Food Traditions

The biggest tradition surrounding food in my family is around the time of Samhain, otherwise knowns as Halloween. Samhain is a time to remember the people who have gone before, it is also the last of the harvest ceremonies, food plays a big part in the ceremony. It is also the pagan new year, so drinks like mead and wine are also big parts of the ceremonies. The traditional meal is called a dum supper.

A dum supper is a meal that is done in honor of the ancestors. A home cooked meal is prepared and the table is set with an extra place. The extra place is for the ancestors, when serving the meal the ancestors are served first and the meal is eaten in silance till everyone is done. The reason for the silance is to remember those who have paassed away and think on the good or bad things that you remember about them. Maybe come to terms with something they have done that you were unhappy with. The ancestors plate is not eaten if there is anything left over, it is placed outside for the fairies. Wine or mead is the traditional drink and the left overs of that are placed outside as well for the fairies or other spirits passing by.

Communitys

A message board is a community. Being a big fan of the Wheel of Time books by Robert Jordan I looked for and found two of the biggest Wheel of time communities, Dragonmount or Dm, and Tarvalon.net otherwise known as Tv.net. The two sites allow you to interact with people all over the world and learn new and interesting things from them all. What holds the group of people together is the love of the books and the sense of community that the sites have. A sense of togetherness defines a Wheel of Time community. As with all large groups of people there will be conflict. Personalities don't always mesh and fights break out. On the site there are people who try and keep everyone if not together and happy then at least trying to be nice to each other. There are also site rules so that people do not purposely try to hurt other people and to keep things running as smoothly as it can. Sometimes there will be people who come on site just to try and find someone to have sex with but generally they are banned from the site rather quickly.

For me DM is a place to unwind, I have a temper and tend to take offense easily to things. DM very relaxed and easy going which makes my time there more fun. I have only small complaints with people and and I tend to tell everyone whatever I think of them when talks come up. I am one of three most outspoken members on the board. I enjoy my time there because I have a love of the Wheel of time books and i've made many good friends, and several i've met off the boards.

The Me in my Wallet

The Me in my Wallet
Contents: An inspirational prayer, a picture of my Mother, a picture of a young girl, a picture of my brother and myself hugging, a library card, my ID, and a business card for a fairy shop.
My identity as defined by the contents of my wallet could suggest to others that I am close to my family, that I possibly have a child, that I possibly have a boyfriend or husband that I love, that I am a religious person, and that I'm also interested in the occult. Someone seeing those items might also think that I'm overly neat, or that I don't hold on to frivolous things since there are no receipts. There are so many things not said by those items though. Each item, or lack there of, says something very different about who and what I am; yet none of those assumptions are completely accurate.
What that person wouldn't know is that the picture of myself and a man hugging is actually a picture of myself and my brother that I'm very close too. They wouldn't know that the girl is someone I cared for at a previous daycare job, and she gave me the picture when I left. That my mother means more to me then a simple picture can convey, and that her presence, even as a photo, is very comforting to me. They wouldn't know that the inspirational prayer helps me to cope on days when I'm particularly down, and that it is also a comfort to carry near to me. The fairy shop card not only shows my love for the art, but it also shows my deep faith in the pagan religion.
While this is also not all the parts of me, it is a small taste that someone could perceive from the contents of my wallet. It gives a basic sense of what I hold important in my life, because after all, we always keep what is important near to us.

Testing one two three

So this is to see if this works and to get started, i'm new to this whole Blogging thing. :)