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Saturday, June 2, 2012

Bunting Streamers & Jubilee


I am reading my stream on G+ where I have circled people from all across the globe almost. It is the Queen of England's weekend to celebrate and so bits of info are trending here and there in news and on other sites.
A couple of posts on G+ have mentioned bunting.

  
I was thinking I had heard that word somewhere before but had no idea what it meant. Who knew flags on string? I mean we have those here but I have never heard them called that.


It has been so long since I threw a party and decorated for it, there was a moment before I could think of the name of what we usually hang up. Streamers in crepe paper. You have not lived as a party planning mom till you have twisted that stuff and pinned it to walls and ceilings.

I went searching the web because I had this little ditty of the only time I have ever heard the word bunting before in my head. No wonder I had no idea what the word meant.
    Bye, baby Bunting,
       Father's gone a-hunting,
      Mother's gone a-milking,
Sister's gone a-silking,
Brother's gone to buy a skin To wrap the baby Bunting in.

It was probably in one of my old nursery rhythm books. Here the word bunting is a cutesy baby term thought to mean plump as all good healthy babies should be. Round and rosy I remember my daughter as a tiny infant her cheeks fat and flush.

Jubilee on the other hand is a word I hear more often. The funny thing is I really probably did not know a lot about what it meant. It is not just a party. It means to celebrate a larger or more serious event. Anniversaries for instance.

This year is the 60th year of Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Sixty is the diamond anniversary. Now I have to wave a Union Jack and just get into the spirit of it all. 

It is funny the things we have kept from the old land and culture. It is funny the way we use terms and things on both sides of the pond as the saying goes.

A local couple I know are in England for the weekend to take part in the festivities. I want to visit eventually but I cannot even imagine being there amidst all the pomp and circumstance. 

Not that it does not appeal to me, just that it might be over whelming. That or the idea that seeing a nation during a time of heightened activity like a jubilee or during the Olympics, can take away from the ordinary every day experiences to be had in a strange place.

2 comments:

  1. Your word analyses are so great! I had not thought about those words in depth! It's one of the reasons I love Bill Bryson's books on language- he explores the origins in a funny way- Thanks for the post!

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    1. Awww you are making me blush. Thanks so much! Glad you enjoy my ramblings hit and miss as they can be.

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