Earth Day: Goths Can Go Green Too!

Earth Day is the time when you ever thought it's a bullshit, you realized (after so many busy things) that you have lived in a dying planet. Yeah, WE make it dying. Some of us have decided to make a change. Come on! Don't let those hippies alone. Let's save the world together, and here's what I can do regularly as a Goth:

1. Thrifting

source

I put it on number one because it is multi eco-friendly. By doing this, you have reused everything from garments to furnitures, recycled the materials, and you've got some money saved. Besides, you'll also find many great things that never come from modern stores nowadays.

2. DIY and Sewing

source

DIY-ing and sewing are the alternatives of thrifting or the opposite. You may have reduced the consumption of materials, and it increases your creativity. Honestly i can't really do a good sew - still trying.

3. Conserve The Energy

source

It doesn't mean that Goths LOVE darkness xD You don't have to change all bulbs with candles (the risk of fire is bigger eh?). What you need to do is use your window space (between the curtain) where the sunlight comes at the day. Turn the lamp off when you go out, when you don't need it and when you're about to bed. The same thing is also applied to another electrical appliances you often use like TV, radio, DVD, charger, computer, etc.

4. Save Water

source

It doesn't absolutely include to limit your drink! Well, I can't save much water in bathing because I need about 20-30 minutes to clean up (I just need more "privacy"). However, what I am able to do is wash clothes manually with cold water. I can't tell how many clothes I always wash but usually it needs 3 medium pails of water. I have to do this since i'm not allowed to own any kind of washing machine. However, if you have the machine, just remember to use it efficiently. The positive things I got are reduce the electricity usage, paid bills seemed fine, and it is good for exercise. Go muscle!
If you are not used to wash clothes manually, I suggest you to wash the dishes. Wet all the dirty dishes, turn off the faucet. Turn it on again when you want to clean them. It's more effective than you wash them one by one and let the water keeps flowing unused. Don't worry about the black nails, they stay cool still.

5. Support Dermatologically-Tested, No Animal Testing, and Organic Ingredients Cosmetics

source

I know that there are still many brands which do test on animal, but it is a good start to avoid them, or at least reduce the usage of those products. By doing this, you have saved the other living creatures from violation. The example is Oriflame which has launched EcoBeauty collection. I have used one of the products and wrote the review here, and you may check the website.

Furthermore, I don't mean to guarantee if a product is truly claimed to be eco-friendly. It can be just a marketing label. Just be aware and love your own skin more.

6. Donation or Garage Sale

source

Spare your time to collect all of old stuff you don't want to use anymore. Then, sort all of them by type whether you want to donate or make it on sale. You don't only take care of the environment, but you also help people around you.

7. Reuse Plastic Bag

Source

Plastic is a material which can't be decomposed naturally. I think it's better to use it again when you have something to bring, especially if it's wet and you don't want it inside your bag. If i'm out of plastic, i'll use fabric bag. I have plenty!

8. Dispose Garbage in Its Place

source

No need to say more about this. If there's no trash can around me, i usually keep it inside my pocket until i find a place to throw.

9. Public Transportation

source

Well, I do not own any car or motorcycle yet, so I go to work and college with a shared-ride vehicle. In my living place, I often use what are called Transjakarta, Mikrolet and Ojek. I make myself go by feet if my destination isn't too far.

10. Recycle, Reuse, Reduce, Revamp! Plus Lifehack-ing

Source

Hell yeah, revamping is such a fun activity. What you need is some stuff from the craft or material store, combined with sense of creativeness like DIY. Guess what? You'll see like you have a new item no one can find anywhere!

I may not have any tips to make a compost, or even to eat less meat. But you see what i've been doing this far. Of course, it depends on your living area. As for me, I live in the capital of tropical country, in a boarding house with my family.

source

How about you? What do you do to save our lifestyle without making it unspooky?
Don't forget to see this post by lovely Mary Rose about the Earth Day, Green is New Black

Easter and The Custom

On Sunday, April 20, 2014, Christians celebrate it. Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Christians believe that according to the Bible, Jesus came back to life from the dead, three days after his death on the cross. The essential part of Easter season is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ until his death. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus paid the penalty for sin, thus purchasing for all who believe in Him, eternal life in Christ.

