Sylvia Shults's Blog, page 29

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day Five: Io Saturnalia!

Saturnalia was one of the best parties of ancient Rome. Starting on December 17 and going through December 23, slaves would be waited on by their masters, people would give gifts, public banquets made everybody happy, and it was generally a non-stop party for those days. It was seen as a time when everyone was free — slaves, freedmen, plebians, and nobility alike. People gave gag gifts, or small pottery or wax figurines called sigillaria. And did I mention the feasting?

Since today is the first day of Saturnalia, I’d suggest you get out your best plates and goblets, and have yourself a Roman feast. Candied or dried fruit would be appropriate as appetizers, along with nuts, cheese, olives, and sausage rolls. Roast pork or chicken would make a great Roman main course. Gild the lily with a fruit-based sauce for the meat. Don’t forget the bread — the Romans loved their bread (you could use pita). And the best part of a Saturnalia feast? Dessert, of course! Gingersnaps, pfeffernusse, any spiced cookie would be a perfect ending to your Saturnalia spread. And for Jupiter’s sake, drink wine with the meal!

If you’re feeling squirrely, you could whip up this gorgeous pear pudding, from a recipe by Apicius:

Pear Pudding (Patina di Piris)

3 pears

1/4 t black pepper

1/4 t ground cumin

2 t honey

1 T sweet sherry (to replicate the Roman sweet wine called passum)

2 t fish sauce (I know, gross, but this is the Roman garum, and they put it in EVERYTHING. It really just adds a kick of savory to the dish.)

1 t oil

1 egg

Peel, quarter, and core pears. Place in saucepan, cover with water, and simmer until tender, about ten minutes.

Puree two pears until smooth and return to saucepan. Chop remaining pear coarsely and add to pureed pears. Add pepper, cumin, honey, sherry, fish sauce and oil to pears. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until warm.

Beat egg and add 3 t of hot pear mixture, whisking between additions, to temper. Then stir egg mixture into pear puree and cook, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Makes two servings.

Scoot on over to www.weirddarkness.com for more spooky tales of Christmas.

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day Four: St. Lucia

Saint Lucia – Patron Saint of the Poor and Blind

In Scandinavian tradition, the Christmas season is welcomed on St. Lucy’s Day, December 13. Young girls, usually the oldest daughter in the family, wake the family members with a breakfast of Lussekatter, currant-filled buns made golden and fragrant with saffron. The girl serves this treat to the family while wearing a crown made of holly, surmounted by several lit candles.

St. Lucy’s Day is yet another holiday observance that emphasizes the triumph of light over darkness. In the Julian calendar, the Winter Solstice fell on December 13, her feast day. St. Lucy is the Catholic patron saint of the poor and the blind—and for good reason.

Lucia lived in Sicily in the late third century AD. A devout Christian, she longed for a life of prayerful chastity, but she faced an arranged marriage. Her husband-to-be happened to compliment Lucia’s beautiful eyes. So she gouged them out and sent them to him, along with a note pleading for him to take what he most admired about her, and to leave the rest of her alone. Lucia was martyred in 303 AD.

But Lucia has a dark side, too. In legend, Lucia was identified with Adam’s first wife. She dumped Adam and took the Devil as her lover, spawning a host of demon children. On her feast night, the longest night of the year, animals gained the power of speech, and her infernal children were free to roam the earth. The next morning, people celebrated with a feast of breakfast buns, saffron-yellow to acknowledge the victory of the sun rising on another day. (Excerpted from my book Spirits of Christmas: The Dark Side of the Holidays)

Extra Fun!

I have a special Christmas surprise for everyone! I’m going to be doing a live radio show tomorrow, Thursday December 16, at 1:30 pm Central. The radio station is KWMR West Marin Community Radio (@KWMRRADIO on all social media channels). Tune in at KWMR.org, and KWMR.org/apps. The host of “Right Now”, Mia Johnson, and I will be chatting about Victorian Christmases, ghost stories at Christmas, and spooky tales for the Dead of Winter. Join us!

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day Three: Christmas is Cancelled

The Oxford Hotel in Denver, Colorado, is haunted by the forlorn ghost of a mail carrier. The postal worker stopped in at the hotel’s bar for a drink sometime in the 1930s. Taking a few moments from his route to warm up from the snowy weather, he ordered a beer. But he didn’t tarry long. “The children, I have to get the gifts to the children,” he muttered as he paid his tab, slugged the rest of his drink, then left. Later, the staff at the hotel read a news story about a mail carrier who disappeared on his route — he’d been carrying Christmas gifts to Central City. His decomposing body was found during a spring thaw. Next to it were sacks of packages, each containing the gifts he’d been so concerned about.

