Posted in Holidays, Jane Austen, tagged Happy New Year, Jane Austen, Vintage Postcards on December 31, 2012 | 2 Comments »
[Vintage Postcard: Gold Medal Art, n.d.]
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, with gratitude to all for your visits, your comments, and your discussions of all things Jane! ~ Thank you for including Jane Austen in Vermont in your daily blog surfing! See you all in 2013!
Today in Jane Austen’s life: Henry Austen marries his cousin Eliza de Feuillide on this day, December 31, 1797.
Posted in Holidays, Jane Austen, Social Life & Customs, tagged Anna Jarvis, Daphne Walker, Gore Place, Jane Austen, Julia Ward Howe, Mother's Day, Postcards, Shelburne Farms, Vintage Postcards on May 13, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Wishing all a Happy Mother’s Day! -
[you either are one and / or have one!]
Vintage Postcard, USA @1944, No. 5013
A few words on Mother’s Day: [text from Wikipedia]
The United States celebrates Mother’s Day on the second Sunday in May. Julia Ward Howe first issued her Mother’s Day Proclamation in 1870 as a call for women to join in support of disarmament, and asked for the [2nd of June] 1872 to be established as a “Mother’s Day for Peace”. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several further attempts to establish an American Mother’s Day, but these did not succeed beyond the local level. The current holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton,West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one’s mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother’s dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea did not take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker. She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914.
The holiday eventually became so highly commercialized that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a “Hallmark holiday,” i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday. In the United States, Mother’s Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls. Moreover, churchgoing is also popular, yielding the highest church attendance after Christmas Eve and Easter. Many worshipers celebrate the day with carnations, colored if the mother is living and white if she has been deceased.
You can look here for a listing of how Mother’s Day is celebrated the world over: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother’s_Day
In the UK, Mothering Sunday occurs on the fourth Sunday in Lent, and the custom was well established in the mid 17th-century. I find this in the book The English Year, by Steve Roud (Penguin, 2006) – one of my favorite books on English customs.
It was one of the few vernacular customs which was universally regarded as a good thing, and which therefore attracted no reformers who wanted it abolished. (p. 105)
This traditional religious-based Mothering Sunday has also, as in the US, been supplanted by the commercial enterprise of cards, gifts and flowers…
… not a bad thing, I say, patiently awaiting said cards, gifts and flowers!
Happy Mother’s Day to all!
Further reading [and listening and doing!]:
Posted in Jane Austen, tagged Christmas, Jane Austen, Vintage Postcards on December 24, 2011 | 4 Comments »
[Image: Vintage Postcard]
**
I send you to last year’s post on Jane Austen’s Very Own Scrooge!
[Dinner at Randalls at Chrismologist.blogspot.com]
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Wishing You All a Very Merry Christmas!!
With Love from Deb
at Jane Austen in Vermont
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Posted in Jane Austen, Social Life & Customs, tagged Holidays, July 4, Vintage Postcards on July 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Jane Austen, News, Social Life & Customs, tagged Easter, Holidays, Vintage Postcards on April 24, 2011 | 8 Comments »
Hope your day is filled with Love, Jane Austen, and Chocolate!
Posted in Jane Austen, News, tagged Happy Valentine's Day, Vintage Postcards on February 14, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Wishing you all a Day filled with Love & Chocolate!
Copyright @2011 Deb Barnum, of Jane Austen in Vermont
Posted in Jane Austen, tagged Happy New Year, Vintage Postcards on December 31, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year, with gratitude to all for your visits, your comments, and your discussions of all things Jane! ~ Thank you for including Jane Austen in Vermont in your daily blog surfing! See you all in 2011!
Today in Jane Austen’s life: Henry Austen married his cousin Eliza de Feuillide on this day, December 31, 1797.
[Vintage Postcard: Gold Medal Art, n.d.]
Copyright @ Deb Barnum, Jane Austen in Vermont, 2008-2011.
Posted in Books, Jane Austen, Jane Austen Sequels, tagged Catherine Spencer, Good Intentions, Jane Austen, Vintage Postcards on December 31, 2009 | 3 Comments »
My hat’s off to you as we trek into a new decade!
