Author Archives: John Cutrone

May 23 2015
Rosalia

Roses for Remembrance

RenoirRoses

In Ancient Rome, this would be the time of the Rosalia, an annual festival in honor of the goddess Flora and the lovely rose, but also of the dead. Rosalia could in fact be celebrated at various times between May and July. But for most Romans May was its primary month and May 23 its usual day. To be sure, the Romans celebrated many festivals honoring Flora, who was a goddess of flowers and plants. These festivals were all in the spring and Rosalia was the last of them each year. The most important tradition associated with Rosalia was the decoration of graves with flowers, typically roses. Even then, roses and other flowers were symbols of rebirth and memory.

As for us, we come to Memorial Day soon (this coming Monday, as it so happens––about the earliest date it can be), a holiday rooted in the remembrance of those who died in service to their country. And so the two holidays, so distant from each other in history and in culture, speak the same language: the language of remembrance, the honoring of those who have passed. It is good and it is right to keep these folks in mind.

Image: Still Life, Roses Against a Blue Curtain by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Oil on canvas, 1908 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

May 15 2015
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Cold Sophie, The Ice Saints

Cold Sophie

Reene_windynight

If you’ve been following the Convivio Book of Days for any length of time, you know how much we love a good old obscure holiday. Well, it’s mid May and here comes another one: it’s the feast day of St. Sophia. Chances are good you’ve never heard of her. She was an early Christian martyr in Rome, other than dying for her faith, not much else, after all these centuries, is known about her life. Her feast day, however, is known to bring the last of winter’s cold breath to Northern Europe, and the day there, especially in Germany, is known as Kalte Sophie, Cold Sophie.

Sophia is one of the Ice Saints, die eisheiligen. They arrive in May, a troupe of them, one for each day beginning on the 11th: Saints Mamertus, Pancras, Servatius, Boniface, and finally Sophia, today on the 15th. She is the last of them, but she is the grand dame of them, and no wise farmer or gardener will plant cold sensitive crops until after Cold Sophie has passed.

So if you should wake on this mid May morning and find a chill in the air, now you know why. It is the work of Cold Sophie and her Ice Saints, offering winter’s last hurrah before the gentler months of summer firmly stand their ground. Until of course the planet’s constant rearrange allows their return once again. The only thing that stays the same is change.

Image: Windy Night by Reene. Scratchboard, 2005, [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

 

May 10 2015
Mother's Day

Honoring Our Mothers

Tantrum

Seth and I keep this picture prominently displayed in our living room. It’s a photograph of Seth and his two sisters, circa 1975. Seth is the one on the floor, throwing a tantrum. Thompson Family legend states that this scene was the usual state of affairs in the house. This legend, accompanied by its photographic documentation, is a very big part of our decision not to have kids of our own, be they our own “biokids” (as Dan Savage calls them in his book The Kid) or adopted kids. The chances that our own kids would put us through the same misery that Seth’s parents had to endure is a risk neither of us is prepared to take.

I look at this picture sometimes and I think, “God bless Doreen.” Doreen is Seth’s mom. She was surprised with twins right on the heels of her first born child, and one of those twins was Seth. Seth, for the record, turned out to be quite a great guy. But certainly God bless Doreen and while we’re at it, God bless all the moms. Their job is not an easy one.

Perhaps Anna Jarvis was a challenging child, too. It was Anna who championed the idea of Mother’s Day and in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson, at Anna’s urging, designated the Second Sunday of May as an official holiday honoring our mothers. Anna, however, did not approve of what Mother’s Day quickly became: another big retail holiday. So if you want to keep to the traditional Anna Jarvis spirit of Mother’s Day, you’d do well to simply visit or call your mom and spend the day with her. That’s all Anna wanted the day to be.

Then again, if you put your mother through the things that Seth put his through, you might consider buying her a new car.

 

 

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