Count Down to 2021!
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VOL. 125 - NO. 1 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, JANUARY 1, 2021 $.35 A COPY Speaker Robert DeLeo Resigns By now Post-Gazette readers are aware that Robert A. DeLeo, Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, stepped down from his post this week to take a position at his alma mater, Northeastern University. Speaker DeLeo leaves with a long record of public service to the largely Italian-American communities where the Post-Gazette circulates. He retires after 12 years as Speaker, by far the longest tenure of many men in that position, and with a record of service in elected offi ce going back to the mid-1970s. In the tough arena of Massachusetts politics that is quite an accomplishment, and is a testimony to his dedication to the people of this Commonwealth. We, at the Post-Gazette wish him success in his future endeavors. — David Trumbull (Res Publica) Count Down to 2021! Ice Sculputre Stroll Our signature Waterfront Ice Sculpture Stroll is back! Get ready to count down to 2021 with over a dozen ice sculp- tures hosted by businesses and cultural sites across the waterfront. Get ready to don your winter boots and start strolling during this FREE, fun, and safe water- front excursion. A lineup of over a dozen unique ice sculptures will be on display from 1:00 p.m. — dusk on December 31, 2020. News Briefs • Follow the Ice Sculpture by Sal Giarratani Stroll to over a dozen sites from 1:00 p.m. – dusk on December 31, 2020. Rose Unplugged Well Spoken Recently, Howie Carr took time off from his WRKO • Enjoy other waterfront sites radio show. On December 21st, his fi ll-in was Rose and activities along the way Unplugged, a great conservative radio host. On that such as: particular day, she talked about the big hit small • Holiday Lights on the Trel- retail and restaurateurs are taking from the hands of lis at Christopher Columbus it seems blue state governors and mayors. Waterfront Park She mentioned verifi able facts that between 2010 • Winter on the Waterfront and 2018, the middle-class business economy grew Bingo more than three times that of the entire economic • Virtual Scavenger Hunts in growth during that period. Thanks to the pandemic Charlestown, East Boston and and the way government offi cials at the state and Downtown local level have been disseminating any of those great • Snowport, Seaport’s new economic numbers prior to 2018. Winter Village and more at As Rose pointed out on the show, it is as if there is a #BundleUpBoston desire to destroy the middle-class economy. She sur- As a non-profi t led initiative, mises after all, if you want socialism, you must get rid this celebration is a culmina- of the middle-class. She gives much food for thought. tion of eight successful years Remember Chad & Jeremy? of free and low-cost waterfront Chad Stuart from the Chad & Jeremy duo, part programming for residents and of the British Invasion back in the 1960s, passed visitors across Boston’s water- away on December 21st at age 79. Baby Boomers front neighborhoods. Click here to support our work. (Continued on Page 10) ICE SCULPTURE STROLL Wind your way down the wa- (Continued on Page 5) THE POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE HAS MOVED TO 343 CHELSEA ST., DAY SQUARE, EAST BOSTON This offi ce is open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, for the convenience of our East Boston and North Shore clients and contributors Call 617-227-8929 for more information PAGE 2 POST-GAZETTE, JANUARY 1, 2021 New Year Traditions from Around the World by Bennett Molinari and Richard Molinari Every culture has its traditional way of ushering in the New Year, all have in common, hope for better times ahead. Let’s explore some of these traditions and possibly add one or two to our own. SOME RELIGIOUS ORIGINS religious beliefs of ancient Greece and Rome, and that these civilizations, in turn, greatly influenced ours. The description of their “Elysian Fields, Hades and Tartarus” is certainly more than a chance similarity when compared with our Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell. We are also told of the tribes of savage hunters who wandered through the dense forests on the hills of ancient Rome. From these tribes came “Vates,” a soothsayer or prophet, and from the name Vates came “Vaticanus,” for the name of the hill that was made a kind of sacred spot 1,000 years before St. Peter was born. Most exciting to me is the treatment of fi re, or the candle, in religious ceremonies. Vesta was the Roman goddess of the hearth, similar to the Greek