Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets Blog

Posts Tagged ‘october’

When Sweetest Day hits on the third Saturday in October, will you be ready? This lesser-known holiday actually has a very sweet history. It was started in the early 20^th century by candy manufacturers to entice the public to eat more sweets. What may have started out as a marketing ploy has actually become an endearing part of American history. So, what can you do for the sweetest people in your life on Sweetest Day?

Think Big

Don’t just think of your wife or boyfriend on Sweetest Day. Think of all the people who have been especially important to you over the last year. That could be everyone from your boss to your kids to your coworkers or your neighbor. Make a list of all the people in your life who you’d like to remember on this lovely holiday. Remember doctors and caretakers who help you out as well.

Think Sweetly Handmade

All diets are off on Sweetest Day. It’s a day to indulge in sugary creations. So think sweet when you are planning your gift-giving. You need not break the bank to show someone they are special on this day. You can make treats in your own kitchen that will put a smile on the recipients’ faces. Try making gourmet caramel apples covered in nuts or candy pieces. Wrap them up in cellophane with pretty bows. Or, why not hand-dip Oreos or other favorite cookies in dark chocolate? Strawberries are also great for dipping. Create a basket or display of goodies and bring them around the neighborhood or office. You could also bring in a basket to cheer up folks at a nursing home or the staff at a local hospital.

Go for Broke

If budget is no issue, why not take your special sweetie out on the town? Plan an all-chocolate evening. Go out for dessert first. Find a fancy restaurant and order the most decadent thing on the menu. Or, go out for a chocolate fondue. You can find a restaurant that specializes in fondues of all types. They’ll usually have decadent cakes and fruits to dip into the melting pot of chocolate. Then, have some sweet wine or sweet champagne. End with a movie that involves chocolate such as Like Water for Chocolate or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If you really want to spoil your sweetie, give her a piece of jewelry encrusted with chocolate diamonds. It will be one holiday no one will forget.

Family Time

Maybe your sweeties are little ones and you’d like to create a fun new tradition with the family. Why not have a card-making party where even the little ones can join in? Have heart shaped papers and candies available for decorating. Glue on sparkly glitter and lace. Have everyone write one thing they love about their family inside. Read the cards aloud. Since it will be October and often the days are shorter, why not have a pajama party where everyone wears their fuzzy slippers and eats ice cream sundaes and plays Candy Land? Think of things that your family enjoys doing and give them a sweet twist. Put out bowls of candy and allow children to hand them out to the adults instead of the adults always doling them out. Kids will feel special.

Involve the Neighborhood

When there’s not too much going on in October, why not invent another reason to celebrate? Start a town-wide Sweetest Day Celebration where everyone brings cakes and cupcakes and cookies to the town hall or to a common gathering place. A park works well too. You can set up stations to bob for apples, hand out sweets to the kids, offer a Make Your Own Sundae station and really do it up. You can ask local bakeries if they will donate goods. You could print up t-shirts and sell them at the festival as a fundraiser for the local school or a worthy organization. Elect a Sweetest Princess and Prince and have them wear a chocolate banner announcing their titles. Invite the local Brownies troops to come in uniform. Have fun with it! Who knows, you may just start a new annual town tradition.

We've added a line of Pink Ribbon Gifts!

At Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets, we've added a whole new line of gifts and gift baskets that incorporate pink ribbons for Breast Cancer Awareness month.  With gifts starting at just $20 and a huge variety of treats such as gourmet cookies, brownies, chocolate covered oreos, and gourmet nuts, we've got something for everyone.  Part of the profits from some of these gifts will be donated to various cancer foundations in the U.S.

The pink ribbon has come to symbolize the solidarity behind the breast cancer movement and to support the thousands of women diagnosed with breast cancer each year.  In 1991, the Susan G. Komen foundation first passed out pink ribbons to wear in their New York City race for the cure.  A breast cancer awareness stamp featuring a pink ribbon was incorporated on a U.S. stamp in 1996.  Most Breast Cancer Research Fundraisers are held during the month of October when many groups including the NFL in 2009 wear pink and buy pink items in support of the movement.

