Early St. Patrick's Day traditions.

Hore Abbey, Cashel Ireland.  Photo: www.pdphoto.com

By the 17th century, St. Patrick’s Day was still primarily a religious holiday, marked with a special Mass and religious symbolism. Secular celebrations of the holiday fed off of and extended the religious activity, and included processions to the church, which undoubtedly became the popular parades of today.  Instead of wearing green, 17th century upper and middle class Irishmen and women made and wore crosses on badges, probably using the popular Celtic cross, while the lower class residents pinned a shamrock to their hat for the day.  Due to pressure from England to abandon the Irish language and culture, the shamrock was becoming a nationalist symbol for the Irish.

The history of St. Patrick's Day celebrations.

Cross, Rock of Cashel, Ireland.  www.pdphoto.com

St. Patrick's Day is one of the most widely-celebrated holidays in the United States.  Many traditions are gleefully kept every year on March 17th, and people often think that the activities and symbols now associated with the day have been part of St. Patrick’s Day from its beginning as a holiday.  However, with a little research, the history of St. Patrick’s Day begins to come to light, and it reveals that many of the things we associate with the day are neither particularly Irish, nor particularly old! 

3rd Annual Cat Rescue Tea in San Jose

AntiqueClipArt.com

*** Spend an afternoon sipping Tea for a cause… ***

13th St Cat Rescue Tea
Saturday March 19th 2011
Seating at 2:00pm 
$25.00 includes a full afternoon Tea
At a historic private residence & San Jose Landmark

Please join us as we raise money for our very own 13th St Cat Rescue. 

Spend an afternoon sipping tea in an opulent Victorian landmark located in the Hensley Historic District of San Jose. 

Enjoy a delicious selection of savory Tea Sandwiches, savory treats, Scone with butter, jam and lemon curd, petite dessert, handmade Chocolate, fresh fruit & nut cup. All served accompanied by a lovely selection of Teas.

There is limited seating available, so please reserve and purchase your seats early. We highly suggest that you place your orders as a group (one person purchasing for all in their group, so that we can insure that you are seated together). 

AntiqueClipArt.com 

Log onto our donation page to reserve & purchase your Tea seating: http://www.13thstcats.org/info/display?PageID=10167

This event is lovingly coordinated by the Friends of 13th Street Cat Rescue. 

Thank you for your support! 

March Tea and Craft Workshop in San Jose!

AntiqueClipArt.com

Join the South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild for our March meeting.  We'll be making a Victorian tussie-mussie of cute paper flowers! 

Crepe Paper Flower Workshop: we’ll prepare for spring by making a bouquet of paper flowers.  Older children welcome!

Date: March 12, 2011. 2 p.m.
Location: a private home in San Jose.  E-mail the South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild for the address. 
Tickets: $20 (Ladies' Tea Guild members)/$25 (non-members)
Suggested Costume: modern dress. 

Please R.S.V.P. and send your food and supply fees by Thursday, March 10, 2011.  We need to know how many people will attend so that we can make the food and purchase the workshop supplies!  We can accept checks as well as payment through PayPal.  Contact the South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild for more information. 

Tips for a Retro-Industrial Steampunk party.

Astronomical clock, Prague. 
Photo: Ian Britton, www.FreeFoto.com

When planning your steampunk festivities, you should let your imagination play while planning the menu, entertainment and decorations.  If you have a Victorian or retro-industrial space in your home, then you are more than halfway to your goal of creating a steampunk-appropriate venue for your party.  The addition of a few more accessories, like vintage international travel posters, railroad, airplane, steamship or hot-air balloon memorabilia, or interesting Victorian bric-a-brac will finish your space nicely.  If your home is more modern than steampunk, you can work with your living room, back or front yard, or even your garage, to create the right ambiance.  Outdoor spaces, especially, can often be made to look like the "wilderness" or a "crash landing site" fairly easily.  Another venue idea -- especially if you're planning a big bash -- is to rent an empty airplane hangar, warehouse, or other old industrial space.

Giving a Steampunk Tea.

"A Lady at Her Dressing Table in the Year 2000"
from postcard ca. 1900.  Photo: Denise Tortorici.

Jules Verne, the 19th century science fiction writer and author of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, was born in February of 1828.  He wrote of space and time travel in an era when that was impossible, and used his novels to describe strange lands and technology in a Victorian aesthetic, but with an eye to the possibilities of future scientific and mechanical inventions.  His works were considered strange in their day, but his novels have received an upsurge of attention in the past 30 years, with the development of the “Steampunk” fantasy literary genre.  Steampunk style is created when a person imagines what life would be like in the 1880s and 1890s if Jules Verne’s ideas and contraptions were successfully translated into real technology, using only the energy sources of the 19th century, like steam, fire, gravity, wind, sun, and water.  This is the “steam” part of “Steampunk;” the “punk” part is what happens when a person builds something that brings these Victorian science fiction ideas to life, especially by taking apart real objects of the era and re-fashioning them into the new/old creation.  There is an element of the "mad scientist" in Steampunk! 

Having dim sum for Asian New Year?

Dim sum in Hong Kong.  Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Many people in the South Bay are celebrating Asian New Year this week, entertaining friends and family with lots of food and tea.  While the local Filipino and Vietnamese communities are also celebrating, the Asian New Year is primarily associated with the Chinese and Taiwanese communities in the Santa Clara Valley.  The San Jose area has many independent Chinese and Taiwanese food shops and restaurants where locals go, and dim sum is especially popular for the New Year holiday, washed down with lots of tea.  Here are only a few of the favorite local places to buy dim sum to-go; only a few of them offer eat-in amenities: