HOPPIN’ JOHN

 

Welcome in the New Year with Hoppin’ John, a traditional New Year’s Day dish, and luck will follow you all year long!

WHAT IS HOPPIN’ JOHN?

Hoppin’ John is a dish traditionally eaten in the southern United States on New Year’s Day. Dating back to the early 1800s, it is made with black-eyed peas (aka cow peas), rice, and meat (usually pork, in the form of bacon or ham). The meal can also include collard greens and corn bread.

Hoppin’ John is also known as “Happy Jack,” “Happy John,” and “Hop-in-John.”

WHEN DO YOU EAT HOPPIN’ JOHN?

For some, the tradition of eating Hoppin’ John begins at midnight (New Year’s Eve), when the dish is served with a Champagne toast.

New Year’s Day is the traditional day to eat Hoppin’ John. Any leftover can be enjoyed on later days, but be aware that the name of the dish changes to Skippin’ Jenny. Stretching the dish into leftovers demonstrates your sense of frugality and promises even greater prosperity in the new year!

WHAT MAKES HOPPIN’ JOHN SPECIAL?

The ingredients in Hoppin’ John have symbolic importance, and eating this dish on New Year’s Day portends good fortune in the new year:

• black-eyed peas represent coins
• collard greens represent green backs (dollars), or cash
• corn bread represents gold
• pork—especially ham hocks—recall the cheap cuts of meat provided to slaves
• tomatoes, if included, represent health
• Sometimes, the cook slips a dime into the dish before serving. It is said that wealth awaits the diner who gets the dime (and hopefully not a chipped tooth).

Some say that good luck visits those who count the black-eyed peas on their plate for a hint at the amount of luck or wealth that will ensue. 

The custom of eating all but three of the black-eyed peas on your plate promises a trio of benefits—luck, wealth, and romance.

Legend has it that Sephardic Jews served black-eyed peas during Rosh Hashanah in the hope of fertility and good fortune.

Black-eyed peas are the main ingredient in Hoppin’ John.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF HOPPIN’ JOHN?

Hoppin’ John is considered Southern cuisine, mainly associated with North and South Carolina, but especially the Sea Islands, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Historians believe that the recipe was created by African slaves, who introduced black-eyed peas to America and grew them in small gardens on rice plantations. Some sources suggest that cattle grazed on black-eyed peas in the Carolinas in the early 1700s. The peas helped to suppress weeds and added nutrition to the soil, and therefore the livestock.

The first appearance of the recipe for Hoppin’ John occurred in 1847 in a book titled “The Carolina Housewife.”

WHERE DOES THE NAME HOPPIN’ JOHN COME FROM?

• One source suggests that “Hoppin’ John” was a handicapped man who cooked and sold the dish in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1841.
• One tradition has children hopping around the dinner table as the dish was brought in from the kitchen.
• A more dubious explanation suggests that in South Carolina it was customary to invite a guest to dinner by saying, “Hop in, John.”

Recipe for Hoppin John https://www.southernliving.com/recipes/classic-hoppin-john-recipe

Carry on, bake on, decorate on..

 

Making Soup 

Throughout these last months with all the death and destruction around us, I didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t sound shallow. I am 75 (soon to be 76), have some friends left, and have an income that covers my modest needs. I worked for it, survived nearly 30 years in a demanding work place and am fortunate (so far) that the university hasn't yanked the pensions away from the lower level peons. But that also doesn’t speak to the suffering and the grieving that I see around me. The things that anger me seem so petty when I look at the pile up of disasters facing all of us in this winter of 2020.

Sunrise, Sunset. 

Then, I found this via the Internet  - not mine. I wish I wrote this well (Rachel is facing surgery and I urge everybody to go to her page, read her marvelous columns and contribute what they can) 

http://www.handsfreemama.com/2015/12/04/clues-to-cling-to-when-facing-lifes-mysteries/

No matter what mysteries we face today, there are clues all around us indicating hope is near … goodness is abundant … and we are being held in loving, faithful hands.

"My friends, whether we are facing small mysteries or gigantic ones … whether they’re mysteries for ourselves, our loved ones, or the world in its most troubling state, I am certain this is how we must deal. We must:

Carry on
Bake on
Sing on
Decorate on
Strum on
Praise on
Pray on
Dance on
Love on
Believe on
Twinkle on
Inhale on
Exhale on

Because when we do, our people are thankful we joined in.

Because when we do, we see, taste, and smell beautiful things we might have missed.

Because when we do, angst diminishes and hope swells.

Because when we do, the beautiful Evidence of Life becomes stronger than any troubling mystery we face.

