Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americas. Show all posts


Columbus Day



Columbus Day

***** Location: America
***** Season: Autumn
***** Category: Humanity



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Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492 in the Julian calendar and October 21, 1492 in the modern Gregorian calendar, as an official holiday. The day is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza (Day of the Race) in many countries in Latin America, as Día de las Culturas (Day of the Cultures) in Costa Rica, as Discovery Day in The Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad and Fiesta Nacional in Spain, as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay and as Día de la Resistencia Indígena (Day of Indigenous Resistance) in Venezuela. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various countries since the early 20th century.

Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1905, and became a federal holiday in 1934. But people have celebrated Columbus' voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other eastern U.S. cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event. During the 400-year anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Catholic immigration in the mid-nineteenth century induced discrimination from anti-immigrant activists such as the Ku Klux Klan. Like many other struggling immigrant communities, Catholics developed organizations to fight discrimination and provide insurance for the struggling immigrants. One such organization, the Knights of Columbus, chose that name in part because it saw Christopher Columbus as a fitting symbol of Catholic immigrants' right to citizenship: one of their own, a fellow Catholic, had discovered America.

Some Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866. Columbus Day was first popularized as a holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first generation Italian, in Denver. The first official, regular Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado governor Jesse F. McDonald in 1905 and made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt October 12 was made a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day and a Federal holiday.

Since 1971, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada (which was fixed to that date in 1959). It is generally observed today by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service and other federal agencies, most state government offices, and some school districts; however, some businesses and stock exchanges remain open.


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Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 – 20 May 1506)

was a navigator, colonizer and explorer whose voyages across the Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness of the American continents in the Western Hemisphere. With his four voyages of discovery and several attempts at establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola, all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the process of Spanish colonization which foreshadowed general European colonization of the "New World."

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Worldwide use

Things found on the way


Columbus Day--
in the tide pool
a new world

H. Gene Murtha, USA
October 2009


first encounter
on a quiet, sunny beach
Columbus Day

Armando Corbelle


Columbus Day
Mount Washington
obscured by clouds

Columbus Day
getting lost on the way
to the mall

William Kenney, USA


Columbus Day
Native students boycott
the assembly

Catherine J.S. Lee, USA

Related words

***** World Days



Pickerel weed and konagi


Pickerel weed, pickerelweed

***** Location: North America
***** Season: Summer
***** Category: Plant


Pontederia cordata
Pontederia is a genus of tristylous aquatic plants, commonly called the pickerel weeds. Pontederia is endemic to the Americas, distributed from Canada to Argentina, where it is found in shallow water or on mud. The genus was named by Linnaeus in honour of the Italian botanist Giulio Pontedera.

Pontederia plants have large waxy leaves, succulent stems and a thick pad of fibrous roots. The roots give rise to rhizomes that allow rapid colonization by vegetative reproduction. Species are perennial, and produce a large spike of flowers in the summer. There is a species of bee (Dufourea novae-angliae) that exclusively visits Pontederia cordata; waterfowl also eat the fruit of the plant.

Pontederia cordata, and another member of the family, Eichhornia crassipes, have become invasive in many tropical and temperate parts of the globe, but are, on the other hand, efficient biological filters of polluted water. in constructed wetlands.
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Worldwide use


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nagaba mizu aoi ながばみずあおい（長葉水葵）
Pontederia cordata


Monochoria vaginalis is a species of flowering plant in the water hyacinth family known by several common names, including
heartleaf false pickerelweed and
oval-leafed pondweed.

It is native to much of Asia and across many of the Pacific Islands, and it is known in other areas as an introduced species and often a noxious weed. An aquatic plant, it is invasive in rice paddies and other water bodies. This is an annual or perennial herb growing in water from a small rhizome. It is quite variable in morphology.
The shiny green leaves are up to about 12 centimeters long and 10 wide and are borne on rigid, hollow petioles. The inflorescence bears 3 to 25 flowers which open underwater and all around the same time. Each has six purple-blue tepals just over a centimeter long. The fruit is a capsule about a centimeter long which contains many tiny winged seeds.
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kigo for mid-spring

konagi 小水葱 (こなぎ)
heartleaf false pickerelweed

..... sasanagi 細水葱（ささなぎ）
Monochoria vaginalis. oval-leafed pondweed

konagi tsumu こなぎ摘む（こなぎつむ）picking konagi


kigo for early autumn

konagi no hana 小水葱の花 （こなぎのはな)
konagi flowers

sasanagi no hana 細水葱の花（ささなぎのはな）
hanakonagi, hana konagi 花こなぎ（はなこなぎ）

Things found on the way


namagusashi konagi ga ue no hae no wata

Matsuo Basho　松尾芭蕉、(1693)

fish stench:
on top of waterweed
dace entrails

Tr. Barnhill

How fishy they smell!
on a waterweed,
dace entrails.

