Posts Tagged ‘kid’

What is it like to become a father in the Age of Coronavirus Pandemics – Our baby Dimitar is born

Thursday, June 4th, 2020

After a long 9 months finally on 12.05.2020 12 of May 2020 by God's grace our baby Dimitar was born. He born one day after Saint Cyril and Methodius feast in the Church on the Church Feast of Saint Ephiphanius of Cyprus, Saint German Patriarch of Constantinopol a fierce fighter for the veneration of Holy Icons, Saint martyr Ermogen patriarch of Constantinople (according to new style Calendar) and Saint Basil of Ostrog (in old calendar) . I always loved spring and especially month of May so I'm happy the baby born exactly on this month. For many 2020 broght the coronavirus pandemics brought a lot of pain and surely for us it brought an extra stress with all this mask wearing and super extra precaution measures everywhere and self-isolation but for me 2020 brought me a great joy and a good things in life, after we changed the rented apartment and we moved from Mladost 3 to Geo Milev (a district that is much more fitting my temper), now just 4 months later we have this greatest joy of having a son, something that many people dreamed all their life and suffered. For us it was about 6 years without a baby and the lack of a child in a family seems to extra strain situation. I do suffer and pray for all those people who can't have child and desperately want it and I hope God will bless many with the same joy in the coming years. I have to say having a baby fills up a great hole in the family and brings up new horizons for development of both families and the new born child. Most importantly a new opportunity is there for a new man to get into the kingdom of Heaven know Christ and hopefully end up in eternal blissfulness in Heaven with all the saints by the mercy of God. If you think for a while how all of us some time back in time were also a kid and how our mothers had many sleepless nights and feared for our health and well-being and how from a small baby we become a man who studied excelled in things, failed in others and have the opportunity and rationality to do complex things such as writting this article you get into the conclusion all this is hard to believe mind blowing miracle …

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Right out of Mother's Belly seeing the Light of the World for a first time – First Picture of the Baby before he officially had a name

Many people prayed for the easy birth of my wife as she is already 36 years old and in that years sometimes giving birth is dangerous and often many woman loose babies or are forced to be cut for the baby to be delivered from the belly with Caesarian section cut. Svetlana give a normal birth thanksfully and she delivered the baby for just 3.5 hours after she was accepted in hospital the previous day and doctors did an infusion of oxytocin  (a liquid hormone that doctors use to acccelarate the birth process when the baby was over carried just like it was in our case and in the case of many woman) – Svetlana overcarried it with 5 days.

After a long struggle with my wife on selecting the name, we finally named our new born baby Dimitar  born 49 centimeters / 2980 grams / Dimitar was named in honour of one of the most notorious and loved saints in the Eastern Orthodox world Saint Demitrius of Thessaloniki after a very long struggle to select the name as my wife Svetlana desired to name him Daniil (Daniel), a name which is also beautiful and belongs to the Prophet Daniel and Saint Daniel the Stylite. Svetlana had some weird ideas to name the boy Elijan (Ilia) as well as some other ideas for names like Andrei (Andrew) a very beatiful name belonging to Saint Andrew the Apostle who by the way preached on the Bulgarian Sea Coast according to Church tradition I was against not because the names are bad but because I wanted strongly to follow our well known tradition in Bulgaria to name the first born male boy after the grandfather in that case I wanted to name baby Dimitar firstly in favour of Saint Dimitar (The Myrh Bearer) of Thessaloniki to be the heavinly guide of the boy together with all the other saints under the  Demitrius / Dimitrius name as well as to venerate my father who is a very hard-working and patient parent even over the years with a such a wild child which I am.

Holy Relics of Saint Demetrius the Myrh Bearer in St. Demetrius Basilica in Thessaloniki (Greece)

Saint-Demetrius-the-Myrh-Bearer orthodox holy icon

Saint Demetrius killing Lyaeus the Glariator (depicting the spiritual destroyment of paganism by prayerrs of Saint Demetrius and a remembrance of fact that Christian Nestor killed much powerful Gladiator Lyaeaus who killed thousands of Christians on the Arena before by the all powerful prayers of Saint Demetrius)

I find worthy  to name a few of the other kid's heavinly prayer intercessors this is the well known Russian Saint Dimitrius of Rostov, The bulgarian saint Saint Demitrius of  Besarabia (an ex-territory of Bulgarian Empire) and Saint Dimitrij Donskoy, there is even more saints undet the Demetrius names canonized by the church over the centuries.

The name selection of a boy turned to be much more complicated than I thought and for anyone out there that has to go through the process of awaiting a new born I recommend you to select the name in advance as selecting the name after birth in negotiation with a woman who gave birth is a terrible and hard to bear experience as her hormones are making swing moods every now and then.

