Views

Unique Easter traditions from around the globe

19

Easter Sunday is a significant day on the Christian calendar. Easter Sunday will be celebrated on March 31, and many of those celebrations will feature some notable traditions.
Some traditions are undoubtedly familiar to practicing Christians, while others might come as a surprise. As Easter approaches, faithful Christians and others intrigued by the holiday can consider these notable traditions from around the globe.
Easter witches
Witches are typically associated with Halloween, but they play a role in celebrating Easter in Finland. According to the Finland Promotion Board, Easter traditions in the northern European nation feature a mixture of religious references with customs related to the arrival of spring.
It is not unheard of for young Finnish children, particularly girls, to dress up as Easter witches the Sunday before Easter and go from door to door requesting treats in exchange for offerings designed to drive away evil spirits. The FPB notes that it is even common for children in western Finland to don their witch outfits and roam on Easter Sunday.
Fireworks in Florence
The folk tradition of Scoppio del Carro "Explosion of the Cart" takes place in Florence, Italy. The Uffizi Gallery reports that this tradition can be traced to the First Crusade in 1099. During the first Easter in Jerusalem, Crusaders gave the blessed fire to the people as a symbol of purification.
That custom has endured in Florence, where each Easter Sunday morning around 10 a.m. a candle is lit in the church of Santi Apostoli. That same candle is then used to light an antique cart loaded with fireworks, marking the beginning of a display that lasts around 20 minutes.
The Carpets of Semana Santa
Carpets might not be the first thing most Easter celebrants think of when pondering the holiday, but that might be the case for anyone who ever spent the holiday in Antigua, Guatemala. Guatemala's Semana Santa "Easter Festival" features detailed carpets of colored sawdust adorning a Good Friday processional route.
Preparation for the colorful and stunning display begins months in advance as the intricate carpets require ample time to produce.
Whips in the Czech Republic
Among the more unique Easter traditions takes place each Easter Monday in the Czech Republic. In adherence to this tradition, known locally as pomlizka, boys, and sometimes men, gather willow branches and braid them together into whips.
The whips are then decorated with ribbons before boys visit girls (or men visit women) whom they know and lightly tap them with the whips. The tradition is believed to bring women luck, vitality and fertility.
These are just some of the unique traditions many Christians adhere to as part of their Easter celebrations.

Sports betting: Take the money and run

5Hey kids, your first shot of heroin is free. Those were the good old days. You had to go to some grimy dangerous corner to get your heroin.
The rough beast of Sports gambling after slouching towards the NC General Assembly has been legally born.
Just in time for March Madness basketball, you can now bet on sports events from the comfort of your easy chair. Want to double or deplete your kid’s college fund? Bet on whether the guy on the foul line will hit both ends of the one-and-one.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you can’t have missed the constant ads from Draft Kings, Caesar’s Sports Book, ESPN Bet, FanDuel, and multiple other gambling platforms who promise to transfer your money to a faraway casino.
We just enjoyed the Ides of March. Remember when our old buddy Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River? He had his army outside of Rome where legally it was supposed to remain.
He changed the rules and marched into Rome replacing the Republic with the Empire. The General Assembly changed the rules so the nose of the camel of sports gambling is inside NC’s tent.
Can NC Education Casinos be far behind? Any bad habit the General Assembly wants to justify for more tax revenue and personal political contributions can be rationalized by saying “It’s for the children.”
Consider the cleverly named NC Education Lottery for instance. Who is against education?
More state-sanctioned gambling for everyone.
Proponents pushed the bill by saying, “Other states are doing it, why shouldn’t we?”
Remember when Mom said, “If all the other kids were jumping off the roof, would you jump too?” The last one into the betting pool is a rotten egg.
Some of the gambling money is supposed to go to state and local athletic programs. Seems a worthy cause. Don’t the ends always justify the means? Portable ethics are useful when it comes to money for politicians. Ethically sourced free-range gambling has hatched in NC.
“How shall the Sports Books entice people into their parlor?” said the Spider to the Fly.
Like a drug pusher to a new addict, give them the first shot free. Sports Books have come up with a groovy variation of the first shot is free for gambling for potential newbie gambling addicts.
Ponder the Get Rich Quick scheme of “bonus bets.” Instead of opening a vein to inject heroin, the newbie opens an account with the Sports Book funded by any number of fun and exciting methods such as direct deposit of cash from your bank account, credit card, debit card, or just sending money to your Sports Betting account.
Borrow money from your 401K to send to the Sports Book. Bad idea. You will pay taxes and penalties, but if you hit it big you will be on easy street. What could go wrong?
Want free money? Open a betting account, then bet a measly $5 to get $150 in bonus bets. Yowza! Sounds great.
Even if you lose your $5 bet you still get the $150 in bonus bets. It’s like you won $150 from those dummies at the Sports Book. Another casino offers you a 20% bonus bet match if you deposit $1600 in your betting account. That’s $320 of bonus bets.
Now you have almost $2000 in your account to bet. What a great return on your investment.
How can the casinos do this? It’s because they can do math. If you keep betting, ultimately you will lose, and they will win.
Like everything that sounds too good to be true, there is a catch. You can’t withdraw any of your gifted bonus bets in cash.
It’s limited money, you can’t spend it on food or shelter. You can only spend it at the Sports Book company store by betting within 7 days or it vanishes.
Bet Now!
Maybe you will win lots more. Wouldn’t that be exciting? But maybe you won’t. You may win a gambling habit you can’t break.
Send your money to Vlad the 401K Impaler in Las Vegas.
If he does his job, he will keep you betting until you are up to your ears in debt. He will whisper sweet nothings and drip bonus bets into your account. Let the Casino Vampires suck your finances dry. If you can’t go to the casinos, the casinos will come to your smartphone. Count Dracula of Sports Booksylvania loves fresh blood.
Some people, once they use heroin, keep using it despite the grief it causes.
Likewise, some people, once they start phone betting on sports, keep betting despite the grief it causes.
The kids’ college fund gone? Bank accounts emptied? Credit cards maxed out? Cash advances cashed out? Depressed? Anxious? Can’t sleep?
Here is a way to get it back. Double down on your bets. Chase your losses.
Borrow money from friends and relatives. The Sports Book may give you more bonus bets to keep you betting.
They will love you long time until you are broke. Then they send the collection agencies after you.

