Thursday, March 24, 2011
National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day is a day to enjoy this tasty combination of chocolate and fruit. Chocolate lovers who like raisins, find the combination simply irresistible.
Are you watching your waistline? National Chocolate Raisin Day will not help you here. You're on your own.
Follow the Logic?: Chocolate is made from cocoa beans ( a vegetable) and raisins are from grapes (a fruit). And, we all know that vegetable sand fruit are good for you. Therefore, isn't chocolate covered raisins good for you?
Origin of "National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day":
Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. This day was most likely created by the candy makers. We also find it surprising that this day is during the Christian season of Lent, when many people give up chocolates. Sometimes, life just isn't fair........
This is referred to as a "National" day. We did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day.
As we know, raisins are really just dried grapes, but they both have an incredible history of magical legend and lore behind them. In fact, most ancient Egyptian tombs were stuffed with grapes and jars full of raisins, as these were said to be sacred to Greek and Roman deities like Dionysius and Bacchus. Some of those same ancient traditions also told of eating grapes to produce inspirational dreams or to encourage fertility. Gardeners say that planting grapes in temperate climates will help strengthen all other plants growing nearby.
The secret Shui says that you should surround a bunch of grapes with a handful of silver coins. As you hold your hands over the grapes, visualize tons of money coming immediately into your life. Once you can actually feel as if the money has already manifested, you can eat the grapes, keeping an attitude of gratitude for the cash now coming your way. Raisins that have been dried by the sun are also eaten in money drawing diets.
Raisins are aligned with the fire element in Feng Shui, so eating them also encourages recognition and rewards.
Could there be anything better than eating chocolate covered raisins to raise your own profile and fame factor? Nah -- and yum! By Ellen Whitehurst for Astrology.com
Ancient Alcoholic Beverages - Beer
Earliest Known Winery Found in Armenian Cave National Geographic - January 11, 2011
Barefoot winemakers likely worked in cave where oldest leather shoe was found. As if making the oldest known leather shoe wasn't enough, a prehistoric people in what's now Armenia also built the world's oldest known winery, a new study says. Undertaken at a burial site, their winemaking may have been dedicated to the dead - and it likely required the removal of any fancy footwear. Near the village of Areni, in the same cave where a stunningly preserved, 5,500-year-old leather moccasin was recently found, archaeologists have unearthed a wine press for stomping grapes, fermentation and storage vessels, drinking cups, and withered grape vines, skins, and seeds, the study says.
9,000-Year-Old Beer Re-Created From Chinese Recipe National Geographic - July 19, 2005
A Delaware brewer with a penchant for exotic drinks recently concocted a beer similar to one brewed in China some 9,000 years ago. Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, used a recipe that included rice, honey, and grape and hawthorn fruits. He got the formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China. The residues are the earliest direct evidence of brewed beverages in ancient China.https://www.crystalinks.com/earlyalcohol.html

March 24

* Harry Houdini's Birthday - 1874
* National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day