120. Antiques and other gems SS

Hello everyone!

It's been quite a while since I last posted, I mean, it was October when the latest entry was published! I have been in need for rest, but have still filled my days with happiness. Main reason why I've been away is that I've fallen ill many a time. Still I have had lots of fun, which I am going to share with all of you - in two consecutive posts, actually! ☺

Let's begin, starting with Friday 28th of October, which was a heavenly day. Not kidding! Despite that the monthly problems of every woman that I suffer from (long name!) tried to ruin my day, I think I spun great, warm memories from the whole day! And I mean it, the whole day!

The first thing I did immediately after school was to go to Pasila, in Helsinki... after dealing with abdominal pain, that is. I won't go into detail, but as I said, the pain and the whole, well, curse tried to make my day terrible. But I won! I was going to the big city for a few reasons, maybe the biggest being that I went to the book fair in Helsinki! If you know me for my autumn bucket list I made a few posts back, you will know how much it means to me to every autumn go there. Oh, what the heck, I'll still explain it to those of who don't know!

I've been to the fair almost every year in school, excluding 7th year (first year in secondary/middle school). I remember descending the staircase from the ground floor to the lower platform the first time (3rd year of school), getting ice cold shivers down my spine and warming up my cheeks into a smile, imagining a voice rumbling the words Welcome to the Book Fair, and all those stands in rows and the colours of people's umbrellas and jackets and the performances of the performers and oh, I remember it like yesterday! (They also sold sweets, which really added to the sweetness of the experience.)

Now I'm almost halfway through my last year before adulthood, and it still has the same effect! It astonishes me to see all the people who share a common love for books of all kinds. Children find their bookworm side and those a little older only enhance it, without being left out as 'creeps'. Here the 'creeps' gather like flies around a new book (The Cursed Child, anybody?) and the only thing that matters is what characters you like and dislike the most. The fair leaves out all judgement and everyone is considered an honourable bookworm with a vivid world of words and plots of themselves. The air is filled with the smell of books and the spirit and enthusiasm for learning and reading makes the visit worth it every year. I really hope to keep up with this tradition for a longer while!

But as I said, the biological woman in me decided to get in the way, reminding me the whole time of its presence. So I quickly looked over at a games and manga -stand (which took forever to find!) and got some Blizzard darlings; regular books because Warcraft manga couldn't be found, boohoo! So the ones I picked were the Warcraft movie-based book, filled with lore for the lore-whore I am, and Stormrage, about Illidan Stormrage's good brother who leads the druids and the whole race of Night Elves (with the absolutely gorgeous Tyrande Whisperwind). Then I passed by Akateeminen Kirjakauppa's stand and got a discount for Harry Potter and The Cursed Child! Couldn't be more happy to have found it, it!  ☺ I also did find the perfect confirmation gift for my oldest younger brother, a small book containing jokes about Vladimir Putin! From what I saw and heard, he was more than happy that I had bought something - and that 'something' was amazing. ☺

So afterwards I went straight to my grandma's by a sudden desire to rest (after asking her "Are you at home?" and she said a clear "yes", you just kind of show up without any more words being typed or said) and oh dear how I love the tram trip there and back. It shows one of the most beautiful parts of Helsinki, parts I yet have to explore. (I can't wait to do that, though!)

When I got there I got some croissants with jam immediately, and I mean immediately, I just had to walk into the kitchen and see all those golden croissants waiting for me. You know, just like most grandparents give their grandchildren so much food they basically give them the key to end the world hunger... I also tasted lemon curd for the first time, in one of those pastries, and oh my, it was the most sweet tooth caressing yet refreshing thing I have tried in what seems like forever!

Another thing I got to try out as well was African rooibos tea, super delightful and different! I also got some Ben&Jerry's chocolate ice cream, just because it took up too much space from the freezer! How fortunate is that!?

My cousin also joined us later on, when I had done what needed for the big thing in this post! We are best of friends for life, I've always had her by my side, and we can always talk about anything, laugh at nothing, and I miss her a lot, but when we see again it's like our conversations and jokes never stopped. I love her so much!

To add to the care, she gave me this adorable seal plushie! It got a special place in my bookshelf, with the bracelets, one of which I put as a headband on it!

OK, let's head for the actual topic of this post, like you saw in the title - I photographed some of my grandparents' history abroad, and want to share that colourful world with you!

I did this last year, but the information and stories I collected came out quite scarce, and my phone camera could only do poor-quality pictures... This time I had a SLR camera and my grandma put all the stories on my e-mail, so in my opinion, this one's a bit better! If you want to check out the old post, click here!

I will show you the pictures first, and don't worry, if you are a lazier kind of reader, the longest story is the first - the rest are much shorter! I'll start with this colourful work of art, the description text below it being the only straight translation of the notes my grandma wrote by e-mail.

Little by little had all the indigenous people of Mexico blended in with the mainstream, all except the Huichols of the Sierra Madre Occidental range. Even if it would’ve been easy to assimilate into the mass, they held on tight onto their traditions and mythology, where everything had a divine origin. Every one of the 26 000 Huichols in the community begin their day by lighting up a candle at a variety of altars, which they do in wish to having their prayers carried to heaven for the gods to hear.

