Happy Holidays, Wildcats! Enjoy this new mashed potato mashup playlist while studying for finals, traveling home, or just for some relaxing backgrounds tunes. These calm tracks are perfect for any gathering. Looking for more music? Check out the original mashup here.

• 1) “Where’s My Love” by SYML
• 2) “Oh My Stars” by Andrew Belle
• 3) “The Bones” by Maren Morris & Hozier
• 4) “I Will Not Take My Love Away” by Matt Wertz
• 5) “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles
• 6) “Nothing Can Change This Love” by Sam Cooke
• 7) “Rearview” by Andra Day
• 8) “Coming Home” by Leon Bridges
• 9) “Willow” by Taylor Swift
• 10) “Buckets of Rain” by Bob Dylan
• 11) “Seven Hours” by Lucy Schwartz & Aqualung
• 12) “Tip of My Tongue” by Kenny Chesney
• 13) “Love Is Everywhere I Go” by Sam Phillips
• 14) “Present Tense” by Pearl Jam
• 15) “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac
• 16) “Promise” by Ben Howard
• 17) “Lost Stars” by Adam Levine
• 18) “All Is Well” by Austin Basham
• 19) “Here You Come Again” by Dolly Parton & Willa Amai
• 20) “She’s Got A Way” by Billy Joel

Bonus playlist: Kallie’s Chords—Merry Everything. Play the holiday hits here.

• 1) “Run Rudolph Run” by Chuck Berry
• 2) “Good King Wenceslas” by Jane Lynch, Kate Flannery, Tim Davis & The Tony Guerrero Quintet
• 3) “O Christmas Tree” by Tony Bennett
• 4) “Merry Christmas Darling” by The Carpenters
• 5) “Winter Wonderland” by Kenny G
• 6) “Hallelujah” by Pentatonix
• 7) “Winter Song” by Sara Bareilles & Ingrid Michaelson
• 8) “Do You Hear What I Hear?” by Home Free
• 9) “Peace on Earth/The Little Drummer Boy” by Bing Crosby & Davie Bowie
• 10) “Snow” by Leslie Odom Jr.
• 11) “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” by Vince Guaraldi
• 12) “Lights On” Tyler, the Creator feat. Ryan Beatty & Santigold
• 13) “Jingle Bells” by Frank Sinatra
• 14) “Glow” by Kelly Clarkson & Chris Stapleton
• 15) “O Come O Come Emmanuel” by The Civil Wars
• 16) “Frosty the Snowman” by Fiona Apple
• 17) “Last Christmas” by She & Him
• 18) “We Three Kings” by Ella Fitzgerald
• 19) “Little Saint Nick” by Surfaces
• 20) “Joy to the World” by Whitney Houston & The Georgia Mass Choir

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Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 

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Who doesn’t love Hallmark movies…Okay, I know not everyone likes Hallmark movies. So if you don’t like cheesy holiday cheer, this isn’t the blog for you. If you’re one of the people who likes Hallmark’s holiday classics (or someone who doesn’t publicly share their Hallmark fandom) you’re going to want to keep reading.

Now, before I continue with this article, I fully acknowledge that Hallmark movies are not Oscar-worthy films. Almost all of them feature over-the-top acting, quirky characters, overused clichés, and the same predictable plotlines. However, that formulized narrative is what makes them so appealing. “The human brain loves patterns and the predictability is cognitively rewarding,” explains Pamela Rutledge, Behavioral Scientist, Director of the Media Psychology Research Center and Media Psychology faculty at Fielding Graduate University. “Those predictable story arcs that draw on the standard patterns we recognize from fairytales offer comfort by presenting life as simple and moralistic…The movies provide simplistic solutions to all those stressors that the holidays can bring: family conflict, isolation or financial pressures.” 

That suspension of reality, as with any entertainment, is a form of escapism for viewers. So, while I may not inherit millions of dollars from a long-lost relative and move to a small town, and then proceed to save said small town from from financial difficulty, all the while meeting the love of my life during the Christmas season—I can reduce my stress level by getting lost in a fictional reality full of hopeful optimism.