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Selecting a kid name in the past was quite an interesting process and there was various approaches here in Bulgaria, from naming the kid after a grandfather, grandmother to naming it after a big saint if he is born on a big saint's Church feast day for example if it is born on 6th of May (saint George's day) in Bulgaria it is common to name the kid Georgi or if it is Saint Cyril and Methodius Cyril.
Due to the fact the kid was born near the feast of Saint Apostole Simon the Zealot one of the names I suggested to Svetlana was Simon or Simeon even though that name was not my choice as a compromise that might fit us both. We had some discussion and we both liked the Kiril (Cyril) name, plus 11 of May was Saint Cyril and Methodius but I had an internal tension about it as we didn't have anyone in family called Kiril.

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Heart works perfect Praise the Lord ! 🙂

Finally my wife stepped back and she agreed to write the name in birth register the name Dimitar so now the kid in his Birth Certificate  is Dimitar Georgiev Georgiev.

Giving birth in Pandemics prevented me to be able to go and see the child until the day he and wife was discharged from Sofia's Maichin Dom University's hospital as clincally healthy.
Please excuse me if I'm turning your attention from the common IT themes Religion and Philosophy which I talk about but I thought putting a few lines for a life changing event as a baby birth is important for me personally to organize things in my head.

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The little Big Man

The stress around the baby born is always a big deal both for the mother and the father. But in my case thanks God I was relatively calm. The feelings in the days around birth for the father are quite extreme of course and perhaps this is why many fathers drink till forgetfulness after the baby is born. This however was not the case with me, even though due to the spiritual hardships I have a drinked a couple of beers overall I stayed sober around the birth and right after it before the baby came home.

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In front of the Prayer Chapel in Maichin Dom (where yearly the Patriarch of Bulgaria Neofit sanctifies the place with Vodosvet (Sanctification of the Water)

Talking about taking the baby I'm thankful to my dear Friends Angel / Krasimir his wife Irina and Mitko Ivanov, who were the only person to kinda of support me and come for the official dischargement ceremony in hospital. I had to organize a couple of things for the dischargement pay the bills currently in Maichin Dom the overall birth expenses for doctors, midwives, hiring room expenses (for 8 days hospitalization) was lets say normal 1345 LEVA  (~ 700 EURO) much lower price than in other non-government funded hospitals in Sofia like Nadezhda  where it would have been about 2300 LEVA, this is of course higher than social countries of Western Europe like Germany where a normal state funded birth would cost something like ~ 350 – 400 EUR but still very cheap if Compared to United Stateswhere a good orchestrated birth costs something like 25 to 30 000 USD.
As I heard from wife the birth experience she got was of course harsh but this is normal for the first baby where the levels of stress and uncertainty is absolutely unbearable for the your unexperienced parturient mother.

I have to express my sincere thankfulness to the great Head Doctor Miss Ivet Raicheva thanks to whom my wife succeded in normal birth and we have a healthy baby.as well Doctor Nikolay Gerdzhikov from Hospital Second Baby Specialized Hospital Sheinovo who  break off the amniotic fluids baloon of my wife to accelarate the overcarried baby timely birth, as well as all the pregnancy tracking doctors of UMBAL Nadezhda (A Hispital for Woman Health).

Just like I thank warmly to all the people who have given us baby clothes, baby car chairs, subtrates, carriage cangoroos and all kind of baby toys and equipment useful in raising the baby as well as all the friends who helped with advices during the pregnancy and many hardships in this 9 months before baby come to earth and after that. This are Mitko Paskalev, Mitko Ivanov / Anastasia, Krasimir, Hristina, Father Stoyan and his wife Yanna, our godfather Familiy Galin and Andrea, uncle Emilian, Vasil Kolev, Father Flavian and all others who helped us with warm prayers and good words during the hardships of pregnancy during the Coronacrisis.

Due to the Covid, every time I had to go to the hospital to bring my wife food, pampers, fruits etc. was only possible to be delivered by a medicine personal (with a small treatment fee) as entrance of externals like me was not possible.

I did not have the chance to go inside the hospital's 12th floor to pick up my wife with the baby due to the COVID-19 Virus, hospital entrance was only allowed to the parter stage and only after they check your temperature with an electronic wireless gun-like thermometer headed right in your head …
I had to then wait with the few bouquet of flowers, chocolate candys and alcohol to hand in to the main degenerating doctor which in our case was Ivet Raicheva, I have to kindly thank this professional woman for doing all the best for my wife in assisting her in birth and succeeding in a normal birth process which in our age is quite rare about at least 80% of woman give birth with a C-Section.

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Friends and Brothers / Sisters from the Church Angel, Krasi, Irina and Mitko Ivanov

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Krasimir and Irina

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In front of Maichin Dom Me seeing my boy for a first time !

After Svetlana was accompanied in the entrance stage with a medicine worker, we made the standard few remembrance pictures on the floor and infront the hospital and on a Volkswagen Taxi headed home with the baby being in fear for the baby in every car bump.

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The great joy of blessing to be with your Son for a first time

Once Dimitar was already home we rejoiced and placed him in his already prepared baby crib and left home wife for 40 minutes together with the baby and went out to for a quick treat for friends who were so kind to come for the baby.
The routine afterwards is expected as to every new born, a lot of breast feeding for wife, adaptated milk sometimes, changing pampers, baby bathing every day, swinging, singing songs to calm him down when he songs etc.