goddess Hestia. The worship In Spain, with 12 seconds Eve. The idea is to chase away of Vesta goes back to the time remaining until the New Year, evil spirits and welcome good when it was diffi cult but nec- people eat 12 green grapes to luck. It also ensures that the essary to obtain fi re. Then, as bring good luck in the coming coming year will be fi lled with well as now among some primi- year. an abundance of bread and tive tribes, they developed the The Japanese, just before other food. custom of always keeping a fi re midnight on New Year’s Eve, eat In Brazil, particular foods are alive for the use of the com- soba noodles. The long noodle eaten to invite good luck for the munity, and even to carry it to denotes the crossing from one coming year. Seven is the lucky new settlements. This custom year to the next. Since it’s an number on New Year’s Eve, so was preserved in the religion of easily cut noodle, it signifi es seven pomegranate seeds are later Greeks and Romans even a letting go of the past year’s eaten to keep the purse full, and after more modern technologies regrets — a cutting-off and fresh seven grapes ensure abundance had been developed. start for the New Year. in all areas of life. The sacred fi re, the source The French usually ring in The Greeks ring in the new of all Roman life and power, The most prominant feature of the ruins that where once the the New Year with a huge feast, year by eating vasilopita, a was kept alive in a structure Temple of Vesta is the hearth (seen here in the foreground). known as le réveillon de la Saint- sweet yeast bread. Eaten at known as the Temple of Vesta, Sylvestre. The meal is full of midnight, the bread is made in Once upon a time in Heliopolis, work, we are told that as early and it was constantly tended traditional delicacies including honor of Greece’s revered St. there was an Egyptian priest- as 4,000 years before the birth by a group of virgin priestesses foie gras, oysters, lobster and Basil. A coin is baked into the historian named Manetho. of Jesus Christ, the Egyptians that were known as the Vestals. escargot. And, like in the U.S., bread and the person whose Sometime between 283 and 246 believed in a form of life after They resided near the temple champagne is the drink of choice. slice contains the coin is in for B.C., he was commissioned by death, a ghost, and memorial in the Forum Romanum. The The Italians love lentils for a year fi lled with good fortune. King Ptolemy to complete an services to the deceased, the whole concept goes back into their coin-like shape, symbol- A ritual, observed in Scotland, account of the history and reli- concept of a soul, a guardian antiquity where the vestals rep- izing luck and prosperity. A is first footing. This involves gion of Egypt that went back to angel, a lower world, and cos- resented the daughters of the New Year’s Eve dinner usually selecting a tall, dark man to be 4400 B.C. It takes only seconds mic gods. They even sculptured primitive tribal chief, and they features lentils to bring on luck the fi rst person of the year to to calculate that it is 529 years statues of their gods and dedi- kept alive the state fi re in their in the coming year. cross a home’s threshold. On since Christopher Columbus cated temples to them. Finally, father’s hut. Australians celebrate the New his visit, he carries ceremonial took his wild trip, and that each of their principal gods was The public worship of this Year with midnight fi reworks in gifts — a lump of coal, salt, Manetho’s history went back accompanied by associated gods goddess was maintained in the cities and towns throughout the a piece of shortbread and/ more than eight times that that were grouped in “Triads.” If Temple of Vesta, but her private country. Firework displays are or black bun, and a dram of length of time. His original you check the word triad in your worship was preserved in every launched off bridges, such as whisky — which brings luck manuscripts are long gone, but dictionary, you’ll fi nd “Trinity” domestic hearth. After she was the Sydney Harbor Bridge, from and prosperity for the coming many extracts of his work has given as one of the defi nitions. recognized as a personal deity, jetties along the beaches, and year. been preserved. Hopefully, having made this it then became necessary to on river banks. We hope you have enjoyed Much weight is now given to point of origin, we can now have her attendants live in Filipinos celebrates the New this abbreviated trip around the his history, since his sources advance to the discussion of guarded seclusion in a struc- Year by serving 12 round fruits.