A History of Halloween

As the seasons have been turning, I have frequently wondered about the origin of Halloween.  Halloween has never been one of my favorite holidays because of the creepiness and sweets, yet I still have a slight fondness for it because of the dressing up and ambiance of lit candles, pumpkins and gourds.  Given how many holidays have a ‘deeper meaning’/’real story’, which may not at first be apparent at first sight, I decided this whole Halloween business called for some investigating…

The True Story of Halloween:

Once upon a time, in a distant land, there was an ancient people called the Celts.  They divided the year into halves, with celebrations of Samhain and Beltane.  This tale involves Samhain…  The celebration of the summers end and winters onset.  Beltane celebrating prosperity, bounty and the warmth of the spring/summer season, and Samhain, marking the chill, death, decay and hardships of autumn and winter.  When the eve of Samhain fell, spirits of the netherworld shared the world equally with the living.

It was a strong time for magic.  Druids performed fire rituals with roaring bonfires, blood sacrifices, purification and divinations.  They incited the energy of the sun to aid them.  Spirits were also called upon for insight, wisdom and protection from evil ‘demonic’ spirits also roaming in the night.

Villagers would dress in costumes to disguise themselves from evil entities to prevent possession.  Children would go from door to door asking for a food called soul cakes to offer and honor the dead.  Candles would be lit within carved gourds to ward off unfriendly spirits.  Villagers would attempt their own divinations with eggs, apples and hazel nuts.  Candy was an offering to nourish deceased loved ones, and to solace unruly spirits.

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After discovering all of these things, I have decided my celebration of Halloween needs some adjustment.  I’m going to further research specifics of the traditional celebration such as food, decor and music, and plan a new kind of celebration accordingly.  Stayed tuned for more…

 

My Application of Physics to Physical Activities

Every Thursday, I take a tennis class and yoga lesson.  These activities have been teaching me a lot about correct ways to perform movements, and the reasoning behind the techniques.  As of late, they have enabled me to become much more self aware.    One difficulty I have encountered in both, is properly balancing myself.  In tennis, an issue I have been struggling with is ‘coiling’ my body to exert more force when hitting the ball.  In yoga, I have had issues ‘centering’ myself in order to remain grounded enough to maintain certain poses.  I have been taking a basic physics class this semester, and during the past week, the topic has focused on forces, and their interactions with objects, and their motions.  I enjoy thinking about physics, and this week, during my lessons, I had forces on the brain, and attempted to apply my new knowledge.

At tennis class, I concluded that Isaac Newton’s 2nd law, F=ma, is the reason for the technique of coiling.  Coiling increases your acceleration, because uncoiling involves a change in direction and a change in velocity, which are both accelerations, therefore increasing the total force you can apply to the ball.  Also, I realized that normal force is a reason behind why you should push one leg off the ground when uncoiling.  Normal force, is the force applied by an object to its supporting surface.  According to Newton’s 3rd law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, the same amount of force you push off the ground with, should be applied back to you, by the ground.  This would, therefore, also increase the amount of force able to be exerted upon the ball.

In the yoga lesson, I felt that the concepts of normal force and Newton’s 3rd law could be applied as well.  Both could explain my current inability to properly balance.  Standing incorrectly, could, instead of evenly distributing my weight, focus it all on one particular area, causing a massive force on one particular part of my body, straining it, instead of alleviating the stress by spreading the force out over a larger area. If I could manage to focus, and evenly distribute my weight, my balance should drastically improve.