The postal worker’s ghost still stops by the Oxford Hotel bar now and again. He walks up to the bar, and orders a drink, and looks perfectly solid and human while doing so. The bartenders serve him, and they see him drink, but the level of beer in his glass never goes down.

And speaking of stories, do you know there’s a new book out, called Days of the Dead: A Year of True Ghost Stories? And did you further know there’s a new calendar out, to go along with the book? Yep! A solid year’s worth of true ghost stories in one handy twelve-month package. $18 gets it sent right to your door. Click on the “Contact Me” button at the top of this page, and we’ll get you set up for 2022!

Oh, and one more thing — go visit Weird Darkness Weirdos. It’s weird over there, but weird is good. (Hey, you found ME, didn’t you?) www.weirddarkness.com

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day Two: Lights Out!

Welcome to the Dead of Winter! Today we’re going to revisit a couple of Lights Out episodes from years past. Curl up by the Christmas tree, turn on the tree lights, have a cup of something warm and lovely handy, and let’s go … Lights Out.

Lights Out Extra: Christmas 2020. https://youtu.be/tcFUsqrKSUI

Lights Out #66: Christmas 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvAANf27Eb4&t

Lights Out #52: Christmas 2017. The Roving Skeleton of Boston Bay https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1o74O6A-aw&t=27s

Lights Out #51: Plymouth Courthouse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZY-ntKexJk

Lights Out #32: Christmas 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Alg6AOjuQvE&t=6s

And you know what else you should do? You should go visit Darren Marlar over at Weird Darkness, see what he’s got going on. Get curious! Tell him I sent you.

The Twelve Nightmares of Christmas, Day One: Today I Learned…

Merry Saturkwanzukah, everyone!

I’m delighted to bring you the Twelve Nightmares of Christmas this year, just like I did last year. Can you believe this is the fifth year we’ve done this? And boy, have I got some great stuff for you guys!

Here’s the best part: I am once again partnering with Darren Marlar, of Weird Darkness, to bring you these twelve days of holiday cheer and chills. Be sure to stop by www.weirddarkness.com to check out what mayhem Darren and the Weirdos of Marlar House have in store for you.

Today I Learned … in the movie Die Hard, Alan Rickman was deliberately dropped two seconds early to capture the true reaction of his character, the villainous Hans Gruber, falling to his death from the Nakatomi Plaza Building. Rickman had agreed to fall backward onto an airbag 25 feet below on the count of “three”, but director John McTiernan thought he would get a better reaction if they secretly dropped him on the count of “one”. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: A Century of Strange)

The New Year Is Coming…

Have you finished your Christmas shopping yet? The end of the year is fast approaching, and you know what that means … yep, it’s time to think about calendars! Does someone you know have a wall that needs a bit of spooky decoration?

Last year’s calendar went quickly, so if you’d like to order your 2022 Days of the Dead calendar, go ahead and smash that link. https://sylviashults.wordpress.com/contact/ . This year’s calendar is bigger! And better! And did I mention BIGGER? Plus it’s a brand-new crop of ghost stories from the pages of Days of the Dead. $18 gets you all set for a brand-new year, and that includes me sending the calendar right to your doorstep. Even Santa needs a little help now and then!

So let’s welcome the new year with a story for every month! Order your 2022 Days of the Dead Calendar today, and MAKE EVERY DAY SPOOKY!

Today I Learned…

A poronkusema is a unit of measurement used by the Saami people of Finland, and is based on the distance a reindeer can travel before it needs to pee. It was once used to delineate a distance of around 4.5 miles, but now describes something that is simply far away. (From Ripley’s Believe It or Not: Eye-popping Oddities)

There’s Still Time…

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care, but you’ve still got time to order your 2022 Days of the Dead calendar!

Last year’s calendar went quickly, so if you’d like to order your calendar, go ahead and smash that link. https://sylviashults.wordpress.com/contact/ . This year’s calendar is bigger! And better! And did I mention BIGGER? Plus it’s a brand-new crop of ghost stories from the pages of Days of the Dead. $18 gets you all set for a brand-new year, and that includes me sending the calendar right to your doorstep. I’m hoping to avoid supply-chain issues, so I’ve already worked up the calendar and sent it off to the printers, and they do look gorgeous.

So let’s welcome the new year with a story for every month! Order your 2022 Days of the Dead Calendar today, and MAKE EVERY DAY SPOOKY!

Today I Learned…

Parrots have much larger brains (relative to their body size) than any other group of birds, which handily explains their abilities to mimic human words. What’s even cooler, though, is that some parrot species have relatively larger brains than comparably sized primates.