A Masked Celebration

I have been to Venice only once and was nowhere near the time for Carnevale, or as tomorrow is called Martedi Gasso. I remember wanting to come back one day to be part of these event as it is deeply rooted in the history of the city and its culture.

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Carnevale dates back to the 1100's when the Republic of Venice was one of the most important in the world and became a center of art, culture and politics. Due to the growing fame of the event, many laws were issued in order to protect the participants and the city like forbidding the use of vulgar disguises or using the masks for other reason that Carnevale.

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One of the most important events during the celebration is called "Il Volo dell'Angelo" or the "Flight of the Angel" which is done at the opening ceremony. Here a woman dressed in a period costume descend from the San Marco bell tower to salute the Doge {these days a person appointed for that role} to pay homage to him.

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The celebrations last for about two and a half weeks {ending the day before Lent begins.. today!}, including the opening ceremony on the last Saturday of January, cultural events, art exhibits all over the city, and traditional events like parades down the Grand Canal and on the Lake. 

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Masks and costumes are the best know symbols of Carnevale and one of the main attractions. There is no actual record of when people started to dress up, but it is believed that it was done to hide yourself from the strict class laws of the city as well as to enjoy the pleasures present in Venetian society {very naughty if you ask me!}.

Have a fun and go out to celebrate!

Saint Lucia

Last year I discovered a beautiful tradition from Sweden that I promised to myself tell you all about it this year. Sain Lucia Day or Lucy is the official start of the Holiday season and it's the commemoration of the life of a girl of the same name.

 

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The celebration is rooted in Catholic and Lutheran medieval traditions and some pagan as well. On December 13, a girl named Lucia was burned for her beliefs and became a celebration that revolved around the winter solstice.

 

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It's pagan roots come from the folklore belief that goblins and evel powers came out to play around the winter solstice. People were especially careful to guard themselves from these creatures and held feasts because they didn't know their future.

 

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Today's celebration has lived on and become something really to look at. The ceremony is presided by a girl dressed up in a white gown with a wreath decorated with candles on her head. They hold parades all over the country singing Lucia songs and Carols.

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Of course there is food involved in this celebration and it's called Lussebulle or Lucia Bun, which is a safron infues bun decorated with raisins that goes perfectly with a warm drink {maybe mulled wine!} that makes you feel very Christmasy. If you live near a Lutheran Swedish Church or there's a Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish or German community you might catch one f these celebrations.

 

Have a beautiful day!

Happy Hanukkah!

I love that this time of the year is the holiday season for many of us. Saturday started the Festival of the Lights or Hanukkah, which will extend until the 16th of December.

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For those who don't know much about it, this is a Jewish Holiday that commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and it is celebrated for 8 nights and days. After many years of foreign occupation and hardship, the Jews liberated and rededicated the Temple, which required cleasing and the building of a new altar.

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The miracle of Hanukkah is that the oil for the Menorah that was supossed to burn for only one day, burned for 8 days, which are the amount of days they needed to make the oil. The menorah you see in all celebrations has a branch for each one of the 8 days and one that is higher.

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Another great thing besides an 8 day celebration is the food prepared for this event. It includes latkes or potato panckaces and jam filled doughnuts. There is also the tradition of eating some dairy foods to commemorate women's role in the celebration. 

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For those of you who are celebrating, I hope you are enjoying the holidays and that the rest of it is full of nice surprises.

Have a great week!

Prep Time

The countdown has begun for all of those who will be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow. If you are ready, congrats because you have beaten all the absent minded ones {that would be me!}. Here are a few things that years of making Thanksgiving dinner taught me {you can apply them to any event}.

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I know it spunds redundant, but go through your recipes and one by one check that you have all your ingredients. Those that are still missing write them down and next to each one of them write down the place where you're going to find them, this will save you time in finding them at the supermarket.

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Do the same with all your kitchen tools. One tool that proved worth its investment was the meat themometer, because it saved me a lot of guessing and helped me estimate the cooking time of the bird.

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I don't remember a time when people arrived that I was not in the kitchen cooking and people joined me in there. For that reason, snacks a drinks are a must so those who arrive early to help can be well taken care of.

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By now, your table should be either ready or all your dishes should be sitting on top of it. For some reason setting up the table takes a lot of time, especially for those who like to make some special arrangements on it. Don't leave it for the last minute because this is the type of details that can drive you mad at the last minute.

