your work. Most journals charge fees per page, colored pictures have another rate for fee.

In details, with the parts of the paper, what to consider are:

1. Introduction - She presented ‘PILOT’ as acronym for what to write in the introduction.

Problem – what is the research all about

Importance – what is the essence of solving this problem, is it really a pressing problem?

Literature - what has been done about it before starting the work, what findings

support your statements about the problem and its importance?

Objectives – what are the expected answers or hypotheses, what are you going to

accomplish?

Time and Place - will be placed here unless more appropriate in Materials and Methods

2. The review of literature – it is important to know where to start. Thus it is important to know what has been done relative to the problem. The presentation of related literatures should have a smooth flow of thought where findings are interrelated, compare or contrast findings where appropriate, and provide smooth transitions.

If there are several papers on the same topic of one author, its latest paper should be cited. Only factual information must be cited, not an opinion. This does not mean though, that you copy everything in the paper but use your words. If a sentence or paragraph is copied, use a quotation mark.

If information is taken from secondary source, cite also the first paper or check the original. The original work must be cited. Unknown authors should not be cited, only authors from reliable sources. Works from journals are the most reliable, especially the refereed journals. Internet citations are not reliable should not be included, unless journal article. In case that you use MS or PhD thesis and dissertations, which is only available in your library, place it in footnote and not in literature cited. But if these can be found in easily accessible library, it can be placed in literature cited.

Use new publications since science is dynamic. Your information gathered may already be obsolete.

3. Materials and Methods

Listen to you teacher in Research, follow it. In addition, explain methods used that could have been done in several ways. Flow diagram can also be used where appropriate. Dr. Bautista gave another acronym what should be stated in biological experiments.

S- statistical design

M- manufacturer of special equipment

A- analysis used and arc sin or square root transformation R- replications

T- time of year when research was conducted if necessary

P- plot (basic experimental plot)

I- Indices

C – cultivar used

S- samples used

What you need not to include under this section are the equation in getting percentage (it is so obvious), equipment for taking common measurement like weight, height, etc., treatments given In the tables of result and discussion, information given in footnotes to make the table understandable, and explanation of phenomenon.

4. Result and discussion

You can choose whether to present result first then discussion or present result and discussion together with the conclusion. One chooses to present first results and followed with discussion when there is a need to interrelate data in interpreting or explaining result, need to discuss 2 or more studies together or there is repetition of explanation or same references cited.

In presenting data, do not present them in both table and graph. Data that are entirely insignificant, ANOVA, crowd tables, or 2x2 tables should no longer be presented. Fold tables must be divided and be presented separately. One more thing, a common mistake we commit is the use of “effects of”, “influence of”, “mean of”, etc. in making the title. The title must be short and specific.

When our set of data lacks value, use “-“ or put “0” if the data are zero. Use tr or trace for small amounts that cannot be measured. For numbers, stick to actually observed numbers, decimals can be used in number of days but whole in number of flowers. Avoid also large number, present in the heading (x1000) for thousands and ug instead of 0.00001

5. Summary, Conclusions and Recommendation

What is important is you follow the format of the journal you wish to publish your work. Start with one to two sentences

If you wanted more, attend on one of Dr. O.K. Bautista’s series of trainings. She is conducting trainings on graduate students at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. She is also willing to mentor budding researchers, as she is to us, to be able to publish research works. She assured us that it is her joy to know her students, whether at the university or on her trainings telling her that their papers were accept for publication especially in a refereed journal.

i just loved this story..... you may, too.


ONE OF THE BEST STORIES I'VE EVER HEARD!!!!!!




As she stood in front of her 5th grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children an untruth.

Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. However, that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, was a little boy named Teddy Stoddard.

Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he did not play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. In addition, Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers.

At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners... he is a joy to be around.."

His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle."

His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best, but his father doesn't show much interest, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken."

Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and he sometimes sleeps in class."

By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was one-quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was, putting it on, and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist.

Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left, she cried for at least an hour.

On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children.

Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "teacher's pets."

A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was the best teacher he ever had in his whole life.

Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in life.



Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he'd stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs. Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he had ever had in his whole life.

Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer.... The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, MD.

The story does not end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring Teddy said he had met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit at the wedding in the place that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. Moreover, she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together.

They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you Mrs. Thompson for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference."

Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you."



it is so fulfilling for a writer to make a story that can really move readers. So with this story. Though, there are claims that it is true, some says its a legend, what ever it is, it moved us and its inspiring to hear stories like this. check this for more information.

adobo and muning

If you and another person cannot be together for a long time either because there always will be misunderstanding, petty quarrel or an outburst rage towards each other, you have a dog and cat relationship. Dog and cat have an instinct of repelling each other, thus they have no opportunity to live a good time together. One cannot go near the other. If you are in the rural areas, you will see the dog chasing the poor cat running onto some trees to escape from the massive weight of dog crashing him. While if you are in the urban, you see cats ran towards the house stumbling over some flower pots or crashing things in the kitchen.

Cats always end up the loser, yet giving some painful scratch on the dog.

If you cannot stand with somebody because youll just be hurting each other, it is either you are a cat or a dog. It is unusual though that youll see cats and dogs who are real friends. Just like Adobo and Muning. They are the two occupants in the dorm that put us to shame because of our cat and dog attitude. They have showed that they can make a difference on each others lives.

Ahh, how sweet to sleep up here

What are you doing? Take pictures? Let it appear stolen.

Oh no, what will other cats say of me f they see me in this position?

hrrrr,,,, im a dog-eating cat vampire

Arrggh..... were both dead.

No, i beat him up. LoSer.... Haha

Enough! Dogs and cats can be best of buddies, too.