Baby-Dimitar-selected/Baby-Dimitar-Svetlana1

The responsibilities for the father of course suddenly rise as you have to be a products supporter as your wife is quite weak over the 40 days after birth, you have to clean, buy food or prepare something to eat, prepare her a breastfeeding teas, confort her and calm her. But the overall it is clear that the woman becomes much more stable version of herself after the birth she starts thinking more to the ground and dream less in fantasies as the baby helps her better see the reality and learn to sacrifice more.

Georgi-Baby-Dimitar

Let God bless and protect Dimitar by the prayers of the Holy Virgin Mary Theotokos and All Sains and help him in all the hardships from the cradle to a fully grown and wise man that he'll become one day by God's mercy!

Early disney movies – another proof Walt Disney was involved with the dark side

Thursday, July 19th, 2012

Earlier, I've blogged that Disney Movies are deeply occult and had elements of Satanism . Today a friend of mine sent me a link to an early Walt Disney studios (black & white) cartoon (comics) . This cartoon is another clear proof right from Disney's beginning years exposing Walt Disney was for sure fascinated with the death, occult and ancient occult stories. Here is the video from the distant 1929; provided kindly by (Nomen)- [ thanks for that bro 🙂 ]:

Early Walt Disney Silly Symphony – Egyptian melodies (cartoon) [ 1929 ]

Do you think, this cartoon is suitable for kids aged 3 to 12 or so? Dancing Skeletons, graveyards, Mummies, Egyptian crypts, well this is anything but not good for kids.
If you watch the movie closely you can even see two skeletons making gestures similar to if in a sex act in other words the movie even contains Necrophilia scenes.
The question , who on earth did supported or approved disney works as kids suitable. Whoever financed further the insane projects of Disney was not a sane person and didn't care at all for the nations to have a sanely grown kids. It is also very questionable; how any sane parents bought his movies and played it as harmless to their kids.

It seems to me logical that, people with a certain agenga gave disney the money and support to make Disney company the most influential and popular children cartoon producer for the last 100 years …

The psychological harm to a kid this video or any of other disney's works are evident and can be surely approved by any kid psychologist.

If you read this post and you have kids one day and want to grow them as a mentally sane ones – better keep them away Disney's cartoons.

How and Why Walt Disney Is Trying To Corrupt You and Your Children

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

I've seen a number of videos exposing, a lot of symbolism, occultism and evil contained in Walt Disney's most famous videos.

I've been amazed that a first glimpse innocent looking cartoon can contain so much magical stuff, occult and hidden satanic symbolism.
Its been amazing that we still, are continuously flooding the youth with such openly anti-christian contained cartoons.

I guess even a lot of Christian devoted couples are playing this evil message movies.
On the first look it is not immediately evident what is happening in the movies, a kid could never understand how much bad stuff is contained inside. However a grown parents can easily see if they observe the movies closely. If you don't believe me check the few videos below and also just play some of your favourite kids cartoon and do a critical analysis of what is inside. There is no doubt there is everything inside, everything instead of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
We have become terribly crazy, since we learn the kids to look for anti-Christian lives, even from the very early stages of their childhood.

The result from such movies in the growing up youth is clear; they are attracted to movies with murder violence, sex related plots, stealing lies, ungodly music, love for evil and not a search for good, hatred, betrayal and all the evils, our grandfathers were teaching us to avoid …

How and Why Walt Disney Is Trying To Corrupt You and Your Children

Was Disney Satanic – Part 1

Was Disney Satanic – Part 2

Disney is pure evil

Journalism – How Disney Movies Corrupt Young Minds

There are plenty of psychological books explaining the badness over a child mind of such movies, yet parents are not careful to protect their children but rather encourage them to watch disney's production thinking they help the kid to develop their brain …
If you're a Christian and you know this things exist and they're preached, please be careful and try to select carefully what kind of movies you play to your kids.

If you're a grow up Christian and you've been raised with this movies, don't be in wonder why you have a very severe desire for sex, money, power and occult. The desire for all this ungodly things was 'installed' in you since the time of your youth simply by being bombarded with Disney's, Hanna Barbera and the rest of the 'all times cartoon' American popular cinema and cartoons.

Play the Dangerous Dave old arcade classic on iPhone, iPad and Android Smartphone – Dangerous Dave 1990’s computer arcade classic Mario like game phone Application

Thursday, April 27th, 2017

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I still remember the good old times with my 16 Bit Desktop Personal Computer Parvetz 8086 CPU where one of the most favourite games I used to play a computer substitute for Mario for DOS operation system was Dangerous Dave 2 (DDAVE.EXE) an arcade game classic game from the distant year 1990 authored by a whiz kid which later become world famous Computer game Programmer John Romero mostly known for being a cofounder of Game creation comppany ID Software  which authored the 3D Shooter genesis classics such as Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, DOOM I and DOOM II HeXen I / II, QUAKE I,  QUAKE II, QUAKE II as well as some absolute arcade classics as Commander Keen 4 🙂

As John Romero shared himsef the game is actually inspired by Super Mario Bros so he decided to create a kinda of computer remake of the game in his teenage years and he did a great job yeah 🙂

There are similarities between Super Mario and Dangerous Dave as both have  the secret levels, the level design, the monsters, and the jump all around collecting cups with a final aim to end up in the level exit door.