Have a nice day!

A Deadly Celebration

Tomorrow is the celebration dedicated to the dead but nowhere it is more colorful than it is in Mexico. When I was studying years ago {not this last time... ha!} I went to there on a student excahnge program and loved the traditions that revolved around this celebration.

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I didn't get my face painted but participated in the many festivities involved with it. The one that left a deeper impresion on me was making an altar in the name of a person or those who have died. Usually they get built a month in advance and include photos and belongings of the departed as well as relgious images, flowers, candles and little skeleton figurines {called calacas and catrinas}.

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The celebrations start on October 31 {Halloween for most of us} and extend all the way to November 2. People traditionally go to the cemeteries where their loved ones rest and decorate their tombs with candles, bring offerings and spread cempasúcil {or marigolds if you prefer} because they are believed to attract to souls of the deceased.

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The traditions are colorful and ironically, full of life. There is a different approach to death and what it means and this is something that has been part of Mexican culture since before the colonization. Experiencing a tradition like this is one of the best ways to get to know a rich culture like this one. If there is a Mexican colony around you, go and check out what they´re doing the between today and Friday.

Have a great day!

Happy Halloween!

First of all, I'de like to send my best wishes to everyone recovering from the terrible effects of the hurricane in the North East US. Hope everything goes bck to normal real soon and you can enjoy of some Trick or Treating.

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All Hallows Eve or Halloween is a celebration that in many countries is believed to have come from the Celtic celebration of Samhain, which is the day that marks the end of the harvest and the beginning of the winter.

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On this day, it is believed that the spirits of the dead would come out and visit their homes and people celebrated them. Also, with them the eveil spirtits would come out and for the reason people would dress up, so they could scare and confuse the evil sprits away.

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There is also the belief that Halloween has more to do with the Christian celebration of All Saints Day and All Sould Day. During the Middle Ages this custom took root where poor children would go out collecting Soul Cakes, which were pastries made in honor of the recently departed.

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Tradition says that the recently departed would seek vengeance from those who had harmed them and for the reason, people would go out wearing masks to avoid being punished.

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The tradition expanded to the American continent not until the 19th century with the migration of large numbers of people originating from Scotland and Ireland. One of the most representative examples of the influence of Halloween in culture is the film from 1929 by Walt Disney, where 4 skeletoons dance in a Danse Macabre style around a graveyard... Enjoy the CARTOON.

Happy Halloween!

Obon Festival and Dance

The reason why I love big diverse cities is that any day of the week you can come in contact with people from all cultures and traditions from all over the world. During my last visit to NY as I was walking near Bryant Park, I hear music and saw a lot of people gathered at the park... and I discovered the Obon Odori Festival.

The festival is organized by the New York Buddhist Church and it is celebrated to honor and connect with the spirits of one's ancestors. The celebration was beautiful as people gathered around traditional Japanese drums and danced to folk music.

Church members of all ages participated in the celebration dressed up in traditional costumes at the same time as they invited everyone around them to join them in the dance and celebration.

I could not help but being fascinated at the beautiful patterns of the clothes they were wearing {mostly kimonos}, the way they harmonized with the people around them, and the good energy they were transmitting all of us who were looking at them.

Unfortunately, the video I took was too large to upload here but I found this one that give you a pretty good idea of what I got to experience.

Have a beautiful and peaceful day!

Warm Days

These has been a war weekend here in Miami... so much that my AC is working non-stop {pretty much!}. Today is a holiday a well so I'll be taking the day off, catch up on some reading and get some rest {been a busy weekend}... I'll see all of you back here tomorrow!

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Have a great day and enjoy President's Day!

Groundhog Day

Today in the US is the day when a little guy called Punxatawney Phil predicts how much longer the winter is going to last...

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This year marks the 126th time that the little groundhog comes out of his hole and if see his shadow it means that winter will last 6 more weeks other wise it will be an early spring. Since then many towns have created their own "groundhog" tradition but the original, the one from Punxatawney {in Pennsylvania!}, is the one that attracts the most amount of people.

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Even though I know many of you would love for to have warmer temperatures, I hope winter lasts a bit longer or actually decides to come because the lack of snow is causing tremendous havoc to water supply in California, birds are migrating up to a month before they have to and crops all over the country are suffering. 

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Another industry {one that I love!} suffering is hotels that rely on snow and tourists who visit them to enjoy and practice winter sports...