Steampunk Egg?
Source

Before the day came, there was always a Lent; 40-day period of fasting, repentance, moderation, abstinence, and spiritual discipline. The "40 days" period was started from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday, Holy Week, with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and finally lead up to Easter.

Source: Google

Good Friday, is it good as its name?

I believe everyone (even the crazy ones) knows that mourning for the most beloved one is not a good idea to be considered as a good event. That Friday before Easter Sunday is to commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus. It is so hurt to explain, you may watch the movie Passion of The Christ by Mel Gibson. Of course, that's not a good memory, even worse than the worst ever, but the meaning of "Good" is considered as "Holy" that the Christ has showed His love for men and purchased for Him every blessing by His death (The answer is given by Baltimore Catechism).

A Screenshot of Passion of The Christ movie

However, it also makes sense that Good Friday is adopted from German phrase "Gute Freitag", but it is not. In fact, Germans refer to Good Friday as Karfreitag - which means Suffering Friday.

What did you do during the Lent?

As I have written above, I followed the rules for fasting and abstinence in the Catholic Church. The rules, however, can be modified by the conference of bishops for each particular country, or in the Eastern Churches, for each particular rite. In this case, i'm in the territory of Eastern Churches.

The fasting rules for Catholics are different from the Moslems. Here, the fast means that you only eat just once in a day and restrict the food that you usually eat. For you who are used to eat three times a day, you may have meals three times too, but you have to be full just once at one time. It may be like you eat less food in the morning, then you have a regular lunch at noon, and then you have a small portion for dinner. You may choose the time for enjoying your food a lot.

Source: Google

Catholics must fast on Ashy Wednesday and every Friday until Good Friday, the total is 7 days during the Lent. You are also allowed to fast every day before Easter. The main point is to control the appetite and to be empathy with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. However, it needs your own prudence to decide how much you want to do for your Christ by fasting and how far your body can adapt to this condition.

For the abstinence, you may include it from all meat while you fast. But anyway, it doesn't have to be limited for food. Examples of the abstinence are avoiding cigarette (smoking), not to have any sweets, not to watch adult entertainment or movies too much.

Are rabbits and eggs the symbol of Easter?

Studdy Egg
Source

I don't think so. Like Santa Claus, Easter Bunny is also a special figure - fantasy character in particular occasion, which is represented as the judge, evaluating whether children were good or disobedient in behaviour at the Easter season. Easter bunny brings a basket filled with colorful eggs, tasty sweets or toys for good children at the night before Easter and hides it somewhere inside or outside heir house, so that the children have to look for to get it the day after.

Eggs, like rabbits, are the symbols of fertility and birth marking. Rabbits give a large birth in the beginning of spring, while the custom of an Easter eggs hunt began because children believed that rabbits laid eggs in the grass. The Romans believed that "All life comes from an egg". That's why this 'seed of life' perception becomes the representation of Jesus Christ resurrection.

Oops..
Source

Source

Vampy Egg
Source

I think the dyed eggs with various color don't come from any certain custom, but it makes sense since they are given as gifts for children and for the decorative value.

Source

For further references, if you want to learn more you can find them here:

In Bahasa Indonesia:

-Berpuasa dan berpantang menurut Katolik

-Kelinci Paskah

-Telur Paskah

In English:

-Fasting rules

-Easter Bunny

-About Easter

-Easter egg

That's all information i have about Easter! I had a good time that day, what about you?

Happy Easter!!

Merry Gothic Christmas

Rudolph, he will change his name

'cause Rudolph just sounds really lame

Now we'll call him Ragnagord

The evil reindeer overlord

His nose it shall be red no more

It will be blackened to the core

His eyes will glow an evil glow

To guide the chariot through the snow…

As you may have known, Christmas is an annual civil holiday in many world’s nations, and the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. I don’t say that Christmas is only for Christians, because I welcome my mom and my brother, who are moslems to celebrate it too, and they can deal with it easily XD I have a big tolerance, underlined.