Tr. Ueda

From the weeds -
the smell of
fish guts

Tr. Addiss

This was written on a very hot day, when Basho met his haikai friends at the residence Tookaboo 別宅桃花坊 Tokabo.
The fish in the pond were trying to avoid the heat by hiding under the green leaves, but finally succumbed to the heat.


ripples split the pickerel weed--
an empty canoe
drifts to shore

--Richard Jordan
source :

Related words




Platanus (sycamore)


Platanus (sycamore)

***** Location: Europa, other areas
***** Season: Late Autumn
***** Category: Plant

Platanus is a small genus of trees native to the Northern Hemisphere. They are the sole members of the family Platanaceae.

They are all large trees to 30–50 m tall, deciduous (except for P. kerrii), and are mostly found in riparian or other wetland habitats in the wild, though proving drought tolerant in cultivation away from streams.

They are known as planes in Europe, and as sycamores in North America. (Outside North America, the name "sycamore" refers to either the fig Ficus sycomorus, the plant originally so named, or the Great Maple, Acer pseudoplatanus.)

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The flowers are reduced and are borne in balls (globose head); 3–7 hairy sepals may be fused at base, and the petals are 3–7 (or no) and spathulate. Male and female flowers are separate, but on the same plant (monoecious). The number of heads in one cluster (inflorescence) is indicative of the species. The male flower has with 3–8 stamens; the female has a superior ovary with 3–7 carpels. Plane trees are wind-pollinated. Male balls fall off the branch after shedding their pollen. The female flowers, on the other hand, remain attached to the branch firmly.

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The tree literally shrugs off pollution because it is continually outgrowing and shedding its bark. This is why the bark has an attractive "camouflage" pattern in shades of green, gray and cream. The London plane (Platanus acerifolia) is thought to have sprung up in Oxford, England in the 17th century.

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Platanus hispanica ... London Plane
Platanus occidentalis ... American Sycamore, American Plane or Buttonwood
Platanus wrightii ... Arizona Sycamore


Two travellers, worn out by the heat of the summer's sun, laid themselves down at noon under the wide-spreading branches of a Plane Tree. As they rested under its shade, one of the Travellers said to the other,
"What a singularly useless tree is the Plane! It bears no fruit, and is not of the least service to man."

The Plane Tree, interrupting him, said,

"You ungrateful fellows! Do you, while receiving benefits from me and resting under my shade, dare to describe me as useless, and unprofitable?'
Some men underrate their best blessings.

Aesop's Fables

Worldwide use



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In Germany, we have many Platanenallee, alleys with this trees by the roadside. They are a joy to drive through in autumn!



Momijiba-suzukake (London plane tree)
lit. maple leaf hanging bell tree
Platanus acerifolia

...................... kigo for late spring

flower of the platanus, suzukake no hana
鈴懸の花 (すずかけのはな)

puratanasu no hana プラタナスの花（ぷらたなすのはな）
..... botan no ki 釦の木（ぼたんのき）



yellow leaves of the platanus, momijiba もみじば

momijiba fuu 紅葉葉楓（もみじばふう）
Liquidambar formosana（楓, kaede, maple tree）
of Chinese origin.

Things found on the way

Right outside my front door grows a giant American Sycamore, an outsized tree for a cramped city neighborhood. It's crown of branches crowd in so close to the second floor windows that when I am in that room I feel like I'm living in a tree house.

My favorite description of a sycamore, from a poem
by Gregory Orr, "Elegy," (for James Wright):

from which the grey bark
peels and drops until
it stands half
in rags, half in radiance.

Larry Bole


I love the trees surrounding our house in this little "neck" of the woods (being playful... I might say due to the colors of autumn and my family: me, my wife, sons, and cats, being born in the
South... "redneck" of the woods.)

in such symmetry
spread toward heaven
while holding earth tight
display their colorful array
yet never see the sight



faint autumn sun --
a plane tree leaf drifts
and tumbles down

©　Isabelle Prondzynski / Photo Album


platanin list
pade na deteljice --
vse triperesne

a sycomore leaf
falls onto the clovers --
all are tree-leaf

une feuille de platane
tombe sur les trèfles --
tous à trois feuilles

　©　Alenka Zorman. tempslibres 2005


autumn sun ...
a sycamore tree
changes colour

Ella Wagemakers, 2011


the nakedness
of sycamores stretching

photo credit : one of our front yard trees,
Sacramento, California, June 2012、by Rebecca Judge

In Sacramento, California, USA : our sycamores are molting, now in June.

molting sycamore
kigo for early summer

Louis Osofsky
- WKD facebook 2012 -

Related words

***** . Autumn Leaves (momiji, Japan)
yellow leaves, colored leaves



Cactus (saboten)


Cactus (saboten)

***** Location: Japan, other areas
***** Season: Late Summer
***** Category: Plant













© WIKIPEDIA has more !