The game was originally developed for Apple II and later reworked and ported to DOS and because of it is immerse popularity Dave 2, 3 and 4 come out short

The game is really awesome and worths all praise, I was nicely surprised to find out Dangerous Dave amazing game is available for Iphone 5, 5S and Iphone 6 right into Appstore

Here is the awesome Dangerous DAVE Iphone port description:

"Dave is a redneck on a rampage to reclaim his stolen trophies from the town bully, Clyde! Dangerous Dave is back in his classic adventure in the Deserted Pirate's Hideout. This recreation of the original 1990 DOS game is just as action-packed and difficult as the original! There are only 10 levels, but, wow, are they hard. "

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I have to say the game controls are pretty much amazing and the game controls even though reimplemented on the Iphone touch screen device are truly amazing so gameplay resembles pretty much the Computer original game keyboard controls and in a sense the touch screen controls are a little bit more convenient.

The iOS Dave port is pretty nice and updated version is also available which is possible to be chosen on Game entry screen so you either play classic mode or you play the Dave in the Deserted pirated hideout updated version and sound Dave remake, below is a screenshot of the updated GUI version:

Dangerous_Dave-in-the-deserted-pirate-hideout-updated-dave-gui-mario-like-computer-arcade-classic-game

Dave in the deserted pirate hideout Updated GUI shot by Alfonso Romero – level 1

Dangerous_Dave_mario-like-computer-classic-arcade-jump-and-run-ios-dave-in-the-deserted-pirates-hideout

Dave in the deserted pirate hideout Updated GUI shot by Alfonso Romero – level 2

Dangerous_Dave_Computer_like_Mario-high-level-computer-classic-arcade==

Actually Dangerous Dave is also available for Android Smartphone devices even though the controllers suck a lot compared to the Iphone version if you happen to own an Android OS phone check here 

For those who don't own an Iphone or Android SmartPhone (lucky you) you can also play Dangerous Dave online via DOSBox Web emulation from this URL

Dangerous_Dave-computer-classic-game-now-for-iphone-level5-screenshot

For those who prefer to play Dangerous Dave as a standalone desktop application as in the good old times on Windows 7 / 8, 8.1 and Windows 10 both on 32 and 64 bits platform you can download it (as of moment of writting article) from here

A mirrored version of Dangerous Dave for Windows 7/8/10 on www.pc-freak.net in case if it disappears in future check here.

Our generation people born in 1983-1986 who are now about 33 years old has grown up with this game and I'm pretty sure if you happen to be one of those people will truly enjoy to replay the quick 10 game levels and remind the fuzzy computer arcade games age when every growing kid like me was obsessed with the idea to play and complete as much as games possible with countless nights in front of the Green and Black screen and later on SVGA screens geeking on and on loosing idea of time and space and being completely sunk by the game.

Dangerous_Dave_Level-9-classic-old-school-arcade-mario-like-game

Happy gaming ! 🙂

Introduction of Holy Virgin Mary in Solomon’s temple feast in Orthodox Church – 21 November

Saturday, November 22nd, 2014

Presentation-of-Theotokos-st-Joachim-and-Anna-bringing-the-Virgin-Mary-to_Jerusalem_Temple_feast-of-introducition-of-Mother-of-God-into-temple
Presentation (Introduction) of the Holy Mother of God (Virgin Mary)
to the Solomon's temple (at that time of event the second temple) is celebrated on 21th November each year in the Orthodox Church (some Orthodox Churches like Russian / Serbian Orthodox celebrate the feast 13 days later because still celebrating the feast according to the Julian Calendar). Feast is celebrated also on November 21 in Roman Catholic Church but not celebrated in Protestant Church, because the feast is part of Church's tradition and its source of veneration is not the Holy Bible but the apocryphal book the Infancy Narrative of James (Gospel of James) also known as Protevangelion dated from (~ 147 A.D. – 170 AD

The feast is one of the Great feasts in the Church part of 12 Central Church Feasts;

September 8, the Nativity of the Theotokos
September 14, the Exaltation of the Cross
November 21, the Presentation of the Theotokos
December 25, the Nativity of Christ/Christmas
January 6, the Baptism of Christ – Theophany, also called Epiphany
February 2, the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple
March 25, the Annunciation
The Sunday before Pascha (Easter) – the Entry into Jerusalem or Flowery/Willow/Palm Sunday
Forty Days after Pascha (Easter) – the Ascension of Christ
Fifty Days after Pascha (Easter) – Pentecost
August 6, the Transfiguration
August 15, the Dormition (Falling Asleep) of the Theotokos