Winners still flirt with swing voters

6Carolina Journal’s first post-primary survey is out. It shows our state’s 2024 general elections will be, as usual, quite competitive.
That’s not to say North Carolina’s electorate is perfectly purple. It’s not. All other things being equal, Republicans enjoy a modest edge statewide of a few percentage points. As John Locke Foundation analyst Andy Jackson points out, GOP candidates won 46 of the 74 statewide contests held from 2012 to 2022, or 62%.
It’s with that context in mind that I offer these findings from the latest CJ Poll of 600 likely voters, conducted on March 6 and 7. It shows Donald Trump leading Joe Biden 45% to 40% in North Carolina. Similarly, GOP gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson currently leads Democrat Josh Stein 44% to 39%.
In generic-ballot tests, Republicans enjoy six-point advantages for both state legislature and U.S. House. And in three Council of State races, the GOP nominees have sizable leads in the early going: Luke Farley (42%) over Braxton Winston (35%) for labor commissioner, Brad Briner (43%) over Wesley Harris (37%) for state treasurer, and Mike Causey (43%) over Natasha Marcus (37%) for insurance commissioner.
On the other hand, three other statewide races are closer to neck-and-neck, with the Republicans at 41% and the Democrats at 39%. They are, respectively, Dan Bishop vs. Jeff Jackson for attorney general, Jefferson Griffin vs. Allison Riggs for state supreme court, and Michelle Morrow vs. Democrat Mo Green for state superintendent of public instruction.
I gave you the percentage of respondents, not just the point spread, to emphasize that all these races remain competitive! That’s because many voters have yet to commit to either major party’s candidates. Even in the highest-profile contests, for president and governor, they constitute about 15% of the sample — and remember, these are likely voters, not just registered voters.
Some told CJ’s polling partner Cygnal that they were truly undecided. Other voters said they were planning to vote for someone else. When it comes right down to it, some of these ambivalent North Carolinians will, in fact, stay home this fall. Others may follow through on their third-party preference, although I doubt it will be the 9% currently saying that for president. The rest will swing R or D.
When “experts” tell you swing voters don’t exist anymore, that modern politics is all about turning out partisan bases, you should discount their opinions — at least for our state. North Carolinians know late-deciders and split-ticket voters still matter because we have eyes. We see that Roy Cooper won the gubernatorial elections in 2016 and 2020 — as Josh Stein did for attorney general those years — even as Trump was winning the state’s electoral votes.
Interestingly, across the 11 states that once formed the Confederacy, Democrats currently hold just four statewide offices comparable to North Carolina’s Council of State. Actually, scratch that. The four Southern Democrats in question aren’t just comparable to our Council of State. They are on our Council of State: Cooper, Stein, Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, and State Auditor Jessica Holmes (who was appointed after Democrat Beth Woods resigned and will be on your ballot this fall).
Democrats routinely win some state races here by finding ways to appeal to our small, but often decisive, group of swings. In their write-up of the new CJ Poll, Cygnal described the state of play as follows. North Carolina’s GOP base comprises 41% of likely voters. The Democratic base is 38%. The remaining 21% are “Persuadables.” They tilt Republican in generic races but are willing to support Democratic politicians they perceive as sensible or effective. For example, two-thirds of Persuadables disapprove of President Biden’s job performance but a similar number approve of Cooper’s.
I used to describe North Carolina’s true political color as magenta. But then I spent more time researching colors — I live to serve you, the reader — and discovered another purplish shade that’s more red than blue. It’s just the right fit.
It’s called “flirt.”

