The Holidays are all around us: so they have come home:
What has midwinter, the solstice, the New Year, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa done to our homes lo these 400 years in New England?
We stress because we are judged, judge others, confront greed in ourselves and in those we love, those we work for, those we are related to: we fall short, we are elated, we are disappointed, we fear, we fail: ITS THE HOLIDAYS. Its the time our childhoods never forget, its the stress parents never overcome, its all the memories made generations ago coming home to roost: ITS THE HOLIDAYS. How do our homes, how did our homes deal with this insane time of year: decorations, insane levels of cooking, eating, showing off, creating chaos and dealing with the crunch of cold that can split pipes and kill heating plants: ITS THE HOLIDAYS
Joining us in studio is Richard Mammana who knows a great deal about the last few hundred years of cultural traditions in many unique and personal ways. Richard currently serves as ecumenical communications associate for the Episcopal Church, he graduated from the Yale Divinity School in 2012, founded Project Canterbury, his writing has been published widely and is the father of 2 young girls. He is the cousin of Clement Clarke Moore, author of ‘Twas the Night before Christmas.
We started out survivalists: With harvest in, Colonists hunkered down and hoped there would be enough: To tell us these stark realities we are joined on the phone by Henry Griggs who is the Municipal Historian for the Town of Madison and a Trustee of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation, Henry is a direct descendant of Thomas Griggs, an early (c.1635) settler of Roxbury Massachusetts and a lapsed Congregationalist.
To wrap up our sweep of year-end stress and worship is Domestic Goddess Eva Geertz , a writer and bookseller who lives in her hometown of New Haven, CT, where she’s earned a local reputation for being contrary. She did, in fact, start to make her own yogurt this year, after thinking about doing so for 20 years. It’s good and easy. She still has not made ketchup or Smith Island Cake, though. She writes about life as she knows it, now and then, at thisoldhausfrau.com and a self-proclaimed “East Rock Matron” who is full-on accommodating all the stresses and joys proclaimed by all
