Hogmanay, the traditional Scottish New Year’s Celebration
These customs going back hundreds of years are believed to originate with Viking rituals. The traditions inspire hope for health, prosperity, and new beginnings in the New Year.
Helen Breen
Retired (sorta), English teacher, big nonfiction reader, often write about the history of Lynnfield, Essex County, and somewhat beyond. Love London and Dublin.
Proud member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and the Colonial Society of Massachusetts
George Washington returns to Mount Vernon, Christmas Eve 1783
The house was festooned with greens, the tables were laden with food and wine, the burning tapers reflected in the sparking silver and crystal. The War was over and the father of the family had returned safely.
Traditional American Thanksgiving in Art and Song
Among America’s most beloved renderings of Thanksgiving Day are Currier & Ives lithographs, Grandma Moses’s paintings, Lydia Marie Child’s “Over the River and Through the Wood” and Norman Rockwell’s paintings.
Yankee dictionary; a compendium of useful and entertaining expressions indigenous to New England
In 1963 Charles F. Haywood published the Yankee Dictionary, dedicated to his parents “both of whom loved Old New England, its life, its people, its history, its customs and its speech.”
After electoral defeat, neither Adams President attended his successor’s inauguration
John Adams, our second President, and his eldest son John Quincy Adams, our sixth President, both quietly departed Washington on the eve of their opponent’s inauguration. Each did so in good conscience, leaving their successors, Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson respectively, to enjoy two terms in office.
Remembering VJ Day – 75 years ago, August 14, 1945
As a five year old growing up in West Lynn, I distinctly remember VJ Day. We lived within earshot of the two enormous GE factories in the city – the West Lynn and the River Works plant. The war was the backdrop to my early years.
“A Christmas Carol” – the Back Story
When Charles Dickens was twelve, his feckless father was imprisoned for three months in Marshalsea Prison in London for debt. The boy had to leave school and work in a boot blackening factory to support the family, a humiliation he never forgot. Nevertheless, Dickens rose to fame quickly as a young novelist becoming “an international celebrity, famous for humor, satire, and keen observation of character and society.”
A century ago – The Spanish Flu epidemic raged in Massachusetts in 1918
The flu pandemic that spread throughout the world in 1918-1919 may have killed more people than the medieval Black Death.
“In the Good Old Summer Time” – Swampscott Estates
In the 19th Century, wealthy professionals and businessmen who chose to construct lavish summer homes in Swampscott for themselves and their families to enjoy its sea breezes and ocean views.
The Vermont Country Store catalogue evokes Christmas nostalgia
“Purveyors of the Practical and Hard-to-Find since 1946” reads the masthead on the Vermont Country Store catalog mailed to thousands of American homes regularly.
Buon Natale – The Rich Christmas Traditions of Italy
Italians celebrate Christmas for a full month from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8 through the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6. Although some regional differences exist, the month basically is devoted to religious observances and spending time with family and friends.
Daniel Low’s Silver “Witch Spoons” among Salem’s First Souvenirs
By Helen Breen Daniel Low & Co. started on the bottom floor of the First Church, Unitarian, 231 Essex Street at the corner of Washington Street in Salem. The jewelry company purchased the church in 1923, elegantly refitting the structure as an appropriate setting for its luxurious merchandise. […]
Boston Irish Long Remembered the 1834 Charlestown Convent Fire
Featured image: Woodcut image of the 1834 burning of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts. Catholics and fair minded Bostonians were dismayed by the tragedy. by Helen Breen This week marks the 183th anniversary of the burning and ransacking of the Ursuline Convent in Charlestown, Massachusetts on August 11, […]
Thoreau July Bicentennial Celebrated in Concord and Around the World
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
A St. Patrick’s Day Reflection
Homecoming: JFK in Ireland, June 1963 by Helen Breen DUBLIN Two years ago while in Dublin, I took a tour of Leinster House, a magnificent ducal residence now the seat of the Irish Parliament. At the end of our visit we were guided up an impressive marble staircase. […]
An MLK Day Reflection – “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”
by Helen Breen Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was first established as a national holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983. THE LAST SPEECH On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., flew into Memphis, Tennessee to support striking African American sanitation workers in the midst […]
Remembering Poe
Edgar Alan Poe Returns to Boston – A Halloween Reflection by Helen Breen Poe’s stories of horror and suspense, along with his melancholy poetry, are part of Halloween traditions in America. The writer, who was born in Boston in 1809, maintained a love/hate relationship with the city during […]
An Amazing Coincidence on July 4, 1826
John Adams died quietly at six o’clock on the evening of July 4, 1826 at the age of 91. His last words were: “Jefferson survives.” He did not know that on the same day in Monticello, Virginia, his long-time rival Thomas Jefferson had breathed his last at the age of 82.
A Nostalgic Glance at Harvard’s Early History
*From it’s earliest days, the people of Ipswich made frequent contributions to Harvard College. William Hubbard of Ipswich, the son of the Rev.William Hubbard, in his twenty-first year, ‘was one of that remarkable group of nine young men whom Harvard College sent forth in 1642, as the first […]
A Heated Battle – Lodge vs. Curley 1936
In the midst of the inflammatory rhetoric of the American Presidential campaign, let reflect on the no less acrimonious Massachusetts US Senate race of 1936. In the ring – Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., a Harvard educated Brahmin of impeccable credentials. His opponent – James Michael Curley, combat-scarred Irish politician who had served as mayor of Boston and Governor of Massachusetts.
The Merchant Princes, Cyrus Wakefield and George Peabody
by Helen Breen Question: What Do Wakefield and Peabody Have In Common? Answer: Both renamed their Essex County towns in the mid 19th century to honor their “favorite sons” and benefactors – Cyrus Wakefield (1811-1873) and George Peabody (1795-1869). The 19th century “merchant princes” of Boston were ambitious, […]
Glen Magna and the Joseph Peabody Family of Salem
The Glen Magna Estate is now managed as a non-profit by the Danvers Historical Society. Photo courtesy North of Boston magazine Article by Helen Breen Before the advent of the modern transportation, affluent city dwellers often built their summer residences within a few miles of home. Such was […]
Historic Ipswich 