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Publisher's Pen: The Fayetteville Dogwood Festival: Consultants don't get it!

4Fayetteville needs the Dogwood Festival.
Unfortunately, it has fallen victim to a community that lacks proactive municipal leadership and embraces an apathetic philosophy that sees little value in community involvement or commitment. How does a successful 42-year-old community-wide family festival that attracts over 300,000 attendees over a two-and-a-half-day weekend, go from being recognized as North Carolina’s most outstanding, award-winning outdoor festival, to a debt-ridden shadow of its previous self with its future hanging in the balance?
Well, it's not that difficult when municipal leadership ignores the need to preserve Fayetteville traditions that once celebrated, showcased, and defined the Fayetteville community, its citizens, art, and culture.
My involvement with the Dogwood Festival goes back to the Sunday on the Square days of the early eighties, and the Cow Chip Bingo fundraisers of the nineties. This was a time when elected officials from Fayetteville and Cumberland County joined prominent residents, business leaders, the Chamber of Commerce, and civic organizations like the Kiwanis Clubs and came together for what was recognized as the grandest social event of the year.
This was a time when it was an honor to be asked to serve on the Dogwood Festival Committee, and a privilege to be working as a Festival volunteer. Now, the future of the Dogwood Festival is in jeopardy.
Fayetteville city officials generously and needlessly wasted $20,000 of taxpayers' money on an out-of-state consulting company to find out what’s ailing the Dogwood Festival and to make recommendations on how their situation can be remedied to again produce a successful fun family festival. Well, in the future, the City (and County) may want to consider another solution when faced with a perplexing problem or they are in search of advice.
Of course, this recommendation only works BEFORE spending thousands of dollars on out-of-town consultants who are unfamiliar with our unique community. When faced with a difficult decision or complex problem Fayetteville’s elected officials need to treat themselves to breakfast at JK’s Deli, MaryBills Café, Fireside, Zorba’s, or Lindy’s restaurants, and while enjoying their breakfast they should engage in a conversation with local Fayetteville patrons and hear what they have to say about important community issues. Ask them for their ideas and insights.
Without a doubt, their input and insights would be far more accurate and honest than any outside consulting source. And it this information would be FREE! In the case of the Dogwood Festival, Fayetteville residents would gladly provide honest, valid information and common-sense solutions and recommendations on how to rejuvenate and operate the festival. This information would be much more credible than any of the high-priced, out-of-town consultants who only provide costly generic boilerplate propositions. Many residents suspect that elected officials hire consultants as a convenient way to shed their responsibilities, hide their ignorance of complex issues, and “pass the buck” to avoid making tough decisions they don’t want to take responsibility for.
Hiring consultants is the perfect vehicle for allowing them to skirt their sworn oath responsibilities.
Every consultant has a “strategic plan” in their bag. Fayetteville’s City Hall houses dozens upon dozens of “strategic plans” that have been hatched over the past three decades. I can pretty much assure you each of them heralds the same content as pertains to the mission of
1. Defining who we are as a community.
2. Identify the community assets.
3. Establishing our BRAND, and
4. Market and promote the community to enhance our image and BRAND.
Sound familiar?
Well, I’ll conclude this message with a reminder to the Mayor and members of the Fayetteville City Council. We have already defined our community and accomplished many of the goals of these strategic plans over a decade ago, and we did it with only six words: Fayetteville and Cumberland County is a community of History, Heroes, and a Hometown Feeling. That’s a pretty definitive statement and I challenge any outside consultant to do better at any price.
Kudos to Board Members Jackie Tuckey and Andrew Porter for their hard work and dedication to the Dogwood Festival which has lacked a full-time paid executive director for nearly a year. They know how important this event is to promoting the community, and especially Fayetteville’s Downtown District.
Note to consultants: Moving the Dogwood Festival out of Downtown Fayetteville is a non-starter. This year, the event is scheduled for the weekend of April 26th – 28th. We will be there, and we hope to see you there celebrating our History, Heroes, and Hometown Feeling!
Thank you for reading Up & Coming Weekly community newspaper.