The snow hasn’t arrived yet, because there ain’t no such a snowy thing here although it’s cold since the rainy season does still exist. I can’t say, “What about wearing black so it may show the contrast with the snow?”Crap. I should have visited England. I wish I knew what snow is like.

Anyway, want something different for the Christmas time? I would like to suggest to turn on the music with a little of dark sense, of course :3 Here’s my song list:

• Nox Arcana – God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
• London After Midnight – The Christmas Song
• Love Spiral Downwards – Welcome Christmas
• Within Temptation – Gothic Christmas
• Amy Lee - Sally’s Song Cover (OST The Nightmare Before Christmas) I just love it.
• Gregorian featuring Sarah Brightman – In The Moment Of Peace (Actually it has nothing to do with christmas)

Please keep in mind that some songs I have suggested above aren’t gothic at all, as I’ve told that they have dark atmosphere.

Our Christmas tree a year ago

We didn’t have any Christmas tree to put in our room. Well, we didn’t see any space there and there… This end of year may be busy of the clearance. About the presents? Sure, we have. Each of us will get one present. My boyfriend has gotten it before, for his birthday… plus Christmas X’D And then, the last thing I’ll do is going to the church and spend the night with my family.

What do you do on Christmas holiday? I wish you a merry Gothic Christmas!

What Is Halloween?

Do you know what's going on October the 31st?

Do you have any idea to tell what will you do this month?

HALLOWEEN. Yeah, that's it! Myths, traditions, and parties will happen at the day.

Mostly people who lives in USA celebrate it. It is a tradition that is always celebrated at night :3 I heard there are a lot of things they'd like to do. Children wear costumes and come to their neighborhood and ask for sweets (or sometimes money) by saying "Trick or treat!" which is kind of threat :3  The word "trick" refers to "threat" to perform mischief on the homeowners or their property if no treat is given. People who they asked have to give treats or they would like to decorate their tree with toilet tissues :p Eh, will it still happen?

Some halloween treats for children
Source: Google

A boy wearing Edward Scissorhand's costume. How lovely! <3 br="">

While children have fun with the sweets-hunting, adults wear costume as well. They visit spooky places and haunted attractions, light the bonfires or fireworks, play pranks, tell some scary stories, watch horror films or attend a costume party.

Gothic Halloween Dinner Party
Source here

Halloween is also called All Hallows Eve, All Saints' Eve, Samhain, Noche de las Brujas (The Night of Witches). According to Wikipedia, the word halloween comes from a Scottish term for All Hallow's Eve in about 1745. In Scots, the word 'eve' is 'even' (In Bahasa Indonesia: petang/malam.), and it's contracted to e'en or een. Over time, (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en evolved into Halloween.

History of Halloween

It comes from Samhain Festival from the Old Irish language Samhain  (Pronunced /ˈsɑːwɪn/, /ˈsaʊ.ɪn/, or /ˈsaʊn/) which is celebrated by ancient Celtic people. Samhain is a celebration the end of the harvest season in culture of Gaelic people,and sometimes it's called the Celtic New Year. The Celtic people who embraced paganism used this opportunity to slaugther cattle and hoard food in preparation for winter in generations. The ancient Gael people believed that on October the 31st the gate of between the dead world and the living world would be opened. The dead endanger people living with carry disease and damage the harvests. Therefore, they lit a bonfire to burn bones of animals they are harmstrung, wearing costumes and masks to pretend as evil spirits or to attempt peace with them.

Have you ever seen a pink ghost? LOL

I would like to have this ice-scream!!