While Hallmark is famous for its “Countdown to Christmas,” and Lifetime for “Its a Wonderful Lifetime,” many streaming platforms have also begun to produce holiday-themed films and mini-series that mirror Hallmark’s movie format. We all celebrate the holidays differently, and if Hallmark movies, or similar films, are part of your festivities—embrace and enjoy the cheesy cheerfulness. If not, make some hot chocolate, change the channel, and find another movie that will help you decompress.

If you prefer the page to the screen, try reading a book (or two) that Hallmark films are based upon this holiday season:

• Pride, Prejudice, and Mistletoe by Melissa De La Cruz (2018)
• A Bramble House Christmas by C.J. Carmichael (2016)
• The Christmas Train by David Baldacci (2018)
• The Angel Tree by Daphne Benedis-Grab (2014)
• Engaging Father Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn (2008)
• A December Bride by Denise Hunter (2013)
• Maggie’s Miracle by Karen Kingsbury (2014)
• A Family Under the Christmas Tree by Terri Reed (2016)
• Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses by Jenny Hale (2018)
• Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber (2017)
• A Christmas Bride by Hope Ramsay (2016)
• The Christmas Town by Donna VanLiere (2016)
• Silver Bells by Luanne Rice (2008)
• The Mistletoe Secret by Richard Paul Evans (2017)
• A Christmas Home by Greg Kincaid (2012)
• Finding Fathers Christmas by Robin Jones Gunn (2008)
• Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor by Lisa Kleypas (2010)
• Christmas Camp by Karen Schaler (2019)
• The Christmas Cottage by Samantha Chase (2015)
• The Christmas Club by Barbara Hinske (2016)

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Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library. Her favorite Hallmark Movie is The Christmas Card.

 

 

References: Page, D. (2019, November 16). Here’s why it feels so good to watch those Hallmark holiday movies. NBC News. Retrieved November 19, 2021, from https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/here-s-why-it-feels-so-good-watch-those-hallmark-ncna1080841

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Happy Holidays, ‘Cats! Seeing as we were unable to gather together to assemble Falvey’s Christmas tree, we thought we’d share a time-lapse video of last year’s festive fir! The decorating was documented by Shawn Proctor, Communication and Marketing Program Manager, last December. Stay safe and have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, and a Joyful Kwanzaa!

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Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 

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By Regina Duffy

There weren’t many things to celebrate in 2020; however, one thing that we can certainly celebrate is that the holiday season has officially arrived. Despite difficult times, we can take some comfort in sharing some safe and festive holiday traditions and even re-living memories of holidays past.

Like most people, I have some things that I simply must do to commemorate this time of year. Beyond admiring the colorful light displays in my neighborhood and taking my kids to visit Santa at Arasapha Farms, I have a couple days that are dedicated to wrapping presents. It’s just me, a large peppermint mocha latte, and some Christmas classics playing in the background as I tackle a giant pile of presents on the living room floor. No interruptions.

While I can’t say that the wrapping job I do is a great, the process is fun and makes me feel so accomplished.

Are you still looking for some seasonal inspiration? I asked the Falvey Library staff to share some holiday traditions they celebrate as well as their favorite memories.

Sarah Wingo, English Literature, Theatre, and Romance Languages and Literature Librarian: “We don’t have a lot of super specific Christmas traditions, just cozy fires in the fireplace and decorating the Christmas tree. My birthday is December 6, and growing up we’d always decorate gingerbread houses at my birthday parties, the gingerbread my mom and I would bake and assemble ahead of time. This always felt like the start of the holiday season.”

Demian Katz, Director of Library Technology: “It’s kind of ridiculous, but one of my favorite holiday traditions is cleaning out my personal inbox. I maintain a website as a hobby, and I receive a lot of email throughout the year from people with feedback and suggestions, but I never have time to act on them until the holiday break. Every year, I frantically catch up on all those accumulated messages, vow that I will do a better job of keeping up with communication, and then fail completely until the next holiday break.”

Susan Turkel, Social Sciences Librarian: “[I remember the] Christmas break during my first year in college. While I was home, I had all four wisdom teeth removed! So, I spent a few days over the holiday home recovering – watching TV, eating soft food, ice pack held up to my face.” (This is a tough way to spend a holiday break!)