Have a great day and hope for a few more snowy days!

Coming Up

For weeks I've been talking about changes for 2012 and I have finally finished all of them. As I mentioned to you {and you've seen in online} the whole look of the blog changed and hope you're liking it; besides that I'm working on setting up other articles that I hope you will like as well.

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 The first project will be fun one in which I hope you will be part of. As many of you know, I'm an interior designer and have done design for different industries from offices to houses and hotels {which have a sort of residential element in them }. As you can imagine, people all the time are asking me for advice on this or that and because of that I've come up with this idea!

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I would like to invite those of you who are looking into designing a room in your house or office to let me know and we'll work together to create a great space... Due to the time one of these project would take I'll start taking one project per month. If you are interested EMAIL ME and we can talk about in more detail how this project will work out... Hope you join me in this!

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On a similar note, I will be exploring the world of color through paint and photography... the idea of this monthly project will be to find ideas about color that can be taken to reality in a very easy way.

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Finally, I am working on interviews from people to cover the topics I like to talk about in this blog... like travel, health, beauty, and design amongst other things. 

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Have a great day and look forward to hear from you!

PS... I added a blog roll tab to the blog in order to include all of you who have included me on your blog rolls... So, please let me know if I'm part your blogrolls so I can reciprocate the honor!

Take it Easy

Busy day ahead and don't want to bore you with statistics about the state of the hotel industry... but all I can say is that it will get much better in 2012 and it will certainly will keep on leading the economic recovery.

Take it easy today as I have to run fo another busy day... See you tomorrow!

Artwalk

Over the weekend I went to an area of Miami called the Wynwood Art District which is an area that counts with over forty galleries, five museums, three collections, seven art complexes, twelve art studios and five art fairs.

The second Saturday of ever month the businesses of belonging to the Wynwood Art District Association host what they call the Art Walk where all the galleries feature work for artists from all over the world. 

I am happy to say that this monthly event has evolved from a small event that attracted those with a funky artistic personality to a community art attraction where you can find the crazies to the eccentrics to art lovers and enthusiasts.

To make things even better there are a wide variety of option to eat and drink... As in many other parts of the US, Miami has become a food truck town and this event is perfect for them, because as you move from one gallery to the next you can enjoy a fish taco, a craft beer and even an Italian ice cream.

As a long time resident of Miami, I am delighted that an event like this has not only brought art for all of the people but has also helped to revitalize a part of town that for many years was considered dangerous and definitely not the place where you wanted to go out at night. This event is proof that the arts bring communities together and help turn depressed cities and neighborhoods into exciting and prosperous areas for business, food and entertainment.

Have a great day and look around because there's inspiration everywhere!

Dia de Reyes

Or Three Kings day is the day that commemorates when the Three Wise Men delivered their gifts to baby Jesus {celebrated tomorrow January 6th}. It is celebrated all over the world mainly by Latin countries and communities, and traditionally christian countries like Spain. The religious name is the Feast of the Epiphany but in it has other names like Twelfth Night (England), O Dia de Reis (Brazil), and Loppiainen in Finland.

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The Rosca de Reyes and galettes des rois a sweet breads or tarts that are traditionally served on this day and baked inside of them is a baby Jesus or favor, and whoever gets it their piece is the person who will host the prayer on this day. Check out the recipes for each of them:

Galette du Rois

Rosca de Reyes

As a final thought, for many of us the day is also the end of the Christmas season and for me the day when I put away all my Christmas decorations... so in the spirit of have an organized home I wanted to leave all of you with some tips from my favorite organization expert, Mrs. Stewart!

Christmas Light Storing

Storing Wrapping Paper

Ornament Storage

Have a great day my friends!

First Tree

One of the best things of visiting a city like DC is that you get to see the whole country come together as one in events like the National Christmas Tree in front of the White House.

The main tree is surrounded by an installation of little trains moving all around little towns and bridges. On the area surrounding the tree there are smaller trees representing all the states and territories belonging to the US. Each tree is decorated with clear balls that inside have scenes and objects representing each state.

Finally, if you are in the DC area tomorrow and Wednesday stop by the Downtown Holiday Market on 8th and F Streets, NW right in front of the Smithsonian National Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. Booth #46... Will be there my sister selling some of her amazing accessories and children's clothing {Fournier online shop}.

Have a great day!!!