#Franklin Sciacca

[brightgnosis]

The most typical [embroidery] motif [... is] Broadly speaking […] the axis mundi, the spinning spindle of Fate itself, [which] represents not only the center of community, family and village life, but that also generates the Life Force. The axis-pillar is that liminal space where contact between the worlds (upper, lower, and earth) is made possible and where supernatural communication is perceived to be manifest. It is represented on the rushnyky variously as the Goddess (in a number of forms: birth goddess, the protectress Berehynia, the goddess of life-giving moisture, the goddess of regeneration), the Tree of Life, [and] in its Christian redaction the Cross of Christ, and in more recent times a vase or bouquet of flowers. [These] motifs appear to be varied, yet they all share an underlying message of the life-affirming and generative power of the earth and the promise of resurrection and life.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[usaroadtripp-blog]

Day 57

Tutti siamo passati attraverso la fase rock star quando urli con la cornetta della doccia in mano e sogni di firmare autografi e riempire gli stadi con i tuoi concerti, e chissà quante volte l'avrà immaginato il giovane John Francis, sbarbatello del New Jersey che aveva ricevuto una chitarra in regalo a soli sette anni e aveva deciso di diventare un musicista! Ribelle, di umili origini italiane, i nonni erano siciliani di Sciacca e Agrigento, John si trovò davanti una grande opportunità, nel 1984 gli viene offerta infatti la parte di Ren McCormack nel celebre film Footlose, la Paramount infatti aveva deciso di trasformare il ribelle della danza in un ribelle del canto! Al giovane John sembrò una scorciatoia e quando disse di no ai produttori, la parte andò a Kevin Bacon e Footlose divenne in breve tempo un film generazionale lanciando in orbita la futura stella del cinema.

E John?! Beh lui tornò a casa sconsolato e chissà come si sarà sentito ad essere stato così orgoglioso da non volersi vedere come una cometa del cinema col sogno da rock star, ma voler VERAMENTE essere una rock star. Decise di studiare alla Sayreville War Memorial High School in Parlin, sempre nel New Jersey, qui conobbe David Bryan, attuale tastierista della band e Dorothea Hurley, sposata 4 anni dopo e ancora oggi sua moglie, gli viene proposto un contratto, il suo primo contratto da musicista, ma c'era ancora una cosa da risolvere il suo nome d'arte e allora decise di scomporre in due parti il cognome italiano del padre Bongiovi che divenne John Bon Jovi, il resto è storia, milioni di dischi venduti, 15 lavori in studio e si è permesso anche il lusso di recitare in diversi film!

Comunque tutto questo per dire che Bon Jovi è nato a Perth Amboy e oggi nel mio secondo giorno nel New Jersey siamo proprio in questa cittadina.

Ho seguito l'Arthur King che divide lo Stato di New York dal New Jersey da Elizabeth mi sono ritrovato nella contea di Middlesex, qui sorge questa cittadina anonima ma col tipico fascino del Jersey. Iniziamo con un po' di storia! Fondata nel 1684 da James Drummond duca di Perth e dall'incrocio ta la parola "Ompoge" ossia “Level Ground” in una traduzione da un'antica proto lingua Algonquian, Perh Amboy è stata per tanti anni abitata dal popolo dei Lepane, nativi americani che si erano ben insediati nei territori del Delaware, in Pennsylvania ma che arrivarono fino alla valle dell'Hudson. Società matriarcale dove agli uomini era concesso di procacciare la carne e difendere il territorio, i Lepane erano divisi in diverse tribù principalmente rivali nella gestione delle risorse del territorio, solo raramente in guerra, per avere la meglio su questo o quel appezzamento di terreno, anche se la vastità delle risorse era enorme e spesso le competizioni erano legate all'orgoglio più che a reali necessità economiche. Ma torniamo a Perth Amboy! Nata come colonia scozzese, fu capitale della provincia del New Jersey dal 1686 al 1776. Di questo importante passato ne è testimonianza la Proprietary House, la casa di William Franklin figlio di Benjamin Franklin, ma anche dalla Chiesa di San Pietro, fondata nel 1718 dalla prima congregazione episcopale dello stato.

La città è inoltre protagonista del racconto breve “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” scritto nel 1939 da James Thurber dal quale sono stati tratti due adattamenti cinematografici uno nel 1947 con Danny Kaye e il secondo nel 2013 con Ben Stiller.

Al 200 Front St. di Perth Amboy c'è il The Armony uno dei pochi ristoranti decenti della città, qui ci sono piatti di pesce con forti influenze portoghesi, alla fine la scelta è ricaduta su i classici Crab Cakes, un bel Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail e il Grilled Norwegian Salted Cod ossia il nostro baccalà.