Click here to view all of the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Ribbon Merchandise available from Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets.

On October 15, 1962, U.S. intelligence experts, studying films taken by a U-2 spy plane over Cuba, were surprised to see a Soviet missile-launching area. When the public heard about a U.S. blockade of Cuba on October 22, they didn't know the full story. Neither did Washington nor Moscow:

• Nikita Khrushchev, concerned about U.S. missiles in Turkey, had persuaded Fidel Castro to accept missiles in Cuba  as a defense  gainst U.S. invasion.
• The Soviet Union had 45 missiles in Cuba. Years later, the West learned that nine of them were "tactical" nukes each with the power of the Hiroshima bomb - that could be fired at the discretion of the local Soviet commander. (At the time, U.S. missiles in Europe were controlled by their local commanders, and the ICBMs were later discovered to have electronic faults that could have caused them to launch themselves.)
• On October 22, a B-S2 strayed over Siberia and was ordered destroyed. Officers in Moscow watched by radar as a pair of MiG-I7s converged on the target; 50 kilometers from the bomber, they turned back. They were low on fuel.
• On October 23, Gen. Curtis LeMay, with the U.S. joint chiefs of staff, said, "If there is to be war, there's no better time than at present. We are prepared and 'the bear' is not."
• On the night of October 25, a wild bear climbed over the perimeter fence of the U.S. air force base in Duluth, Minnesota. A sentry shot at the shadowy figure and sounded the sabotage alarm to alert bases throughout the region. However, at Volk Field, Wisconsin, the alarm for nuclear war was triggered. Air crew, who had been told there would be no practice alerts during this crisis, rushed to take off. Luckily, the base commander phoned Duluth to find out what had really happened (the "saboteur" wasn't identified until later) and subordinate officers drove a car onto the Volk Field runway, blocking any departures.
• On October 26, saying "only lunatics or suicides" wanted nuclear war; Khrushchev offered to pull his missiles in return for a no-invasion pledge. But Cuban troops knocked down a U-2 and killed the pilot; U.S. fliers assumed they would hit back; however, Kennedy said, "We shall try (negotiations) again."
• On October 27, which was the deadline for Soviet missiles to be operational, a deal was reached and announced on Moscow Radio.  The gift of patriotic U.S.A.  troops had been scheduled to invade Cuba on October 29.

Sources: Eyeball to Eyeball, The Limits of Safety, Independent on Sunday, and news services.

October marked the end of the growing cycle, now completed with the harvesting of the grapes and the making of wine. It was vintage time for ancient Roman farmers, time to clean and fumigate the wine cellar. Early October was a busy time as the farmers gathered in the olives and bunches of ripe grapes. The grapes were then mounded in large batches on special pressing floors in the rural villas, where the pressed juice was then stored in large holding vessels called doliae as next year's wine.

Modern Ritual to Experience Nature and Oneness

Find a secluded place outside to meditate on a quiet October day. perhaps the sacred spot in your garden or a special retreat known only to you. Let all of your senses take in the beauty of nature. Think deeply on these thoughts as the Buddhist monk which that Hanh teaches us to honor this feeling of oneness and connection with nature and the divine:

Contemplate an autumn theme leaf, with its rich red or golden color as it hangs on the branch ready to fall to the ground at the slightest breeze. Consider that the leaf had been a mother to the tree. During the spring and summer, the leaf had worked to nourish the tree. Yet when it falls to the ground, as it must. and returns to the soil of Mother Earth, it continues to nourish the tree. Be comforted in the knowledge the dying leaf will again return to the branch of the tree, soon, next spring.

Modern Ritual to Honor Departed Ones

The final solemn days of October provide an opportunity to reconnect with those who have gone before. We already celebrate Halloween with images of ghosts, goblins, and skeletons connoting the season of death and endings. This is also the time to visit the graves of one's ancestors and bear bouquets of flowers or small offerings to the dead spirits.

