A WORD OR TWO
I am most pleased to announce that the first issue went off without a hitch. The jury is still out on what people thought of my efforts, but so long as most people took a moment to go “ahh,” I cannot be disappointed. I have no doubt you will enjoy the content of this week’s issue, as I continue to shed light on the mysteries of Christmas and the holiday season. A pity we do not understand the rich traditions of why we do the things we do—much of it has become so distorted that it is not really a tradition at all, but a routine.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Education: that which reveals to the wise—and conceals from the stupid—the vast limits of their knowledge.”
—Mark Twain

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

DEC. 13, 1642: Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European explorer to sight the South Pacific island group now known as New Zealand. In Tasman’s sole attempt to land, several of his crew were killed by warriors from a South Island tribe, who interpreted the Europeans’ exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. A few weeks earlier, Tasman discovered Tasmania, the island off the southeast coast of Australia. Tasman had named the island Van Diemen's Land, but it was later renamed Tasmania in his honor (as was the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand).
               Van Diemen, the source of the island’s original name, was a colonial governor of the Dutch East Indies who is best known for his efforts to foster exploration of the areas around Australia. He sent Tasman in 1642, so Tasman decided to name the island after his sponsor. The name stuck for quite some time, and became a byword for horror in England due to the severity of Van Diemen’s Land’s convict settlements. The name Van Diemen’s Land eventually became so repugnant that when the island became a self-governing colony in 1855, one of the first things the legislature did was change its name to Tasmania. The old name stuck for a while, however; Tasmanians were referred to as Vandemonians until the turn of the century.
               New Zealand, named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century, when English explorer Captain James Cook traveled through the area and wrote detailed accounts of the islands. It is interesting to note that the province of Zeeland is in the southwest portion of the Netherlands, directly near the sea; it should therefore not be surprising that Zeeland is Dutch for “Sealand.” Sources: www.wikipedia.org and www.historychannel.com.