I am a medical mystery. I face a medical mystery. But nothing will stop me from carrying on. Please join me, friends. Let’s carry on. Together, hope swells higher."

https://www.handsfreemama.com/blog/

Félix Edouard Vallotton. Born December 28, 1865

Sunset

Félix Vallotton, in full Félix Edouard Vallotton, (born December 28, 1865, Lausanne, Switzerland—died December 28, 1925, Paris, France), Swiss-born French graphic artist and painter known for his paintings of nudes and interiors and in particular for his distinctive woodcuts.  

He was born into a conservative middle-class family in Lausanne, and there he attended Collège Cantonal, graduating with a degree in classical studies in 1882. In that year he moved to Paris to study art under Jules Joseph Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger at the Académie Julian. He spent many hours in the Louvre, where he greatly admired the works of Holbein, Dürer and Ingres; these artists would remain exemplars for Vallotton throughout his life. Vallotton's earliest paintings, chiefly portraits, are firmly rooted in the academic tradition. In 1885 he painted the Ingresque Portrait of Monsieur Ursenbach as well as his first painted self-portrait (seen at left), which received an honorable mention at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1886.

 Vallotton worked in woodcut almost exclusively throughout the 1890s. In 1892 he began associating with a group of artists called the Nabis (from Hebrew navi, meaning “prophet,” or “seer”)—Édouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, and Maurice Denis. Vallotton exhibited with them for the first time that year at Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Though only loosely affiliated with the group, Vallotton, like them, looked to Symbolist artists and to the Japanese tradition of woodcut. Both stressed the flatness of the surface and the use of simplified abstract forms, strong lines (evident in Vallotton’s prints), and bold colors. 

“I think I paint for people who are level-headed but who have an unspoken vice deep inside them,”

Road at St Paul (Var) 1922 

Le Bois de la Gruerie et le ravin des Meurissons (1917)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Vallotton

Internet Archive here

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Felix-Vallotton

Feast day of St John the Evangelist , as celebrated by the Anglo-Saxons.

 

A 9th-century Anglo-Saxon eagle of St John the Evangelist (found Brandon, Suffolk) for his feast day, 27 December :

britishmuseum.org/collection/obj….......

St John the Evangelist with his eagle in the 8th-century Lindisfarne Gospels (MS Cotton Nero D IV, f. 209v): bl.uk/manuscripts/Vi…

A 9th-century Anglo-Saxon gold finger-ring bezel from Surrey showing the eagle of St John the Evangelist: britishmuseum.org/collection/obj…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Evangelist

Su Shi, also known as Su Tung-p’o

  

Calligraphy by Su Tung-p’o

It's Boxing Day and the first day of Kwanza but this poet's delicate melancholy spoke to me. The year that is passing, not quickly enough, brought tragedy, challenges and, for many of us, the horror of an administration that was corrupt as that of any in the world. It's not over yet and who knows what horrors await us but in the mean time, appreciate this poet who lived through times of adversity and triumph.  His delicate melancholy spoke to me

"Su Shi (also known as Su Tung-p’o) lived in China over 900 years ago during the Sung Dynasty, yet the poems in this collection feel strikingly fresh and contemporary. Burton Watson’s sympathetic translations wonderfully capture the spirit of this humble poet and civil servant whose strength and compassion remained constant through times of both prosperity and adversity. Some of the poems’ recurrent themes include the passage of time as revealed by seasonal change, nights of drinking and conviviality, visits to area temples, and journeys up mountains and down rivers. According to Watson’s informative introduction, Su Tung-p’o’s poems also included more detailed observations of the natural world than are typically found in the poems of his predecessors or contemporaries." (from the blog A Reading Life)

As evening clouds withdraw a clear cool air floods in the jade wheel passes silently across the Silver River this life this night has rarely been kind
where will we see this moon next year?

Mountain Path in Spring by Ma Yuan

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don't know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so the fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorrow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks lustre, brightly shines; is all, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

http://www.poemhunter.com/su-tung-po/biography/

https://areadinglife.com/2011/04/27/heartwood-1-6-su-tung-po/

http://mypoeticside.com/poets/su-tung-po-poems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Su_Shi

http://musingsofhanme.blogspot.com/

Merry Christmas

The Nativity According to Luke: For unto us a child is given. 

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)  And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.  He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.  While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,  and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.  This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.  The Gospel According to Luke

http://www.cbn.com/special/TheNativityMovie/articles/Bekker_Birth_of_Jesus.aspx

Masaccio. First great painter of the Italian Renaissance.

 

San Giovenale Triptych (1422)

December 21, 1401. Masaccio (Italian: December 21, 1401 - summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at imitating nature, recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense of three-dimensionality. Masaccio died at twenty-six and little is known about the exact circumstances of his death (although it was probably the plague).

Careful, solemn Adoration of the Magi, 1426, by Masaccio, born OTD in 1401. Look at alternating red/black of men's hose, white/black of horses' (& human) legs. Also Mary's A+ folding chair.