All of the tribe’s rituals are a mixture of old myths, worshipping of gods and the catholic religion that they interpret in their own ways. For example, they believe that Mary became Joseph’s wife after Joseph won a violin competition. The most important god for the tribe is the god of the Peyote cactus, which when dried could cease the feelings of hunger, thirst, tiredness and sexual desires. If consumed whole, it causes hallucinations, through which they hope to get in contact with the gods, especially the gods of fire, water and corn. To keep the god of the sun content, the Huichols sacrifice a deer, on which flowers are put so the animal’s soul knows to fly away before death. The deer is also used as an offering for the harvest and cattle to get power to grow from its blood. To finish the ritual, the shaman mara’akame shakes a bundle of twigs to show that the soul is purified and the sun will rise again.
In the ceremony of giving a name to a child, the mara’akame burns a small piece of the baby’s hair, to cut off the baby’s connections with the above, so that a lightning can never strike the child. To protect the child from the evil eye, the mother cuts a piece of her own hair as well, keeping it in a fabric pouch until the child is five years of age. Because the god of the Peyote is the source of all life and knowledge, the villagers sacrifice food and drink immediately after the child’s got a name. The ceremony ends with the mara’akame shaman throwing a bouquet of seven branches from seven different plants. After that, the child’s soul is purified.
Because only the mara’akame is entitled to interpret the visions in the hallucinations, others may channel them into art. The visions can be displayed as masks and animals made of glass pearls, but also as pictures made of colourful strings. Themes of a picture, a nierika (this is the picture you see above), can be that of flowers, deer, snakes as the symbol for rain, and of course, the Peyote cactus. The colourful pictures are one kind of an icon, as the Huichols pray for the child and thank the rain and the good harvest before it.

You can see the picture truly has a vivid touch to it, vividness of visions that came from a simple cactus!

These here are the Makonde statues, made from ebony tree in the southern Tanzania by the Makonde tribe. Producing these statues means you’re using ebony, which is illegal nowadays. The core of the tree is pure black and the outer parts are brown, and the most amazing part of it, is that the wood is super heavy and therefore will sink in water.

The angel you see above is from Mexico and is made of the balsa tree – that’s why it’s so light in weight. It’s been made in the style of the 16th century, when the Spanish invaders came to Mexico and their monks began teaching the Bible’s content to the native people. The monks had to use tableaux to teach as the natives obviously couldn’t read. Cruel it was, when they said only blue eyed people would go to heaven – you can only guess how many blue eyed natives there were and still are in Mexico!

The painting above is actually made of several smaller paintings, by a dear friend of my grandparents who sadly passed away some years ago. This work of art has been exhibited in Mexico. Would’ve loved to go see it there!

Remember the scary head floating in front of one of the windows at my grandparents’ place? Between us, his name is Kalle, and is actually a good thing blessing the whole house. Next to Kalle is an oval painting that displays a special Cuban santo, a saint: an orisha, the equivalent of the Catholic Virgin Mary. Mary seen as the main saint in the Catholic church, you clearly can distinguish some resemblances – the son she holds should tell you the rest!

This creepy doll is actually a part of Indonesian glove puppetry for adults, which adds to its peculiar charm!

As you might recall from the previous post where I told you about my grandparents’ history through objects in their house, these two masks are from Chad, a country in Africa. I almost could guess that some of the objects in my grandparents’ home are from that continent – my father was actually born in Tanzania! The more you know ☺

These dolls are kind of mysterious when you first see them. Believe or not, they are not from Russia! They are Cartonerías, or papier-mâché art from Mexico. You can read the whole Wikipedia article about them here!

Lastly, let me introduce something for you animal lovers. Xoloitzcuintli, the breed of these dancing, pitch-black, pig-like dogs, is also known as the Mexican hairless dog. They were thought to be a guard from evil spirits, and they were a great delicacy for the Aztecs. There is also a breed in Peru which has similar traits and appearance, only being bigger than their Mexican cousins.

I really think my grandparents have lived a remarkable life, but still they are very down-to-Earth, generous and kind. It's sad that my grandpa died in April, as I miss the times when we went to museums and art exhibitions very often and for coffee afterwards. He was a wonderful person. But I still have my widowed grandma left, and she was the one who wrote notes of the stories above - I only translated and added Wiki to them! ☺

Now onto other things, like that of cats and vanilla sauce...

Or should I say, Vanilla sauce?

I've been working on a huge Halloween project that sadly went over the deadline, so it will most possibly be published on Halloween next year... so sorry! It's a World of Warcraft themed post, and I would've been so happy to publish it in time, but no can do. But it left me more than sadness, that cannot be called sadness at all. In fact, it's one of the most satisfying things right now. To get to the point of this mouth-watering term Vanilla sauce: I am obsessed with the older versions of WoW!

The stuff I had been working on in the project centered around the original World of Warcraft, also called Vanilla, and the second expansion The Burning Crusade, followed by Wrath of the Lich King. And oh my, did I get the urge to play these games in the middle of the project!? Yes!!
So now I've been school-girl-like obsessing over what World of Warcraft was before Cataclysm, by playing private servers and leveling those characters I wish to get into a guild and make some new friends. All my characters have a name of either glorious style or meaning, or are variations of Pella or Elina. Just so my guildmates, when I get new people around me, can easily remember my real name!

The design and history of my characters (not those with my own name) has fascinated me and I have an urge to draw more of them as well! I also have rediscovered the amazing lore that envelops the beautiful expansions, so I haven't and probably won't be bored for a long time!

Little Emi has been in the mood for play quite a lot! She plays with her best friend Bimbo, which is leaning more towards wrestling-while-hungry, though nowadays you can see this happen even if the little one has a tummy full of food. There are rare occasions where she doesn't seem that interested in playing with the toys specially bought for her, like her (and Bimbo's) favourite rope toy, with beige and purple strings of soft fabric falling down the end of a stick. Bimbo is actually super crazy over this toy, so it attracts him more than anybody else!

Here are some pictures of Emi who tiredly just watches us trying to engage her to play after dinner!

I think this was what I wanted to share, in this post. Yes, this post, as another one's going up sooner than you think! Exam week starts tomorrow, but I'll make sure I have time for blogging as well, working on posts with my health in mind and hopefully, maybe a post is born!

Spread the love! I love you!

Seeya!