Disappointing primaries lacked substance

N2403P04001CParty nominations for North Carolina’s 2024 elections are, for the most part, decided. Just four races remain to be settled in runoffs on May 14. So, would you say you’re generally satisfied or dissatisfied with our primaries this year?

Here’s my answer to the question: I’m deeply disappointed. It’s not that all the candidates I favored lost their primaries.

Many of my picks were, in fact, successful. My principal concern about the 2024 cycle so far is its remarkable — and dangerous — lack of substance.

I don’t expect campaigns for county commissioner, state legislature, Congress, or president to consist of Socratic dialogues or PowerPoint presentations. Resumes matter. Personalities matter. Rapport with average voters matters. And as long as politicians have competed for power, they’ve slung mud. Ancient Greek and Roman orators used to call each other the foulest of names.

But as I watched our political primaries unfold this year, I was struck by the shallowness of the discourse about such momentous issues as learning losses during COVID, deadly wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and, especially, the fiscal recklessness of the federal government.

After decades of largely theoretical debates about the federal debt, Americans are rapidly approaching the moment in which massive federal deficits will trigger a series of painful decisions.

There will be automatic cuts to Social Security and Medicare benefits. Or Congress will enact massive tax increases. Or the Federal Reserve will attempt to monetize the debt, fueling new and devastating rounds of inflation.

Paul Winfree, a former White House aide who now runs the Economic Policy Innovation Center, puts the matter starkly in a new report. Over the next 15 years, he writes, scheduled federal deficits will largely exhaust America’s “fiscal space” — our capacity to finance public debt without great economic harm.
Politicians of all stripes offer stock “answers” to this problem that no longer make any sense, if they ever did. For example, while faster economic growth would make it easier to accommodate future borrowing, we cannot simply grow our way out of the federal debt. It’s too big. Washington will have to spend a lot less than currently projected, particularly on health programs, to bring the budget anywhere close to balance.

Nor is it possible to make much a dent in the problem by taxing the wealthy more. Federal deficits are running about 6% of the gross domestic product and will rise to 10% by mid-century. According to Manhattan Institute fiscal analyst Brian Riedl, hiking taxes on wealthy Americans — those earning in excess of $400,00 annually, let’s say — can increase federal revenue no more than 2% of GDP, and probably closer to 1% using realistic expectations.

“Most of America’s income is earned by the non-wealthy,” Riedl wrote, “and, like Scandinavia and most of Europe, the U.S. will need to tax those families considerably to meet any ambitious revenue needs.”
Although candidates for federal office have the greatest responsibility to explain how they’d tackle the problem — a responsibility that, with few exceptions, they’ve shirked — even candidates for state and local office in North Carolina aren’t really off the hook. Federal aid (which you can properly think of as federal borrowing) currently finances nearly as much of the state budget as state taxes do. It also makes up a sizable share of local budgets.

What happens if (or, more likely, when) future presidents and Congresses opt to close federal deficits in part by cutting back on aid to states and localities?

For example, North Carolina just expanded our Medicaid program under the terms of the Affordable Care Act, which reimburses previously ineligible people — mostly childless, able-bodied adults — at a much higher rate than, say, poor children or the severely disabled.

It is very likely that future federal policymakers will resolve this bizarre disparity by slashing federal funds for Medicaid. How will North Carolina policymakers make up the difference?

I wish these and other weighty issues had been front and center during the primaries. They weren’t.

Editor’s note: John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His latest books, Mountain Folk and Forest Folk, combine epic fantasy with early American history (FolkloreCycle.com).

Latest Articles

  • Gallery 208: Beyond Surface: Abstractions by Kellie Perkins
  • Kindah Temple No. 62 hosts annual Spring Ceremonial
  • FTCC Foundation invests in students’ futures
  • Unique Easter traditions from around the globe
  • Flawless Touch Detailing celebrates new location
  • CFRT: The Play That Goes Wrong...Again
Up & Coming Weekly Calendar
  

Advertise Your Event:

 

Login/Subscribe