The feast commemorates the entrance of the Holy Theotokos for a first time into Jerusalem's temple which (for Jewish was the only temple where believed God lived in his full Glory). The Jewish even though gathering in Synagogues to read the Old Testament (Talmud) and pray, does not understand Synagogues in the sense we Christians understand Churches. According to Old Testament given revelation to the Jews, there was one temple holding the (The Ark of the Covenant) nowadays said to be kept in Ethiopian Orthodox Church in the city of Axun. In this temple people went for a special pilgrimage, thanksgiving to God and prayer. The Temple of Jerusalem was a religious site for pilgrimage which is similar to Mecca is for Muslim and  as Jerusalem's Tomb of Jesus (The Church of Sepulchre) is for us Christians. The temple was separted in 3 major parts:
Porch, Holy Place and Holy of Holies. In the Holy Place only priests and priest helpers could enter to service to God and in the Holy of Holies only the High Priest could enter once a year to sacrificy animal according to Jewish Custom. For us Orthodox Christian the High Priest nowdays is the Bishops, Arch-bishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs). 

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All believing members of the Jewish community B.C. had to be presented "officially" in front of God in the Holy Temple. When the Holy Virgin was born from the already aged (around 90 years old) St. Joachim and St. Anna. The parents out of thankfulnes to God for giving them a child dedicated their child Mary to God and when Virgin Mary turned 3 years old, st. Joachim and st. Anna decided the time to fulfill their promise and offer the Holy Theotokos to the Lord has come and after gathering other young neighbor girls (which were to introduce Mary) holding lighted torches walked in front of the young Mary.

Remarkably the Holy Theotokos walked straight without even looking back to their parents weeping (as most children does) or felt regret for being separated with parents. It was remarkable miracle showing she was choosen by God to become the Mother of the Saviour when her parents left her on the first high step (out of 15 big steps) leading to the temple, she could climb freely like a grown person without falling or showing any weakness a usual kid would do. As the young girls were singing from the Holy of Holies the High priest being told in advance by the Holy Spirit came out to receive the young kid which later become the Mother of our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Entrance_Introduction_Presentation_of-the-Virgin-Mary-to-Jerusalem-Temple
The young Mary run in joy to the hands of the High Priest Zacharias who were waiting her at the gate of the temple with other elders outrunning the other maidens.

Zacharias blessed her saying, "It is in you that He has glorified your name in every generation. It is in you that He will reveal the Redemption that He has prepared for His people in the last days."
Then, Zacharias brought the child (being moved by the Holy spirit) into the Holy of Holies place where only the High Priest was permitted to enter once a year on the Day of Atonement. He placed her on the steps of the altar, and the grace of the Lord descended upon her. The Holy Theotokos arose being overfilled by the unspoken joy that only the Spirit of Truth.

The Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple signifies her total dedication to God and her readiness for her future vocation as the Mother of the Incarnate Lord.  

HYMNS OF THE PRESENTATION OF THEOTKOS TO JERUSALEM TEMPLE

Apolytikion (Fourth Tone)
Today is the prelude of God's pleasure and the proclamation of man's salvation. The Virgin is clearly made manifest in the temple of God and foretells Christ to all. Let us also cry out to her with mighty voice, "Hail, fulfillment of the Creator's dispensation."

Kontakion (Fourth Tone)
Today, the most pure temple of the Savior, the precious bridal chamber and Virgin, the sacred treasure of God, enters the house of the Lord, bringing the grace of the Divine Spirit. The Angels of God praise her. She is the heavenly tabernacle.

 

Origin of Halloween (All Hallows Eve) or the Day of All Saints is actually Christian

Thursday, October 30th, 2014

 

 

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Many people would "celebrate" Halloween today, however many don't know or understand the true feast origin. It would probably news to many that halloween that is today so much associated with satanism, evil spirits and horror has christian origin! Here is what wikipedia States about Halloween quote:
 

The word Halloween or Hallowe'en dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin. The word "Halloween" means "hallowed evening" or "holy evening". It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows' Eve (the evening before All Hallows' Day). In Scots, the word "eve" is even, and this is contracted to e'en or een. Over time, (All) Hallow(s) Eve(n) evolved into Halloween. Although the phrase "All Hallows'" is found in Old English (ealra hālgena mæssedæg, all saints mass-day), "All Hallows' Eve" is itself not seen until 1556.

 

All-Saints-day-Latin-Roman-Catholic-icon

Before Christianization of Western societies – e.g. Irish, Old English, Scots and the other Gaelic nations, in Ancient celtic traditions Samhain (celebrated at end of October) give the beginning of the Celtic New Year. Celts believed that the spirits of the dead over the previous year come to roam the world looking for living people to possess. As a mean of protect Celts put on their face animal skin and other objects in order to be as scare as possible to drive out spirits from themselves. The Celtic people of Europe and Britain were pagan Druids (priests / educated people) whose major celebrations were marked by the seasons. At the end of the year in northern Europe, people made preparations to ensure winter survival by harvesting the crops and culling the herds, slaughtering animals that wouldn't make it. Life slowed down as winter brought darkness (shortened days and longer nights), fallow ground, and death. The imagery of death, symbolized by skeletons, skulls, and the color black, remains prominent in today's Halloween celebrations.

seasonal_activities_medieval_seasons_calendar

The "Samhain" season used to be a favourite times before Christianization and (even by some witches, later haunted by Inquisition) for occult practices such as divination and communication with the dead. They sought "divine" spirits (demons) and the spirits of their ancestors regarding weather forecasts for the coming year, crop expectations, and even romantic prospects. Bobbing for apples was one practice the pagans used to divine the spiritual world's "blessings" on a couple's romance.

