An Extended Holiday

There are two theories how the Christmas Mountains in Texas got their name. One says that the peaks resembled a line of Christmas trees. The other rests upon a local legend that really should involve cannibalism.

Local folklore has it that an area ranch family decided to spend the Thanksgiving holidays camping in the mountains and got smacked by a freak blizzard that prevented the family from escaping until Christmas.

The property officially shows up as "Christmas Mountains" in the 1918 Corps of Engineers U.S. Army topographic map and also on the 1904 University of Texas Mineral Survey Map completed by Hill and Udden, according to General Land Office officials.

The land commissioner believes "the family story sounds more plausible than the Christmas trees from a distance story." Christmas trees weren't even introduced to Texas until the middle 1800s, and they didn't become common until the 1920s, he said. [Link]

Why the Hellsterns Hated Christmas

A delightful holiday story from The New York Times of Dec. 27, 1914:

XMAS FATAL TO HELLSTERNS

Widow Fourth of Her Family to Die Suddenly on That Day.

Mrs. Caroline Hellstern, 63 years old, of 28-a First Street, Wechawken, widow of a restaurant proprietor of Union Hill, was stricken with paralysis while attending a family reunion at the home of her son, Dr. Ephraim C. Hellstern, at Palisades Plaza, Hudson Heights, on Christmas Day, and died early yesterday morning in the Hudson Heights Hospital. She was the fourth member of the Hellstern family to die suddenly at Christmas time. Her son, Gustave, died suddenly from heart trouble a year ago, in his drug store at Ridgefield, N. J.; another son, Frederick, died suddenly three years ago, and Mrs. Hellstern, wife of Dr. Hellstern, died four years ago. [Link]

A Rude But Patriotic Awakening

Some residents of Lehi, Utah, are not happy with the city's early-morning Independence Day tradition.

Since the early 1900s, the city's firefighters have greeted every Fourth of July at 6 a.m. by setting off a series of 12 to 15 loud explosions, called salutes, throughout the city. The event is believed to honor a tradition that may have begun by city pioneers in 1876, the country's centennial.

In 1876, the town of approximately 1,200 observed Independence Day by firing 100 guns in honor of the number of years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

For a climactic finish, an anvil was fired by lighting a charge of black powder under it, causing a "clap like thunder." [Link]

Have a Happy Heritage Day

Canadians don't have presidents they can pretend to honor honour, but they do have a holiday next Monday. You can help celebrate Heritage Day by grabbing three days of free access at Ancestry.ca. Then wash it down with a six-pack of Molson while singing "O Canada" in a Mountie uniform.

A Birthday Without a Birth

Presidents Day is ostensibly a birthday celebration, which is strange since no President could possibly have celebrated his birthday on the third Monday in February.

George Washington was born either on February 11, 1731 (according to the old-style Julian calendar, still in use at the time), or on February 22, 1732 (according to the Gregorian calendar, adopted in 1752 throughout the British Empire). Under no circumstances, therefore, can Washington’s birthday fall on Washington’s Birthday, a.k.a. Presidents Day, which, being the third Monday of the month, can occur only between the 15th and the 21st. Lincoln’s birthday, February 12th, doesn’t make it through the Presidents Day window, either. Nor do the natal days of our other two February Presidents, William Henry Harrison (born on the 6th) and Ronald Reagan (the 9th). A fine mess! [Link]

King Outranks General

Today is the 200th anniversary of Confederate General Robert E. Lee's birth. His birthday is celebrated as a state holiday in Georgia—either two months early or ten months late.

It's observed on the day after Thanksgiving, a time when most folks are thinking about Christmas shopping and not infantry maneuvers at Chancellorsville. Lee's birthday celebration was moved after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday became a federal holiday, thus avoiding two days off in the same week. [Link]

Founding Father of Finance Feted

Descendants will gather Thursday at the grave of Alexander Hamilton in Manhattan to commemorate his 250th birthday. The awkwardly named Friends of Alexander Hamilton & Descendants Committee succeeded in making January 11th a city-wide holiday in Paterson, New Jersey—founded by Hamilton in 1792—and members will be present at the Wall Street churchyard to toast his bullet-ridden corpse.

Although Americans say they think like Jeffersonians, they live like Hamiltonians, pundits say. It was this immigrant, from the Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis, who was prescient enough to establish a strong monetary system, which funded American growth and expansion throughout the 19th century and beyond. [Link]

Unfortunately, he was not prescient enough to skip the duel with Aaron "Quick Draw" Burr.

So be sure to pull out a sawbuck and wish Alexander a happy 250th on Thursday. And then be sure to slip it an envelope and mail it to me.

Deals to Die For

From The (Myrtle Beach, S.C.) Sun News of Nov. 26, 2005:

Coffin, gravesite holiday sale sign causes stir

It's that time of year for the annual holiday special at Greenwood Memorial Gardens & Mausoleum - half price on a cemetery plot and deals on vaults and markers.

For years, the cemetery has advertised the special on U.S. 25.

"This is our way of trying to help families out during the holidays," manager Gary Blithe said. "A lot of our customers look forward to this time of year."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

A Holiday Named by Committee

From Taiwan News:

Indigenous peoples given special day

2005-07-26 / Taiwan News, Staff Writer / By Chen Hung-lin

The Executive Yuan has designated August 1 as "Indigenous Peoples Re-designation Day" to accentuate its determination to preserve aboriginal cultures and ways of life and to boost their well-being.

The special day's date was chosen to commemorate August 1, 1994, when the official term used to describe local aborigines was changed from the perjorative "mountain people," or "mountain compatriots," to "indigenous peoples" as part of constitutional amendment.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Does Hallmark make an Indigenous Peoples Re-designation Day card?