One King having his crown removed so he can approach a greater one. Lovely moment from Masaccio.

Baby J, not looking too happy. Probably making himself sick on grapes!

The Tribute Money

Masaccio profoundly influenced the art of painting in the Renaissance. According to Vasari, all "most celebrated" Florentine "sculptors and painters" studied his frescoes extensively in order to "learn the precepts and rules for painting well." He transformed the direction of Italian painting, moving it away from the idealizations of Gothic art, and, for the first time, presenting it as part of a more profound, natural, and humanist world. Moreover, Masaccio influenced a great many artists both while he was alive and posthumously. His influence is particularly notable in the works of Florentine minor masters, such as Andrea di Giusto, Giovanni dal Ponte, and others who attempted to replicate his glowing, lifelike forms.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaccio

First great painter of the Italian Renaissance: http://www.initaly.com/regions/tuscany/masaccioalbm.htm

Joshua Johnson of Baltimore, first successful African-American portrait painter

John Jacob Anderson and his sons John and Edward. Painted by Joshua Johnson of Baltimore, first successful African-American portrait painter, born (possibly) on this day in 1763.

Johnson, the son of an enslaved woman and a White man, was the first known African American artist in the United States to earn his living as a professional portrait painter. He worked in Baltimore, Maryland, from about 1789 to 1825, painting likenesses of diverse sea captains, shopkeepers, as well as merchants and their families. In his paintings,  Johnson demonstrated his affinity for bright, strong colors and precise detail. There is an air of stillness, of suspended action, in Johnson’s portraits that is emphasized here by the intensity of the subjects’ gazes.

A little girl in the garden, with her own very cheerful butterfly, in 1805.

Adelia Ellender, making sure that you pay attention to her friend the butterfly.

Charles Burnett, painted in 1812

Portrait, possibly of minister Daniel Coker. One of only two portraits by Joshua Johnson with an African-American sitter.

Grace Allison McCurdy & daughters Mary Jane & Letitia in 1806. Baltimore's high society in all its low-key charm, and with its strawberries, as painted by Joshua Johnson, #BTD 1763.

Though questions about his identity and whether or not certain works should be attributed to him remain, Joshua Johnston (1765-1830) is considered to be the first African American portrait artist of distinction.

Joshua Johnston may or may not have been the first African American artist of distinction, and conflicting evidence about his identity, race, and work continue to exist. Many unsigned late eighteenth-century and early-nineteenth century family portraits are attributed to him. Nonetheless, a man in post-colonial Baltimore named Joshua Johnson or Johnston was listed in directories of the time and who, on at least two occasions, advertised himself as a portraitist. This man has since been assigned credit for a body of work and is universally included in histories of African-American art.

https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1425.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Johnson_(painter)

https://americanart.si.edu/artist/joshua-johnson-2479

Io Saturnalia

 

Today is the first day of Saturnalia, the holiday to beat all holidays, the festival the poet Catullus called it "the best of days". (Catullus, XIV) . Saturnalia, held in mid-December, is an ancient Roman pagan festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn. Saturnalia celebrations are the source of many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas.

It's the predecessor to Christmas, the Roman equivalent to the earlier Greek holiday of Kronia, and a week long carnival where everything was enjoyed to the max. 

Temple of Saturn. 

It began on December 17th (on the Julian calendar), as a religious festival to the god Saturn involving a sacrifice at the temple, a public banquet, gift-giving and continual partying. The clearly enjoyable aspect of this holiday meant it eventually expanded to an entire week. 

1. Saturnalia began as a farmers’ festival to mark the end of autumn planting, in honor of Saturn, who was a god of agriculture.

2. The first Saturnalia was in 497BC when the Temple of Saturn in Rome was dedicated.

3. Starting as a one-day feast, it expanded to three days, then a whole week, from December 17 to 23.

4. The 1st century Latin poet Catullus described Saturnalia week as “the best of days.”

5. During Saturnalia is was customary for slaves and masters to exchange roles, with the slaves relaxing as their masters did the cooking for them.

6. The standard greeting during this period was “Io Saturnalia!”

7. There is a theory that Santa Claus’s ‘Ho, ho, ho’ has its origins in this cry of “Io”.

8. The 2nd century Greek poet Lucian told us that the serious is barred and no business allowed at Saturnalia but singing naked is encouraged.

9. Each household would elect a King of Chaos or King of Misrule to preside over the festivities.

10. The celebration of Christmas on December 25, just after Saturnalia, began in Rome after the conversion of Emperor Constantine in AD312.

Catullus gets annoyed at a friend for his miserly gift on  Saturnalia  

https://thebookbindersdaughter.com/2017/12/03/io-saturnalia-my-translation-of-catullus-poem-14a/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturnalia-Roman-festival

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia

https://www.ancient.eu/Saturnalia/