Interetingly in Eastern Europe countries, there is similar traditions in multiple countries – e.g. Romania, Moldova Serbia, Greece, Macedonia, Croatia even in my own Bulgarian culture we still have regions celebrating similar pagan feast, on whose feast KukeriKukers are called the dressed people in the form and masked as scary beasts with horns dance on the streets in hope to drive away with their awful looking outlook any "evil spirits". Kukeri traditionally appear still in Eastern Bulgaria, the feast has been known to have origin from Thracians.

kukeri in Bulgaria Shiroka Lyka

It is intriguing that since, even very ancient times people believed in immortality of the human spirit and this is not coincidence, because from ancient times people know "instinctively" the soul is importal and life continues on after physical dead of the body.

The modern version of Halloween celebrated mainly by kids wandering the homes of neighbors with the question "Trick or Treat?" started being marked in that way in England, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Italy at least as early as 15th century.
Traditionally groups of poor children would go to homes collecting the so called soul-cakes (special burned small breads) made as an aim of remembrance of the Christian relatives who passed away – it was a very widespread custom to give food to strangers as a mean of charity  just like it is still in Orthodox Christian countries, we give away food to strangers as an aim to remembrance of our departed (and forgiveness of sins) to our relatives.

Halloween-christian-tradition-soul-cake-with-Cross-on-it

In the Middle Ages, churches displayed the holy relics of martyred saints for veneration and those parishes that were too poor to have relics let parishioners dress up as the saints instead a practice that some Christians continue in Halloween celebrations today.

Cross_and_Halloween_origin-of-feast

Unfortunately the Christian root of Halloween tradition gradually mixed with some of the old still not completely forgotten beliefs of paganism in pre-christian times and with the gradual raise of materialism, the protestant reformation, the enlightenment, the french revolution, the world wars etc. this mostly Christian traditions loose their Christian ground and left mostly its pagan element.
After Christianization of Europe from the 9th century onwards the Church, pagan traditions continued to be practiced by many, probably because the Church "mass" language and preaching was in Latin, people doesn't have bibles and many even baptized doesn't really had a good knowledge / understanding on Christian faith.
It is not a coincidence the Church's decision to place the All Hallows Eve (The Day of All Saints) on "Halloween" feast on 1  November.

Pope_Gregory_III-icon-Catholic-Pope-who-fighted-iconoclasm-heresy

The feast of All Saints on its current date, is traced to the foundation by Pope Gregory III (731–741) – (who was a defender of true Orthodox Christian faith  and openly against the heresy of Iconoclasm) who set this date to be  "of the holy apostles and of all saints, martyrs and confessors, of all the just made perfect who are at rest throughout the world", the feast was moved to 1 November from the prior feast from 13 May suppressed.

With the emigration of many Europeans to America the secular Halloween feast has been transferred to America and set itself as one of the United States citizens tradition in which reminded emigrants for their homeland europe making the feast popularity to boast. The bloom of TV advertisement and the decrease of faith in people, increase of occult mindset in society made the feast primordial understanding to invert associating Halloween with evil which is fun in the mass. This is quite strange as evin the ancient pagans, had not associated with evil but used the feast as a mean to protect from evil. That's another sign in what kind of tragic state currently society is … sadly the feast Americanization made it to the number of "International feasts". And now there is almost no country where Halloween is not celebrated in a secular way.

It is not a hidden fact that Halloween feast for its connection with magical powers, paganism and occult is often believed and said to be 'A feast day for Witches and magicians', its considered important feast in Anton Sandor Lavey's Church of Satan.

A lot of parents nowdays does encourage their children to celebrate the feast not understanding the real Christian roots of it and teaching children to enjoy evil often without even realizing the psychological damage this makes to a kid.
Some countries such as Russia has already legislation prohibiting the pupils in school to mask like monsters and celebrate publicly the feast.
roman_catholic_christian_halloween_pumpkin
If you're a parent it is always a good idea to tell your kid that the truth is Halloween feast is not connected to darkness as it is often publicly illustrated but on the contrary Halloween tradition is early Christian one.

Prodigy night and Spirit of Burgas 2012 – few impressions

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

The Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 - How to steal a jet fighter latest prodigy album

As a kid I have been very big fan of The Prodigy. Prodigy were considered absolutely revolutionary style band in the 1995 – 2004 years. As an ex-big fan of the band and cause of the fact I happened to be near to Burgas I decided to attend their performance on August the 5-th.
Spirit of Burgas as every year happens on the beach of Burgas.

A large number of nice underground rock / punk / jazz / reggae etc. continuing for days is not so common on the balkans so Spirit of Burgas is quite a unique undeground music gathering …
Spirit of Burgas is taking place now for a 4-th year and starting to become an established Electronic, Dance, Metal feast here on Balkans.