Symbols of Halloween

One of them is pumpkin which is carved into a scary face that named Jack-o'-Lantern. A candle is put inside the pumpkin so the face of Jack-o'-lantern can be seen very spooky in dark places. Why pumpkin?  FYI, North America produces many large pumpkins J

Halloween bento! :D

Another symbols describe the nature of autumn, including pumpkin and scarecrow as a guard yield. In addition, the symbols Halloween is also close to death, magic, monsters, and creepy characters the American film maker and graphic designer made. These characters are often associated with Halloween: pumpkin man, outer space creatures, witch, bats, owls, crows, vultures, haunted house

, black cat, spiders, goblins, zombies (my favorite!:D) skeletons and werewolves.

I love black cat. It's cute.

The classic horror movie and gothic literature characters like Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, and the mummy also used as costumes for Halloween. There are also some colors associated with Halloween items like black, orange, purple, green and red.

Okay, this is important. Frankenstein is the person who created the monster. NOT the monster's name!

That is western. How about the far east culture?

In east culture,Halloween isn’t a big national celebration since it’s not our tradition. But I think there are always some events for fun like a haunted mansion somewhere at shopping centre or mall, costume party at clubs (it may be nightclubs), restaurant and café are revamp with spooky theme. Usually, horror movies are popular. Many teens and adults watch movie together at the cinema, or they would like to buy some DVDs and watch them at the home base.

Sad but true, I haven’t visited such a spooky event yet! I even missed Resident Evil Jakarta at Gajah Mada Plaza last month. Aarggghhhh…!! T-T

I missed it T.T

That’s what I see here. By the way, please let me know if there’s any Halloween event in Jakarta. I don’t  wanna miss it this year, or I would celebrate it with my own way ALONE >_< So, how do you celebrate Halloween in your country?

About Friday The 13th

Source: photobucket

Yaay it's Friday, everyone!
So T.G.I.F, huh? XD
Not to me because i still have to work on Saturday for a half work day, which is very sucks and boring ._. I guess the best solution is finding new work place with more wise rules lol.

Back to topic: What is Friday the 13th? Do you often hear it? Do you believe this day is unlucky to you, and people around? Actually i don't find this day as a big bad superstition rumour here. Some cultures considered Friday and number 13 as unlucky day, some cultures not.
Here's some part of info i got from internet:
-In numerology , the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve hours of the clock , twelve gods of Olympus , twelve tribes of Israel , twelve Apostles of Jesus, the 12 successors of Muhammad in Shia Islam, twelve signs of the Zodiac, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness.

-Friday is also the day when Jesus Christ was crucified, making it through folklore and adding to its unpopularity.

-People who believe and fear Friday the 13th has been called friggatriskaidekaphobia ( Frigga being the name of the Norse goddess for whom "Friday" is named in English and triskaidekaphobia meaning fear of the number thirteen), or paraskevidekatriaphobia, a concatenation of the Greek words Paraskeví (Παρασκευή, meaning "Friday"), and dekatreís (δεκατρείς, meaning "thirteen") attached to phobía (φοβία, from phóbos, φόβος, meaning "fear").
The latter word was derived in 1911 and first appeared in a mainstream source in 1953.

You can read the complete source here ^_^
While here, Friday night is always related with horror, mystery, spooky, haunted place, urban myth. Therefore, some tv show that is on Friday night will be full of mystery or mystical show. For example: [Masih] Dunia Lain, Dua Dunia, Mister Tukul Jalan Jalan (in the month of Ramadan the events are disabled, except Mister Tukul becomes Islamic pilgrimage). Those tv shows name are in a local channel. Or maybe you can watch the streaming version here. So every Friday night, then we will simply find a variety of events that contain mystical and supernatural world. There are several other places that were sacred to visit in Friday night. Well, it is just aboud the day not the number 13 :-) I don't get people around me feeling like paraskevidekatriaphobia today include me. How mouthful it is! XD
Oh i wanna show you this, may remind you of today..

Remember this? Ha? :3
Out of the religy thing, actually Friday and number 13 are as same as another.. Some can be good, some can be bad to us. But that's life, right? Believe or not, it's all up to you ;)
So.. What do you think about it?