Pumpkin, Halloween, Traditions

I didn't do a YouTube video on this pumpkin picture.  I had started it a few weeks ago and kept redoing it.  The photo isn't great as I took it in artificial evening light at the dining room table.  As it is a seasonal subject I'm putting it here on the blog.  

I don't really celebrate Halloween (in the commercial sense) but I do make a pumpkin pie each year - it has become a family tradition.  I no longer make it with fresh pumpkin but use a reliable tin of pumpkin puree.

Mythical World

 

As the modern world progresses there seems to be more discontentment among people.  There is desire to have more and do less. Generations of people who think they are entitled.  Little thought (if any) is given towards their ancestors or people that came before them.  Ancient traditions, crafts, rituals are being lost.  We no longer have many people to pass on the knowledge, folklore, myth and legend that was passed down from generation to generation. Artifacts and things of provenance are dismissed by those that see no value in them.  Society (in general) or the one that the media promotes seems more concerned in the latest celebrity scandal, fast food and the most fashionable dog to own.  If you seek a life that isn't superficial, on the whole, you may be seen as eccentric, an outsider or just a plain old weirdo.  I am quite happy to accept the title of weirdo but prefer unconventional.

Seeking affirmation for my thoughts I found and watched a recording made in 1997 from a leading scholar who was a founding director of  Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts .  What she said resonated strongly with me.

'We have lost the connection with the mythical world and no reality is worth living as far as I am concerned, unless it is a myth which gives it the meaning.

Cultures lived by their myths and they made life both plausible and beautiful to live because the mythical world was alive.  The modern world has killed myth and in killing myth it has dehydrated one part of itself.'

The words were that of Kapila Vatsyayan (25 December 1928 - 16 September 2020). She had such wise countenance.  I am sorry that I only just discovered her.