Below is a list of all the bands that played on Spirit of Burgas 3 days feast this year;
Spirit of Burgas year 2012 bands agenda for 3 days list picture

The 1 night entrance fee was quite expensive 40 EUR, but for a famous band as Prodigy and the rest of bands bands playing on other beach scenes I guess the price was fair. The 3 days entrance fee worth it money much more though, for 3 days ticket the price was 60 EUR. The beer price too high; 1 beer price was 1.60 EUR. For a richer countries this prices are nothing and OK but for the low salaries in Bulgaria the beer price was killing.

Besides the high price, the only beer one can buy on the beach was Becks (taking me out the choice to buy another beer brand!). Everywhere around was those annoying writings on both billboards and video sceens B’ECKSPERIENCE, Jack Daniels, DSK Bank etc. Advertsiments should be but this was a bit over-stretched!….

Prodigy performance started about 10:30 on the so called Main Stage – a big scene facing the sea. Prodigy break out and enter, the scene right after a performance of modern punk band SUM 41

I don’t know the music works of SUM 41 that’s why I skipped most of their concert checking the other stages perf-s. On most of other stages mostly Bulgarian Punk / Rock / Alternative musicians were playing.
Prodigy’s scene break-up was done with some famous buzzling sounds known from their works, as you can see from the videos I post below.
The Stage was very over-crowded, according to some estimations the concert was attended by about 15 000 people ! ! !. Considering the decay in Prodigy popularity I guess this was quite a good number.
During The Prodigy‘s play all the other scenes were shut off in order to allow everybody to enjoy Prodigy.

I should admit, the music beats and ruffs were just great, but I didn’t liked the vox messages “Keith Flinth”, was spreading; Saying some iditic phrases like:

Where is my People?, My Prodigy People, My Voodoo People and plenty of other non-sense

As a Christian I know pretty well Prodigy’s music message is not in consonance in Christianity and hence I didn’t liked to be associated as a “prodigy person”, cause I don’t want to be associated with people who preach evil. Something else, showing off the low prodigy vocal culture was his frequent use of the F*CK word, which btw was probably the most used word by almost every musician playing on every scene all night long…

The scene lightning was rich but not bright, enough to clearly distinguish what is happening on the scene.
On the back stage, there was the name of latest prodigy album – How To Steal a Jet Fighter with a background of an old jet fighter plane.

Prodigy Vocalist Keith Flinth on main stage spirit of burgas 2012

The group scene performance was quite aggressive as always, actually probably it is the primitive behavior of the band and the primitiveness in music that attracts the crowds. People nowadays are too much civilized that the wild primitive deep in us is something we hardly miss as ppl.

The Prodigy in the beginning @ Spirit of Burgas 04.08.2012

The Prodigy – Breathe, Live @ Spirit of Burgas 2012

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 1

The Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 2

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 3

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 4

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 5

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 6

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 7

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 8

The Prodigy – Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 9

Prodigy Spirit of Burgas 2012 Black Sea Party Zone 10

By the way during the concert all around the scene, there was massive marijuana smoke (not to say fog 🙂 ). Probably kilos of “Mara” (as smokers call it for short in BG) was smoken by fans during the 1.15 mins group performance.
As a result, many of the ruffling fans were in a tranced “Nirvana” state 🙂
Something, I’ve noticed is the quality of Prodigy performance, has severely fallen if compared to old concerts of the band period 1999 – 2002.
One moment in the concert was really pissing off for me, when Keith Flinth instructed the public to GET DOWN, saying something like:

Now everybody GET DOWN, I SAID GET DOWN – the sheep fans just followed the ORDER squatting; This was pure “MIND CONTROL” – almost everyone squatted unquestionably.
A girl behind me tried to push me down, to make me kneel down as I refused to squat 🙂
I told her that “I don’t follow orders, jokingly and didn’t squatted 🙂

This squatting from Christian position looked like exactly like worshipping Prodigy as [ idol (God) substitute ] …
The concert end up in a very stupid way; there was no encore performance, not even introduction of the band members to the people and even a no simply BYE to the fans. They just shut off and went away silently like a beaten dogs 🙂

Following the end of Prodigy performance on the neighbor Stage, the “legendary” Bulgarian Punk / Rock old-school band KONTROL was playing. I had great fun with KONTROL as I used to be very much loving the band back in my metal years 🙂 KONTROL’s performance was just great, but unfortunately the scene lightning was again shit and the big Video Screens was switched off so I could see the band hardly. After KONTROL’s end up another hard-core Bulgarian band jumped the scene (PIRANNHA). This guys, were completely funny and i really disliked them as they were heavily copying Venom, even their logo was copied from Venom’s Goat Pentagram (the band mascot was a Satanic Pentagram on wheels (complete iditiosm) :D)
The vocal were cursing themselves, screaming funnily “F*CK PIRANNHA, F*CK PIRANNHA !” 🙂

Spirit of Burgas was supposed to close about 5 in the morning, but I was too busy and I left in 2:45, spending few minutes listening to some kind of nice sounding Drum and Bass DJ playing on the main stage.

