Uniform Monday Holiday Act

In 1880 the United States Congress declared February 22nd, George Washington’s birthday, a federal holiday for all government employees working in the District of Columbia. In 1885 that federal holiday was expanded to include those working in government offices in the entire United States. [1] Public Law 90-363, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, was signed into law on June 28, 1968 and took effect on January 1, 1971. [2] This act is responsible for moving the federal holiday celebration of George Washington’s birthday from February 22nd to what we commonly refer to as Presidents’ Day. Presidents’ Day is now celebrated on the third Monday in February, which will never be the 22nd of February as it can only fall on February 15th - 21st. [3]

Valley Traditions Part II: Festivals & Faschnachts

PRE-LENT CUSTOMS

Harkening back to our Christmas blog on Belsnickling in the Valley we continue to explore the origins of local customs associated with the darkest days of the year. With the approach of spring the last of the three traditional winter celebrations is upon us - the period before Ash Wednesday and the forty days of Lent. As with All Souls Day and Christmas the religious observance is preceded by “eves” of gaiety and eating. In some cultures frivolities may last a week, but most frequently they are observed on the two days before the beginning of Lent - Rose Monday and Shrove Tuesday. The name used for the Tuesday depends on whether one is in Latin Europe or in Teutonic Europe. In the southern European tradition, celebrations last for several days and are called carnival (derived from carne levare, which is translated as ‘taking away the flesh”). In the English language, shrove (the past tense of shrive) means to hear confession. So, prior to the salvation of body and soul, society dedicated a time to indulge in food, masquerade, and parades.

What's a Lyceum?

Massanutten Regional Library Presents:

Lunchtime Lyceum Begins Jan. 23^rd

—but what’s a lyceum?

ly·ce·um (lahy-see-uh m) n.
1. A hall in which public lectures, concerts, and similar programs are presented.
2. An organization sponsoring public programs and entertainment.

chautauqua (SHəˈtôkwə) n.
(Social Science / Education) (in the US, formerly) a summer school or educational meeting held in the summer named after Chautauqua, the Iroquois name of a lake in New York near which such a school was first held.[i]

Throughout history, from Plato to our modern Think Tanks, people have shared their love of learning. Aristotle is attributed with the first “lyceum” --the gymnasium where he held his lectures.

In America, the lyceum venue began with the Transcendentalists in New England. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau endorsed the movement and often gave speeches in Massachusetts. As the Civil War dawned, the movement faded, but the name has remained synonymous with intellectual exchanges.

Glimpse into the Life of the Slave and Indentured Servant

As we approach the annual observance of Martin Luther King’s birthday and Black History month, we might not recognize these events are rooted in American societal practices begun four centuries ago. The Virginia Center for the Digital History’s project on the Geography of Slavery in Virginia has assembled a rich resource of documents, mostly from contemporary newspaper advertisements, about runaways and indentured servants.

Using this resource, eleven advertisements describe slaves and indentured servants who ran away from their owners in Rockingham County between June 1778 and August 1795.[i] As the advertisements were submitted by the owners, they represented perhaps a one-sided view of the runaways.

You Think It's Cold Now?

Headline in the Harrisonburg Daily News January 15, 1912

The predicted cold weather from the upper mid-west arrived on winds of 45-50 miles per hour. The cold spread southward and eastward and sent temperatures to the zero mark. Lewis J. Heatwole, the weather observer at the Dale Enterprise station, reported that on Thursday evening, January 4, temperatures dropped from 32º F to - 2ºF. Temperatures may have been a little warmer in Harrisonburg, but were cold enough to frost plate-glass windows nearly an inch and to require merchants on Court Square to keep their electric lights burning during the day. Plumbers experienced increasing demand for their services.

Valley Christmas Folk Traditions

The three solemn holy days that span the darkest days of winter are also paired with folk customs that include performances in masks and other disguises. The holy days are All Souls, Christmas, and Lent; Halloween, Belsnickling, and Mardi Gras are the folk traditions coupled with the holy days.

Pelsnickling, as it was called locally, was a popular rural amusement, especially among the Pennsylvania-German settlers living in the western side of the Shenandoah Valley and eastern West Virginia. Pelsnickling or Belsnickling occurred during the last half of December. Also during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries similar customs adopted by other ethnic groups in the Shenandoah Valley were Kris Kringling, Shanghaiing, and urban mumming. Belsnickling derived from the earlier activities of the Belsnickle.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Dewey!

Image from flickr.com member Eigappleton Some rights reserved

Born on Dec. 10th, 1851 in Adams Center, Jefferson County, New York, Melville Dewey is best known as the inventor of the Dewey Decimal Classification System that bears his name and is used in libraries world wide. Often dubbed the Father of Modern Librarianship, Dewey developed much more than a filing system.

In 1872, as a sophomore at Amherst College, he invented the Dewey Decimal Classification System which was the beginning of many contributions to the field of Library Science. In 1876 he co-founded the American Library Association. In 1887 he established the first professional library school in the United States at Colombia University. He also co-founded and edited Library Journal which is still the major library publication today. Fortunately for the Journal, his passion for simplifying spelling did not catch on with the masses. He did found the Spelling Reform Association in 1886 and changed the spelling of his name from Melville to Melvil.