Linda Hauck, Business Librarian: “Every year my kids have performed in Swarthmore Ballet Theatre’s Nutcracker which ran for two weekends in December. Parents were asked to volunteer to set up the theatre, apply makeup to the youngest dancers, and bake and serve fancy cookies at intermission. I’ve been baking Christmas cookies for the occasion for something like 12 years. I’ve had a lot of fun baking cookies to correspond to my daughter’s and son’s roles, including snowflakes, spice cookies, Christmas trees, linzer hearts, and springerle ginger nutcrackers. This year the performance has gone virtual. My daughter is off to college and son opted not to perform, which is just as well because while he still takes class, we don’t have the room in our home for him to dance full out on video. I’ll still be baking cookies to share with the dancers. Some of the other bakers and I will individually package them, and we are planning an outdoor drive by pick up. Sweet memories.”

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who took time to share with us. On behalf of everyone at Falvey Memorial Library, we wish you a happy, healthy, and safe holiday season, however you decide to celebrate this year.

Do you have any special traditions or memories? Drop your comments below to share some of your own holiday magic.

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Regina Duffy is Communication and Marketing Program Manager at Falvey Memorial Library. 

 

 

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In honor of the Christmas countdown being in full swing, for the next three weeks our throwback Thursdays are going to focus on past Christmases at Villanova. For our first Christmas throwback, we’re taking it back a decade to the 2010-2011 Belle Air. 

The article pictured is entitled “Coming Together for the Holidays” and talks about how more often than not instead of being full of cookies and carolling, the beginning of December is a time of all-nighters, caffeine, and stressing out. Despite finals looming, the Villanova community came together and hosted Merry Christmas Week Villanova, including the annual Tree Lighting ceremony, a gingerbread-house making competition, and a Holiday Bazaar to shop in.

A decade later, the world is looking very different, but those same ideas of coming together and giving yourself a brain break are so important. Take a moment after reading this and think about who you are able to come together with this holiday season, whether it’s in person or virtual. Be present in those moments and remember the connections that are the most important.

By Jenna Newman

 

Thanksgiving is just around the corner. Although it may look different this year, Thanksgiving is still a time to reflect on everything for which we are thankful. That might feel more difficult: what’s there to be thankful for in the middle of a global pandemic, right? But upon reflection, I discovered a cornucopia of things for which I am grateful. 

Extra Family Time
After I was sent home during my senior year of undergrad last semester, all I could think about was the time I missed with friends before we all moved on to what was next. I was also dreading being at home for the longest time since high school. But the last 10 months gave me an opportunity to spend extra time with my little brother before he went away to college, live with my future in-laws, play tons of games, and binge practically every movie on Netflix with my family. It’s easy to focus on what we missed out on this past year, but try to refocus on the time with loved ones that you may not have had otherwise. 

Flexibility with Courses
I wasn’t sure how courses were going to go this fall, especially with all the technical difficulties that marked last spring. But ultimately what last spring did was help provide professors and students more tools to connect virtually and allow the school to give more options with courses. Students are able to make the best decisions for them and their health and find a balance between in-person and online courses. Adjusting to a new semester’s worth of courses can be overwhelming even without additional problems, so added flexibility is definitely something to be grateful for this year. 

Health
My family has experienced COVID first-hand and seen how quickly the virus can take a life, but through all of that, I’ve tried to remember that it could always be worse and focus on the positives. I’ve been able to stay healthy throughout this time, and I’m grateful for that. It’s easy to look at the negatives. In reality, feeling comfortable to come to campus is a privilege many people don’t have. I know some people reading this probably have it worse than me, while others have it better, but keeping your health in perspective is important.

Books
Ever since middle school, I’ve complained about not having enough time to read. And whenever I did have time, I would binge read as much as possible. With social activities slowing down and spending more evenings at home, that’s allowed for more time to read. Plus, with Falvey being open for contactless pick-up, I’ve been able to check out all the books that have been on my reading list for ages. With the news and social media becoming overwhelming, books offer a way to escape into the lives of other people, real or fiction, for a couple hours.