My gift to you is a link to a new Regency novel being penned online. Titled Good Intentions, author Catherine Spencer calls it a “homage to Jane Austen” in which she tries ” to duplicate the tone and sensibility of the nineteenth century novel, including a healthy dose of humour and romance.” Ms. Spencer will post weekly excerpts on Sundays – here is the link to her blog for the first installment – the next is due January 3.
With hearty wishes for a safe, warm and peaceful New Year!
[Deb @ Jane Austen in Vermont]
Posted in Jane Austen, tagged Merry Christmas, Vintage Postcards on December 24, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A Very Merry Christmas to everyone! ~
From all of us at Jane Austen in Vermont!
[Image is a vintage postcard from the 1920s]
[Posted by Deb]
Posted in News, tagged Easter, Raphael Tuck, Vintage Postcards on April 12, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
[Raphael Tuck & Sons "Easter Post Cards" Series, No. 700]
Happy Easter One & All!
An Austen Easter Basket: Today, a little potpourri from Janeite Kelly to join the beautiful illustration of Janeite Deb…
In the mail yesterday, when I expected nothing but junk mail, came the latest edition (Spring 2009) of JASNA News. My reviews of Carrie Bebris’ The Matters at Mansfield and Jane Odiwe’s Lydia Bennet’s Story are there (they should be posted at JASNA.org in some few months); as are reviews of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight (continuing — or perhaps the correct word is beginning, since the first book in the series came out in 2005 — a Gothic connection to and from Austen’s works), Peter Graham’s Jane Austen & Charles Darwin: Naturalists and Novelists and Nora Nachumi’s Acting Like a Lady: British Women Novelists and the Eighteenth-Century Theater.
I can’t wait to sit with a cuppa and read the interview with Elizabeth Garvie (Elizabeth Bennet in the 1979 P&P); she is scheduled to appear at the October AGM in Philadelphia!
I loved Deirdre Le Faye’s forthright letter to the Editor about the bedrooms — and their possible distribution among guests — at Ibthorpe House. Just goes to show that we all use conjecture and educated guesses when reconstructing the past.
A lot of International “News” in this issue, but VERMONT gets its mention on the next to last page. I should clarify that the editor dropped what should be the full name of Suzanne Boden’s Hyde Park (Vermont) B&B: The Governor’s House in Hyde Park. Shortened to simple The Governor’s House, there may be readers who think we were actually entertained by the state’s sitting Governor! I will mention here (as I could not in the article) that there are two upcoming Pride & Prejudice weekends in 2009: August 14-16, and September 11-13. Those who come to the Friday ‘over dessert’ discussion of Georgiana Darcy are in for an interactive treat, as I am adding an audience participation component to the mix.
And this leads to the question posed in the News article: Why does sending out invitations to the Netherfield Ball depend upon Mrs Nicholls (Bingley’s housekeeper) making “white soup enough”?? As always with Austen, there are small details (that are easily overlooked) which obviously meant something to readers of her period. We did manage, that Sunday over brunch, to find a recipe for White Soup, so that is not the curious part; it is the ‘why’. Comments welcome!
An article on Lost in Austen brings up the possibility of a film (!) version, but why always the idea that something has to be adapted for an American audience?? Such absurd thoughts baffle me each and every time…
I leave readers with this little vignette found — well, I’ll reveal where it came from later:
“She smiled and blushed and hid her face. A porter and some other people were looking wonderingly on, so I thought it best to end the conversation. But there was an attractive power about this poor Irish girl that fascinated me strangely. I felt irresistibly drawn to her. The singular beauty of her eyes, a beauty of deep sadness, a wistful sorrowful imploring look, her swift rich humour, her sudden gravity and sadnesses, her brilliant laughter, a certainly intensity and power and richness of life and the extraordinary sweetness, softness and beauty of her voice in singing and talking gave her a power over me which I could not understand nor describe, but the power of a stronger over a weaker will and nature. She lingered about the carriage door. Her look grew more wistful, beautiful and imploring. My eyes were fixed and riveted on hers. A few minutes more and I know not what might have happened. A wild reckless feeling came over me. Shall I leave all and follow her? No — Yes — No. At that moment the train moved on. She was left behind. … Shall we meet again? Yes — No — Yes.”
So: A maudlin Victorian novel? A new knock-off of P&P? Or a real-life reaction to a pair of beautiful eyes, thereby making Darcy’s reaction to Elizabeth Bennet a bit less vague?? Answer revealed here (more…)
