Millions still celebrate Winter Solstice

KNN reveals it's Pagan roots
KNN News Service
Source: Circle Network News

Winter Solstice has been celebrated in cultures the world over for thousands of years. This start of the solar year is a celebration of Light and the rebirth of the Sun. In old Europe, it was known as Yule, from the Norse, Jul, meaning wheel.

Today, many people in Western-based cultures refer to this holiday as "Christmas." Yet a look into its origins of Christmas reveals its Pagan roots. Emperor Aurelian established December 25 as the birthday of the "Invincible Sun" in the third century as part of the Roman Winter Solstice celebrations. Shortly thereafter, in 273, the Christian church selected this day to represent the birthday of Jesus, and by 336, this Roman solar feast day was Christianized. January 6, celebrated as Epiphany in Christendom and linked with the visit of the Magi, was originally an Egyptian date for the Winter Solstice.

Most of the customs, lore, symbols, and rituals associated with "Christmas" actually are linked to Winter Solstice celebrations of ancient Pagan cultures. While Christian mythology is interwoven with contemporary observances of this holiday time, its Pagan nature is still strong and apparent. Pagans today continue to re-Paganize Christmastime and the secular New Year by giving a Pagan spiritual focus to existing holiday customs and by creating new traditions that draw on ancient ways.

Where have all the men gone? Black gender gap is widening

The fatal price of being a black man in America
By Jonathan Tilove
Newhouse News Service

There are nearly 2 million more black adult women than men in America, stark testimony to how often black men die before their time.

Worse yet, with nearly another million black men in prison or the military, the reality in most black communities across the country is of an even greater imbalance — a gap of 2.8 million, or 26 percent, according to Census Bureau figures for 2002. The comparable disparity for whites was 8 percent.

Perhaps no single statistic so precisely measures the fateful, often fatal price of being a black man in America, or so powerfully conveys how beset black communities are by the violence and disease that leave them bereft of brothers, fathers, husbands and sons. And because the number of black males plummets as they move from their teens to their 20s, the gap first appears with the suddenness of a natural disaster.

KNN Note: This article was originally written in the Seattle Times, May 2005. To see the rest of this article click here: The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Where have all the men gone? Black ...

Felling a little raw?

Try my cucumber salad
By
Sis. Yaheli Israel
KNN Health Specialist

Felling a little raw? Try my cucumber salad, it will make your mouth say WOW. Cucumbers make a great fruit snack or in a salad all by themselves. This is a quick less than 10 min meal and it tastes great. Cucumbers can be eaten raw or cooked, or pickled. The fresh cucumber seeds are a source of vitamin C, vitamin K, and potassium, also providing dietary fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B6, thiamin, folate, pantothenic acid, magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and manganese.

Cucumbers Salad
-4 medium cucumbers
-1 teaspoons salt
-1cup Rice Wine white vinegar
-3/4 water
-2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1/4 teaspoon basil
-dash cayenne pepper (optional)

Cut cucumbers into thin slices toss with salt and dill. Marinate in rice wine vinegar and water in the fridge for one hour. Drain liquid from cucumber. Add remaining ingredients and stir.
Return liquid to cucumbers and mix. Cover and refrigerate one hours before serving. Dash of sugar (optional).

Makes 5 servings, it's great and easy to make. Eat and enjoy!!!!

Live Foods Week Begins

Living foods for a living people
Akote Hodahvyah-KNN Chicago

During Live Foods Consumption Week we will consume only live foods for this entire week. Live foods are defined as foods that have not been subject to cooking (heat) before consumption. Live Foods Week will commence on Motsi Shabbat (Saturday) Dec. 15, 2007 (at sundown) and end on Yom Shee Shee (Friday) Dec. 21, 2007 (at sundown). Enjoy!!!!!!!