Per la canzone di oggi avendo già usato ieri un pezzo di Bon Jovi mi è sembrato doveroso rendere omaggio ad un grande artista come Tom Waits e alla sua Jersey Girl, pezzo rilanciato da Bruce Springsteen (di cui parleremo molto presto). Ah ovviamente se volete sentirla ecco il link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-ROB8kI_fw

[golfcircus]

Congrats!!!! Alvaro Quiros of Spain holds the trophy after winning The Rocco Forte Open at The Verdura Golf and Spa Resort on May 21, 2017 in Sciacca, Italy. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images) #golf #golftournament #europantour (en Marbella, Spain)

[brightgnosis]

The talismanic properties of the rushnyk are most often reinforced by woven or embroidered motifs at each end; these are nearly always identical. There is no top or bottom of a rushnyk [as they] are intended to be hung around an icon or frame, tied around a cross, wrapped over the shoulder or around the waist, or held in outstretched hands from the usually unadorned center, with the two side flaps hanging downwards towards the earth. The decorated ends drape in parallel. The woven or embroidered symbols thus appear in duplicate, side by side.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

There are several broad uses of rushnyky: Protection of family, home, and village; invocation of fertility; function as conduit / pathway / magical bridge for transport across sacred time and place — or as an opening to the sacred realm; and in binding rituals. [Additionally] In almost any Ukrainian home the family icons, and, more recently, family photographs would be draped in protective rushnyky. [And] When honored guests are greeted, bread and salt are presented on outstretched hands that are covered with a rushnyk.

Ceremonial towels were integrated into all [life state] rituals [as well]. Rushnyky were used to welcome new-born infants, who were wrapped in them. A linen cloth was “one of the main ways of marking the transitional state of a new-born … A piece of linen was the necessary ritual object” to be used when baptizing an infant. The cloth symbolizes “the world of culture in which the child entered from the world of nature”. This cloth would be preserved to make a wedding towel, and wedding towels were preserved for funeral rituals, when they were placed in the coffin or tied to a grave cross.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

The spinning and weaving of raw fiber into fabric is one of the earliest complex technologies developed by human beings. As such, it is a perfect paradigm for the conception of […] transmutation[- moving] unprocessed, chaotic raw material into processed, ordered artifact. The transformation of a tangle into thread reflects a manipulated transition from non-existence into existence, chaos into civilization, Nature into Culture. It is no wonder [then] that the spindle and the act of spinning have been perceived as sacred since pre-historic times; from the unformed, inchoate mass of fibers, a discrete thread is twisted and pulled.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

Attention is paid to the curious politicization of the ritual towel in Ukraine not only in the Soviet period, but subsequently in independent Ukraine, particularly in the recent country-wide creation of a "Rushnyk of National Unity" — the stitching of an oversized towel as a means to symbolize the binding of the disparate (and often combative) regions of the newly independent nation. This […] demonstrate[s] innovation in the use of ritual towels and how they are […] employed in new contexts.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

In the Ukrainian funeral ritual, the use of rushnyky […] create[s] a magical pathway to the world of the dead and thereby help[s to] lead the soul of the dead to repose. In some regions of Ukraine, the coffin was lowered into the grave on long woven rushnyky, which, according to folk belief, symbolized the road to the “Other World”; “The rushnyk was placed not only on the coffin but also inside [it], since people believed that the angels used the ritual cloth to carry the soul of the deceased to heaven”.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

The word rushnyk (singular form) derives from ruka, “hand,” and while it can refer to an ordinary towel for use in bathing, the ceremonial rushnyk is distinct in its elaborate ornamentation. These woven or embroidered designs and motifs reinforce the symbolic meaning of the rushnyk itself. That they are considered sacred objects can be easily gleaned from their typical placement over icons and on crosses that are raised over graves and at the site of holy wells.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

Another example of the use of rushnyky to magically facilitate transitions is the ritual observed when a new bride is first introduced to […] the home of her husband. “The threshold was covered with a ritual cloth specifically for the bride’s passage. According to belief, the spirits of the family’s ancestors reside under the threshold and a stranger entering the home might be harmed by the ancestral spirits. But if the threshold is covered with a ritual cloth — a symbol of protection — the stranger can enter the home without being harmed".

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

Let us take a look at the construction of a rushnyk. First and foremost, it should be an unseamed length of whole cloth. The length is variable according to use and regional custom, but the width considerably narrower (and usually no wider that about a foot and a half) — typically the width of the loom. The cut ends are hemmed and / or knotted [… or] “sealed” […] This is frequently reinforced by a woven or embroidered border design. As Kononenko has observed, the edges of a towel are traditionally [further] marked by what she terms a “dispel”. This can be part of the embroidered design and / or an elaborate web of knotted or crocheted fringe. “[The dispel is] supposed to point down to the ground and take all of the evil out of the household and transfer it into the soil. The earth, it is believed, has the power to absorb evil and dispense it”.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

We observe that all evidence indicates that ceremonial towels were made exclusively of homespun and loomed linen. But by the mid-twentieth century, when the tradition of hand spinning and weaving had in most regions disappeared, linen was replaced by manufactured cotton, and more recently by polyester.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)

[brightgnosis]

The length of linen fabric functions as a portal to the sacred realm. It marks liminal space, the sacred center, the place of ritual communication at the boundary of the supernatural world.

From "Ukrainian Rushnyky: Binding Amulets and Magical Talismans in the Modern Period", published in the Folklorica Journal, 2014; Franklin Sciacca (My Ko-Fi Here)