Worldwide use


I open my window
a cactus flower unfurls
in the desert

Sandip Sital Chauhan
Joys of Japan, February 2012


Things found on the way

Musings from the Sonoran Desert


saboten no same hada mireba aki no kaze

looking at the shark skin
of a cactus...
autumn wind


saboten wa oogatten ka kesa no shimo

does the cactus
grasp the great truth?
morning frost

Issa, Tr. David Lanoue


a cactus bloom's
yellow translucence
blacktop highway

Allen McGill, tinywords 2003


hotpink blooms
hedgehog cactus
hailing summer

Izabel Sonia Ganz, 1998

Related words

***** Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii) Weihnachtskaktus



Passion Flower



Passion Flower(tokeisoo)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: All Summer
***** Category: Plant


Passion Flower, "Clock Flower" tokeisoo 時計草 (とけいそう)
..... boronkazura ボロン葛 (ぼろんかずら)
Maypop, Passiflora incarnata


Maypop (Passiflora incarnata), also known as Purple passionflower, is a fast growing perennial vine with climbing or trailing stems. A member of the passionflower genus Passiflora, the Maypop has large, intricate flowers with prominent styles and stamens. One of the hardiest species of passionflower, it is a common wildflower in the southern United States.

The stems can be smooth or pubescent; they are long and trailing, possessing many tendrils. Leaves are alternate and palmately 3-lobed, measuring from 6-15 cm. They have two characteristic glands at the base of the blade on the petiole. Flowers have five bluish-white petals. They exhibit a white and purple corona, a structure of fine appendages between the petals and corolla. The large flower is typically arranged in a ring above the petals and sepals. They are pollinated by insects such as bumblebees, and are self-sterile.

The fleshy fruit, also in itself called a Maypop, is an oval yellowish berry about the size of a hen egg; it is green at first, but then becomes orange as it matures. In this species, the yellow mucilage around the seeds of the fruit is sweet and edible, however it is quite seedy and mostly benefits wildlife. As with other passifloras, it is the larval food of a number of butterfly species.

Traditionally, the fresh or dried whole plant has been used as a herbal medicine to treat nervous anxiety and insomnia. The dried, ground herb is frequently used in Europe by drinking a teaspoon of it in tea. A sedative chewing gum has even been produced.

The Maypop occurs in thickets, disturbed areas, unmowed pastures, roadsides and railroads. It thrives in areas with lots of available sunlight. In areas of growing forest, they will disappear as the sun is blotted out by growing trees.

Other common names include Wild apricot and May apple.

©　Wikipedia


©　Linda Inoki / Japan Times
July 2007

Oh, cut me reeds to blow upon,
Or gather me a star,
But leave the sultry passion-flowers
Growing where they are

I fear their sombre yellow deeps,
Their whirling fringe of black,
And he who gives a passion-flower
Always asks it back.

By Grace Hazard Conkling (1878-1958)

In the 1500s, Spanish conquistadors discovered some extraordinary New World flowers, which struck them as vivid symbols of their religion. The outer circle of petals and sepals they saw representing 10 of Christ's early disciples. The feathery inner circle to them symbolized the multitude of Christians; while the five anthers and three styles symbolized the five wounds and three nails that Christ suffered on the cross.

Moreover, when Jesuit priests noticed native Indians eating the small yellow or purple egg-shaped fruit, they read it as a sign that they were thirsting for the Christian religion. So the Spanish named this plant passiflora, meaning "passion flower," after the passionate sacrifice of Christ.

Since then, about 500 species of the genus Passiflora have been found, mostly climbers from the warmer zones of the Americas with red, yellow, green, white or purple flowers. Some tropical species are cultivated for their tasty fruit (P. edulis and P. quadrangularis).

But for flowers it is hard to beat P. incarnata, pictured above. This is romping away in my garden, and it is delightful to find fresh blooms opening on a summer's morning, then fading at the end of the day. Incidentally, the Japanese name means "clock-flower," for its resemblance to the face of a clock.

Worldwide use


Madia glomerata, madia sativa.

The passion flower has served as a floral tribute to the passion of Christ for centuries, and is always a favorite flower on traditional gravestones in Ireland. The passionflower is pretty well rooted in Irish culture. The so-called Passion Flower Hornpipe is very popular among the Irish traditional musicians. I have seen even passionflower cross tatoos!

Anatoly Kudryavitsky

wasp's job done -
a golden rain of pollen
from passionflowers

by Anatoly Kudryavitsky
(from 'Morning at Mount Ring', DOGHOUSE Books, 2007)

Things found on the way

Poem by Margaret Fuller

Where the passion flower grows
Poem by Charles M. Moore

Passion Flower and Poetry


nangoku no toki o kizamishi tokeisoo

it keeps the time
of the Southern countries -
the passion flower

Minami Fuuko 南風子 さん

©　livedoor ハイクブログ

Tr. Gabi Greve


Just a little peek
the underside
of passion flower

©　vincent tripi
The Heron's Nest, Volume VII, Number 3: September, 2005

Related words