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Benin celebrates National Voodoo Day

OUIDAH, Benin, Jan. 10 (UPI) — The African country of Benin celebrated National Voodoo Day Tuesday with rites that included dancing, drumming and animal sacrifice.

The festival took place at “the point of no return,” a beach where slaves were loaded on ships for the voyage across the Atlantic, the BBC reported.

About 65 percent of Benin’s population practices Voodoo, a belief that natural forces and materials have spiritual force as well. National Voodoo Day has been a holiday in the country for 10 years.

“People have a negative image of voodoo because of some of the bad practices, a sort of witchcraft, where you can put a bad spell on someone when you are jealous of that person,” said Martine de Sousa, a former curator of the National Voodoo Museum. “That is totally different from voodoo.”

United Press International – NewsTrack

Uptimes

So I was noticing that my firewall is about to break it’s personal uptime record:

Which is okay, it’s patched and everything.

I looked at some of the top uptime records on the site I use to keep track of these things.
Uptime Project
At the time of me writing this, three of the top ten are windows boxes..  That’s frightening, unless they know of some supers secret ninja way of patching a windows system for 5 years without a reboot.

This should be a criminal act…  Really, someone should kill these people and patch their windows boxes…

A Tree Grows In Boston

What’s in A Name?

DC’s Thanksgiving is over. And I hope we all had something to be thankful for. Now that our bellies are full we can all get ready to empty our wallets as we speed towards the December “Holidays.” It’s almost time for Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and, perhaps some other holiday I don’t yet know about.

These past few weeks there’s been a lot of hoopla in Massachusetts (where else) about the possible renaming of a “Christmas Tree.”

Yup, those folks in charge of “stuff” are trying to decide if the official state “Christmas Tree” should instead be called a “Holiday Tree” (to better include other religions and secularists during the “Holiday Season.”
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The Power of Witches

Even after the kids take off their Halloween costumes, witches remain among us
Debby Reis (The Peak)

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) — Back in high school, like many other teenaged girls, I became interested in the occult. Witches in particular held interest for me. But the image of a witch in my head went beyond that of the fairy tale hag.

My witch had a mystical beauty about her, and more importantly, she had power. I didn’t quite understand this power, but I knew I wanted it. I learned to read palms and tarot cards, and whenever I looked at someone’s hand, I felt a little bit of that power when their lines and fingertips told me about who they were.
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Wiccans bewitched by nature

Allhallow’s Eve, a night of ghosts and goblins kids in costumes, going door to door, yelling “trick or treat,” pumpkins carved into jack-o’-lanterns – this is Halloween.

Wicca is a polytheistic, nature-based religion. I worship a Goddess and a God or one of the many aspects thereof.

Nature has male and female aspects; I believe the gods do, too. The God is a dying and rising God. The Goddess is eternal.

In one aspect, the God represents the grains, fruits and meat we eat. The Goddess is the mother that nurtures us and helps us grow. We celebrate eight Sabbats (holidays):
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Halloween conjures up a witchcraft conversation

The Bulletin – Religion & Faith
Issue: 10/21/05

Religious Commentary: Halloween conjures up a witchcraft conversation
By Kristin Deasy

As Gonzaga students prepare to open their doors and dorms to little witches, ghosts and ghouls this Halloween, perhaps it is an appropriate time to examine what magic really is and its effect on the Spokane community.
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