Sep 08 2014
3 Comments
Nativity of Mary

Our Lady of the Grapes

Böttcher_Christian_Eduard_-_Setting_out_for_the_grape_harvest, _Oberwesel-on-Rhine_-_1867

Now we are well into September and in places where there are vineyards, the grapes are ripening on the vines, speaking of great alchemical potential: crushed and barreled and left to ferment, activating natural yeasts and sugars, the next wines are about to be made.

The timing of today’s feast––at the start of the grape harvest––is, to me at least, interesting. Nine months ago we celebrated the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and today, we celebrate the Nativity of Mary. The Church celebrates the deaths of saints (don’t you love when I tell you all those gruesome tales of how saints met their ends?) but in the case of Mary and John the Baptist, also their births. And tradition tells us that Mary was born on this day in Jerusalem to St. Ann and St. Joachim.

Italians like to eat blueberries for this day, a day important to all Marias and Mariettas… and there are many in my family. The blue of the berry is a reference to the traditional color of Mary’s cloak. Lights are illuminated in windows, especially in the rural areas, and bonfires are not uncommon on this night. Across the Alps, in Austria, it is time to bring the sheep and cattle down from the mountains and into the valleys: winter is fast approaching, and the Nativity of Mary on the 8th of September is known there as “Drive Down Day” in honor of this custom of moving the animals, often with some pomp and ceremony.

In France, though, there is this nice connection between the Nativity of Mary and wine: winemakers refer to the day as “Our Lady of the Grape Harvest,” bringing their best grapes to church for blessing. Across France you will find bunches of grapes placed in the hands of statues of Mary on this day. I like this connection between Mary, a goddess of sorts, and wine, especially as we ponder the bread and wine that is central to each church Mass, but central also to any good meal in places throughout Europe. These two elements can easily be a meal unto themselves (“a jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou”), should that be all you have, and you’d walk away sated and probably quite happy.

 

Image: Setting Out for the Grape Harvest by Christian Eduard Böttcher. Oil on canvas, 1867, [Public domain] via WikiMedia Commons.

 

 

Sep 02 2014
2 Comments
Book of Days Calendar

Your September Book of Days

SeatOats

New month, new Convivio Book of Days calendar. It’s September, the month that brings autumn by the almanac to the Northern Hemisphere. And I’ll let you in on a secret: Autumn is our favorite time of year here at Convivio Bookworks. Which is a little strange considering autumn is such a subtle thing in Lake Worth. But when we have the chance, we like to steal away to more northern climes and get a glimpse of golden foliage and apple orchards. Seth and I have been known to drive north with an empty pick up truck and come home with that same truck laden with apples and pumpkins, especially if they are heritage varieties like Rouge vif d’Etampes, the red Cinderella pumpkin from France, or Jarrahdale, the green pumpkin from Australia, or beige Long Island Cheese pumpkins. (If you know anyone locally selling these types of pumpkins this year, let me know. I’ll be their best customer.)

Pumpkin patches speak to me of possibilities. I can remember weeding the big pumpkin patch at the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community when I was interning there, sitting there in the dirt amongst bold green leaves and yellow flowers and ripening pumpkins, and sensing there was a story to tell that emanated from that pumpkin patch. In a way, it was that idea that evolved into the Convivio Book of Days. The first calendar appeared in October 2003; naturally, it featured pumpkins. And the first Book of Days Blog chapter appeared ten years later, just last October. It, too, featured pumpkins. That first chapter was probably seen by a half dozen people, all, no doubt, related to Seth or me.

So here is September and I know the pumpkins are ripening on the vine. My vision for September was a local one this year: sea oats on the Lake Worth dunes, the plants closest to the edge of this vast continent, and at this time of year, they remind me of grain ripening in the fields. And so here is your September Book of Days calendar, a printable PDF document:

http://www.conviviobookworks.com/Images/September2014.pdf

September is a time of growing introspection: as we begin to gather in the harvest, so we begin to gather in our thoughts, our perspectives, returning focus once more to home and hearth. If you see those pumpkins I like so much, do let me know. I’ve been called “Pumpkinhead” plenty of times in my life, and I don’t mind at all. Happy September.

 

Image: Sea Oats at Lake Worth Beach.

 

Sep 01 2014
11 Comments
Labor Day

Labor of Love

Vista of the Union Printers Home Colorado Springs

Here in the US, Labor Day marks an unofficial end of summer. Perhaps not so much here in Florida, where summer is slow to pack its bags: an unwelcome guest that just won’t take a hint. But I have spent summers in New England and there, you’ll notice a definite shift that drifts in around the First of September. There is, with the arrival of the first of these “Ember Months,” a sudden flagging of interest in the frozen custard stand and other such summery ideas. This year, the First of September also happens to be Labor Day, but Labor Day is a movable holiday, celebrated each year on the First Monday of September. Come Labor Day, those frozen custard thoughts begin shifting toward pumpkin pie thoughts and our sights toward the apples ripening on the trees. Change is in the air.

And then there is the official aspect of Labor Day, a holiday created to acknowledge the contributions of the American worker. The founding of the holiday goes back to the heyday of the American Labor movement and the glorious ideals that went hand in hand with that movement. The first Labor Day celebration was organized by the Central Labor Union and occurred in New York City on September 5, 1882. It was a Tuesday. By 1884, the holiday was moved to its current First Monday of September date and was being celebrated in industrial centers across the country, usually with parades and speeches.

Unions have done great things for this country, but they are also a matter of contention. I have had two experiences with unions that illustrate both ends of the spectrum. There was the time I was working a job in Providence, Rhode Island, and I happened to pick up a broom to sweep the work area and was promptly told to put the broom down, for the sweeping had to be done by union members only. Well. Okay, then. And then there was my grandfather, Arturo, a card carrying member of the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union, Local 1, New York, from the 1920s on. That was most of his life. I remember when he was awarded a gold union card on his 50th anniversary with the union. I was a little boy then. The card is still in the frame he placed it in, and it hangs in my grandmother’s old room at my family’s home. I was too young to ask Grandpa what the Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Union meant to him. He, too, was probably of two minds about it, but still, I know he was proud of that card, so that seems to say something about his experience. Happy Labor Day.

 

Image: A postcard of the old Union Printers Home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, built in the 1890s by the International Typographical Union to care for the sick and aging members of the union. Of course this holds some historic interest to letterpress printers like myself. The home is still in operation but is open to all now, not just printers and typographers. This, I think, represents that ideal of the best of what a union can be: an organization that looks out for its members. You pull for me & I’ll pull for you.

 

 

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