Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo (the Fifth of May) commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the 1862 Franco-Mexican War- a reminder of how many times Mexico has been invaded, and the one time Mexico won.

It's a minor holiday in Mexico, but in the United States Cinco de Mayo has evolved into a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage, which is how we celebrated it.

Agenda:
1. Learn about indigenous Mexicans
2. Make clay animals
3. Work on embroidery
4. Make sopaipillas, traditional Mexican fried bread
5. Have a fiesta and break a piñata

Full Hare Moon

Carmella and Toffee

Tonight is the full moon; this one is called the Hare Moon, because this is the month when rabbits leap and play and mate.

Agenda for today:
1. Update my altar
2. Journal queries
3. Practice at my theme of Joy

Earth Week 2018

Earth Day is coming up next Sunday, on April 15, and I plan to celebrate this whole week as Earth Week.

The first Earth Day was in 1970 and it still remains a big event in the environmental movement. Interest and participation in Earth Day has increased and spread around the world, with millions of people taking part. 

I do many things everyday in my life to help the earth: I live in a small house; I walk and bike, and work at home; I buy used stuff and buy locally (to reduce fuel used for transportation); I use the library instead of buying books; I compost, recycle, and grow my own food... 

But it’s good to ask myself “What more could I do?”

Yes, it’s often more expensive to be environmentally conscientious, but I know that my purchasing decisions have an impact on ecosystems. The companies that produce and sell products depend on my dollars, so they will listen and react to my behavior. Also, my health and my family’s health is at risk! I need to keep my priorities straight. And I need to stretch my limits to action.

Agenda this week:

1. Earth Week petition walks
2. Clean the neighborhood
3. Reduce my use of plastics
4. Clean up at the river
5. Make Earth Cookies

New Sleepy Moon

Tonight is the new moon; the Chinese call the third new moon the Sleepy Moon, because the drowsiness of spring is in the air. 

On the first three days of this moon, the Chinese in Beijing celebrate the birthday of Hsi Wang Mu with a temple festival. Hsi Wang Mu is the Grandmother Goddess of the Western Heaven, also called the Great Yin. She controls the cosmic forces of time and space, determines life and death, and controls disease and healing. She watches over the tree of the peaches of immortality.

Agenda for today:
1. Journal queries
2. New Moon Meditation
3. Plan
4. Have a yin kind of day

Songkran

Songkran is the New Year festival in Thailand, officially observed for three days, April 13 - 15, but actually the celebration usually lasts the entire week. 

The word songkran comes from the Sanskrit, meaning "to pass or move into", referring to the passing and moving of the sun from one sign of the Zodiac to another (but it's also taken to mean "moving forward into a better life"). There are in fact twelve Songkrans each year, but this Songkran (sometimes called the Great Songkran) is when the sun enters the sign of Aries the Ram, always near to the vernal equinox.

April is the hottest month of the year in Thailand, and maybe that is why water is a theme for this festival. All statues of the Buddha are ceremonially washed, and then the entire country participates in friendly water fights and street parties that last nearly a week. 

Agenda Today:
1. Clean house
2. Make resolutions
3. Connect with Family
4. Build a sand pagoda
5. Water play
6. Make Thong Yod (Golden Egg Drops)

Ch'ing Ming

Ch'ing Ming means Pure and Bright. This Chinese festival falls 15 days after the Spring Equinox. 

Ching Ming tea party of two years ago.

The Pure Brightness Festival is also called Ancestors Day or Picnic Day, because Chinese families gather today to sweep graves and offer foods- such as steamed pastries, roast pork, tea, and wine- to their ancestors. After the ceremony the family feasts on the offering foods.

Agenda today:
1- Make gold ingots (yuan bao)
2- Make Char Siu (Chinese Barbecued Pork)
3- Make Red Tortoise Cakes (Ang Ku Kueh)
4- Remember and honor ancestors