Category: Holidays

Happy Flag Day 2019

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Stars and stripes of the US flag blog banner, Hattingdon Horses.

Hattingdon wears a top hat inspired by the combination of red and white stripes along with a dark blue hatband decorated with white stars for this year’s Flag Day. Isn’t she sweet?

Sammie Top Hat.

Let’s check out some history.

First flag

On this day, June 14th, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the United States national flag. It had 13 stars and 13 stripes symbolizing the 13 original colonies.

Fifteen stars

The United States added stars to the flag when welcoming new states.

When Kentucky and Vermont joined the union, the flag took on two more stars from the original. From 1795 to 1818, 15 stripes and 15 stars graced the flag.

Anticipating a crowded field of stripes, lawmakers decided to honor a new added state with a star, leaving the stripes at the original 13 after 1818.

Robert G. Heft

The current flag, with 50 stars and 13 stripes, was designed in 1958 by 17-year-old high school student, Robert G. Heft, of Lancaster, Ohio.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower chose his design out of 1,500 entries. It is a grand old flag — as the song says — isn’t it?!

Americans who proudly fly “Old Glory” on the Fourth of July can thank a Lancaster teenager for the current design of the flag. Robert G. Heft designed and sewed the prototype 60 years ago for a class project at Lancaster High School.

See you again here soon.

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Hattingdon H Logo in her signature brown.

© Vivian J. Grant.

Cinco de Mayo and Fiesta

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Hello all you gorgeous Hattingdonians! It’s fiesta time. And here’s why. It’s the Fifth of May — Cinco de Mayo. Of course, you all know what this is. As you can see, Hattingdon has donned her Fiesta hat. ¡Vámonos de fiesta!

Fiesta fashion hat with golden yellow dome and wide upturned brim in colours of red, yellow and blue. Update.
Fiesta.

About Cinco de Mayo

Did you know . . . ?

• Cinco de Mayo, (Spanish: “Fifth of May”), also called Anniversary of the Battle of Puebla, holiday celebrated in parts of Mexico and the United States.

• When in 1861 Mexico declared a temporary moratorium on the repayment of foreign debts, English, Spanish, and French troops invaded the country. By April 1862 the English and Spanish had withdrawn, but the French, with the support of wealthy landowners, remained in an attempt to establish a monarchy under Maximilian of Austria and to curb U.S. power in North America.

• The date commemorates an outnumbered — 2,000 to 6,000 — Mexican army’s 1862 victory over the French forces of Napoleon III. at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War.

• A Texan led those outnumbered troops in Puebla. Ignacio Zaragoza SeguÍn, a 33-year-old officer from the Goliad area, was Mexico’s minister of war and navy and was assigned to lead the Army of the East and the defense of Puebla.

• The U.S. has celebrated Cinco de Mayo since the end of the Franco-Mexico and U.S. civil wars.

• In the beginning, Latinos in California and the other parts of the U.S. celebrated Cinco de Mayo with parades in which people dressed in Civil War uniforms and gave speeches on the Battle of Puebla.

• The date is embraced more generally in the same way as other ethnic celebrations such as St. Patrick’s Day, Mardi Gras and Octoberfest.

• Cinco de Mayo isn’t Mexico’s Independence Day. Mexico’s equivalent of the Fourth of July is 16 de Septiembre (September 16). In many parts of Mexico, Cinco de Mayo is a work day.

See you again soon. Love ya!

Hattingdon H Logo in her signature brown.

©Vivian J. Grant.

Happy Easter

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Ester Top Hat Easter 2019 created by ©Vivian Grant Farrell®.

Wishing you a blessed and happy Easter.

Top Hat, Easter 2019 created by ©Vivian Grant Farrell exclusively for Hattingdon®.
Easter Top Hat 2019.

Hugs and kisses, and millinery blisses.

Hattingdon H Logo in her signature brown.

©Vivian J. Grant.

St Patricks’s Day 2019

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Irish Rainbow. Uncredited image.

Céad Míle Fáilte! A Hundred Thousand Welcomes.

On March 17, people all over the world celebrating Saint Patrick’s Day with parades, parties, and the wearing of the green. So are we. Look!

Kieran Hattingdon.

The story of Saint Patrick . . .

From sadlier.com we have the story of the Patrick who became the Patron Saint of Ireland.

Patrick was born in Scotland. When he was about fourteen years old, he was captured and brought to Ireland. As a slave, he was forced to take care of sheep. Patrick prayed often during his captivity. The people of Ireland at this time were not Christian. Patrick learned about their beliefs and practices.

When Patrick was twenty years old, he escaped from slavery and returned home. He never forgot the people of Ireland and wanted to return to teach them about Christianity. Patrick began studying for the priesthood and was eventually ordained a bishop. He was then sent by the Pope to Ireland as a missionary.

There are many legends about Saint Patrick. One such legend has it that he used a shamrock, a plant growing in Ireland, to explain the Blessed Trinity. Just as the shamrock has one stem with three parts, there are three distinct Persons in one God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Because of this, the shamrock is the traditional symbol of Ireland.

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From all of us to all of you . . . .

Shamrock clipart 130 x 168 pixels.

Wishing you a rainbow
For sunlight after showers—
Miles and miles of Irish smiles
For golden happy hours—
Shamrocks at your doorway
For luck and laughter too,
And a host of friends that never ends
Each day your whole life through!

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Happy St. Patrick’s Day. With love, Hattingdon Horses

Hattingdon H Logo in her signature brown.

©Vivian J Grant