What’s going around Lately

Saturday, April 19th, 2008

Nothing special. Last week went just fine thanks to the Lord ! Of Course :). It was mostly peaceful. What was interesting was a method our teacher at management choose to use to make us better understand ourselves. She said I want all of you to draw me a picture of how do you foresee yourself ten years from now :). We all was surprised but just as she requested we did draw the pictures. My picture had 4 possibly futures. In one of them I was with my wife and a kid in front of our house, on the other I was owning and leading an IT company. On one of them I was helping to get out of the terrible pit of depression, addiction to drug, alcoholism, telling them “Stop there is a reason to live, God Loves you!”. In the other case I was a Senior SysAdmin in a middle size/big company managing servers/clusters. Now we had to make a report explaining our picture. I just did make my report hope the teacher would like it. Yesterday, Bino came home and proposed to go out, we went out we saw Stoyan (who btw is a Brother in Christ). Later we saw Dancho a friend of mine (a communist). First we started a normal talk later the talk just transformed into a terrible and useless argue I did a mistake not stopping whenever I had to. And in the end we decided not to see each other because it’s bad for both of us. Later Alex (an ex class-mate) called me and we went we had a walk in the central park and talked ’bout if I can say it like this “the life, the universe, and everything else” :). The next few weeks outline to be a tough one. We are going to have a lot of exams 8 or 9 ! We had a lot of projects and assignments but still I trust on the Holy one to help me make all of them and do just fine on the exams just like he helped me the last semester and the previous year.END—–

Nikwi Deluxe a top quality Freeware Debian / Ubuntu Linux Jump and Run Arcade Game

Monday, December 19th, 2011

Nikwi Deluxe Linux arcade game Freeware game main screen screenshot

Nikwi Deluxe is another good quality jump and run game for Linux

The main actor you play with is a (Dexter like) looking kid who has to collect all candy items on the level screen. The game graphics are quite a good level if compared to the most Linux jump and run games. Nikwi Deluxe Freeware Game GNU / Linux game

Your game hero is not equipped with any weapon or (jump over the enemies like in Maries) and you not haven't got any mean to kill enemies, but you have to always avoid them. There are some funny looking crawl (birds) shitting from the above every now and then, if you're hit by a the bird's droplet you die. The game has 30 levels and after each level succesful completion you're provided with a password that can be used as a "Save Game" like if you quit from game and on next game run you would like to start directly from the last game level you reachedNikwi Deluxe is another good quality jump and run game for Linux

nikwi deluxe Linux level screenshot

The only game downfall is the missing music as well as the not too brilliant sound. To boost my game experience, however put some background music and give the game a try 😉

Happy New 2012 Year, few Bulgarian New Year traditions / customs

Sunday, January 1st, 2012

Happy 2012 New Year . Wish to everyone best of luck, good health and best of success in the new upcoming year!
There is few customs, which are very typical for Bulgarian Christmas and New Year.
As I'm so keen on tradition and I'm sure many non-bulgarians are not aware of the Bulgarian custom, I'll try to name few of them and shed some light for foreigners who are about to celebrate the Christmas or New year eve in Bulgaria.

One is the back (spine) tapping, done by youngsters to elders with a stick made of cornel-tree and decorated in a very special beautiful way.

Here is how the stick the youngsters use to wish happy new year in a traditional bulgarian custom way.Survaknica Bulgariar New Year (Survane) new year custom
The back tapping to the elder is accompanied by famous words in Bulgarian saying:

Surva, Surva Godina!
Chervena Qbylka v Gradina,
edyr klas na niva,
golqm grozd na loza,
jylt mamul na lesa,
pylna kyshta s deca!
Jivo-zdravo do godina,
do godina do Amina!

This translated to english says something like:

Healthy (Complete), Healthy Year!
Red Apple in a Garden,
Large grapes in the vineyeard,
Yellow corn in the field,
full house with children!
Living-healthy until next year
in these year until the next one.

Actually this New Yearly wishings had different minor text variations in different regions of Bulgaria, but the main meaning is anyhow preserved.

Surva Surva Godina, Vesela Godina kid back tapping an older man Bulgaria
Kid using Survaknica to back tap some older man according to our tradition

You can see how simple and the same time meaningful those wishings are. They accent to the main things which were important for our forefathers. The things on which the yearly daily life depends.

Here is a video of some children in the kinder garden reciting the Surva, Surva wishing holding Survaknici

I've seen for the last 10 years these tradition as a consequence of the internationalization is starting to disappear. Now most of the times only in villages and some small regions these tradition is still practiced.
In cities gipsys are going in the early morning of the New Year morning and knocking on each apartment door offering a back tapping. Once they back tap you with Survaknica and wish you good things you're supposed to give them some food, candies and / or money 😉

Its also common that in the morning of the New Year a lot of folklore ensambles dance on the centers of cities and villages or sing Bulgarian folklore songs.

Bulgarian Folklore Choire

Some of the other things which are a kind of traditional on New Year is to go out on the city center and fire up some fires and dance some traditional dance we call Horo near the camping fire.