Faith and Commitment

The unsettling time of October, the period of death and separation, can be bridged. Hope can be kindled during this somber dark time. Yet, faith and belief in the divine are required, and spiritual commitment is critical. For Apuleius, a Roman author of the second century C.E., and for many Romans, true belief was in the divine goddess Isis. With her, there was no dark abyss, no empty void.

Ancient farmers were advised to pick the grapes and press the new wine at the Vindemia, the vintage. Nine months have passed since we began our journey, pacing the agricultural cycle month by month from the times of new growth to maturity and eventual fall festival fruit harvest. We now arrive at October, the month of the fall vintage, when the plump juicy grapes that have ripened on the vine during languid summer days are finally plucked and pressed, producing a frothy deep purple new wine. Now the dappled sunlight is noticeably shorter and the cold dark time of winter rapidly approaches. Life in the natural world this month goes underground as animals hunker down for the long haul, birds retreat to warmer climates, and seeds lie dormant awaiting the period of rebirth. We also beat a hasty retreat into the dry, warm confines of home and hearth, driven inside by chilling temperatures and drenching rains. In some regions, an icy crystal blanket covers the fields and trees at the first frost. October portends the bleak winter season, while nature herself compels us to consider endings and death.

In ancient Roman times, October marked an end to an intensely active period for farming as well as travel, commerce, and military conquest. During this fall month, farmers busily prepared for the coming of winter, making certain of adequate supplies and provisions to last through the dark cold months looming just ahead. Likewise, the threat of snow and treacherous weather brought a halt to much of the travel and trade in the ancient world. In fact, in the earliest days of Rome, military campaigns lasted from March through October, when the Roman soldiers returned to their homes and farms. October was the month when many activities came to an abrupt end. Appropriately, the Isia, the sacred rites to the goddess Isis and her days of mourning for her lost husband, Osiris, were held in ancient Rome during the final days of this month.

Isis was originally an Egyptian goddess worshiped by the people living along the Nile River since prehistoric times. During the second and first centuries B.C.E., however, her cult spread throughout the Mediterranean, reaching Italy, where her popularity grew among Romans of all classes from members of the imperial family to slaves. Her fall ritual, the Isia, which ran from October 28 to November 3, became so popular in the Roman world that it was added to the rustic Roman calendar, the rural menologia, about 40 C.E. Who was this most ancient Egyptian goddess? What does Queen Isis offer?

In the beginning was Isis, Oldest of the Old, Great Lady of Egypt, Queen of Heaven and Mistress of the House of Life, represented by the ankh, her symbol for "life." In antiquity, this goddess found faithful worshipers among people of all social rank dwelling in such far-flung lands as Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain, and the shores of the Arabian Gulf and Black Sea. The goddess Isis welcomed all and did not discriminate by gender, social class, wealth, or racial background.
Isis bestowed her love on all peoples and was a goddess of redemption and forgiveness, welcoming those who had sinned equally with the sinless. Isis gave freely of love, pity, compassion, and forgiveness, for she herself had known great sorrow. Isis, the Mother of Life, offered unconditional love.

The worship of Isis brought hope and meaning to many people, as she addressed directly the eternal questions of life and death. Queen Isis sails her sacred ship on a journey to the very borders of the world of the dead. And she returns. Thus, it is also fitting that the Isia was held in late October, a focused period of endings and closure, when the worlds of the living and dead touched and the veil between them was thin. Today we experience this dark magical time as Halloween, All Hallows' Eve, Samhain, or the Day of the Dead. In antiquity, these days of October belonged to Queen Isis.

The story of Isis is a very old one and has been retold and reshaped over thousands of years by people of many different cultures living in countries throughout the Mediterranean world. This myth of a dying god, a grieving goddess, and a sacred birth is rooted in the natural cycle of the Nile River and the yearly ebb and flow of its life-sustaining waters. It is ultimately a story of faith, hope, and love.

Commemorate the season with one of our fall themed gift baskets such as the autumn cornucopia gift!