Mistletoe
I learned from the Origin of Mistletoe Tradition that mistletoe is -
"Also known as the golden bough. Held sacred by both the Celtic Druids and the Norseman.
Once called Allheal, used in folk medicine to cure many ills. North American Indians used it for toothache, measles and dog bites. Today the plant is still used medicinally, though only in skilled hands...it's a powerful plant.
It was also the plant of peace in Scandinavian antiquity. If enemies met by chance beneath it in a forest, they laid down their arms and maintained a truce until the next day".
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Las Posadas
The Mexican Las Posadas celebration lasts for 9 days beginning on December 16th. Sounds great. It would be nice to spend the Christmas holiday's in Mexico one of these years.
Here are some tasty sounding and healthy Las Posadas recipes. Warm apple empanadas sound good.
How about if we have some warm apple empanadas for desert and some real tamales as a main course?
My sister gave me the cookbook Firehouse Food: Cooking With San Francisco's Firefighters a few years back. It contains a recipe for "Mom's Tamales" that look marvelous.
I think I'll try making some for Las Posadas or maybe New Years.
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Winter Solstice
I learned from Ancient Origins: Solstice that the "Winter solstice for 2004 will occur at 4:42 am PST on December 21."
That page has some cool information on Stonehenge and other ancient structures used to sight in on the sun to determine the date. One of the other ancient structures is called -
"Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice".