(Shameless plug! I am running a book club that is currently reading the past One Book Villanova selection The Other Wes Moore. Learn how to join in on the fun here.)

Villanova
The last thing that I am so grateful for this semester, is that Villanova’s campus has been open throughout the entirety of the fall semester. The fact that we have to wear masks is a small price to pay for the social interaction that comes with being able to go into work twice a week and not have to attempt to do virtual presentations. My study habits would be considerably worse off if it weren’t for Falvey’s research librarians and having Holy Grounds as a go-to study space. 

Hopefully this list inspires you to take some time, and a break from studying, to reflect on the things you have, even in this crazy, chaotic year that is 2020. Share with me below what you’re grateful for this year!

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Jenna Newman is a graduate assistant in Falvey Memorial Library and a graduate student in the Communication Department. Current mood: Thankful for all the good food I’m going to eat next week.

 

 

 

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Campus Ministry’s Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner Drive is happening on Friday, Nov. 22, at the Connelly Circle, 8 a.m.-12 p.m. Register to donate a holiday dinner for a local family or signup to help pack or deliver meals.

Looking for more ways to help during the holidays? Check out these volunteer opportunities on- and off-campus:

The Joy of Sox (Donation Box) 

• Stop by Garey Hall to drop off new pairs of socks for the homeless.

Nova Nook (Donation Box) 

• Donate personal care items at the Connelly Center info desk or in Dougherty room 202.

St. Francis Inn Soup Kitchen and UCHC Soup Kitchen

• Volunteers are responsible for serving guests, busing tables, cleaning dishes, etc.  

Hub of Hope: Project Home

• Volunteers provide hospitality to participants by assisting with basic services the Hub offers.

Visit Campus Ministry if you are interested in participating with Community Outreach of Villanova. View the full listing of volunteer opportunities here.

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Kallie Stahl ’17 MA is Communication and Marketing Specialist at Falvey Memorial Library.

 

 

There are many theories about the origins of April Fool’s Day celebrations. One such theory is that it originated in France in the 16th century when King Charles IX adopted the Gregorian calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Legend has it that the people who continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1 were mocked and had pranks played on them.

Despite its popularity, this is a questionable theory, as Alex Boese, curator of the Museum of Hoaxes, points out. The calendar reform was not a sudden change but rather a gradual process throughout the 16th century. In addition, the French New Year prior to the reform was officially celebrated on Easter, which is a holiday based on the lunar calendar and thus has no official relationship to April 1.

Another French origin story for April Fool’s Day points out the large numbers of newly-hatched fish that populated the rivers in April. These young fish were easy to catch and thus became known as “poisson d’Avril” or “April fish.” Celebrating the arrival of these easy-to-catch fish led to people playing pranks on each other and the still-practiced French custom of trying to tape a paper fish to someone’s back and dubbing them a “poisson d’Avril.” The postcard above is an example of poisson d’Avril greetings that were especially popular in the late-19th- and early-20th-centuries.

Regardless of the actual origins of April Fool’s celebrations, be on your guard today and beware the poisson d’Avril!

Further reading:
April Fools’ Day
April Fools’ Day Mystery: How Did It Originate? (National Geographic)
The Origin of April Fool’s Day (The Museum of Hoaxes)
What Is April Fools’ Day? How Did It Begin? (Huffington Post Canada)

And don’t miss the Museum of Hoaxes’ April Fool Archive!

With it being the Halloween season, now is a good time to highlight one on the unique items in our digital collections.

Pictured to the right is the spine for the Manuale Exorcismorum with a hand-drawn demon embellishing the binding. This book is a how-to guide to exorcisms, written in Antwerp, Spanish Netherlands (modern-day Belgium) by R. D. Maximilien de Eynatten and published in London in 1619. Its entire title is as follows:

Manuale exorcismorum: continens instructiones, & exorcismos ad eiiciendos e corporibus obsessis spiritus malignos, & ad quaeuis maleficia depellenda, & ad quascumque infestationes daemonum reprimendas

This translates to:

Exorcism manual: containing instructions & exorcisms to cast out evil spirits from the bodies of the possessed, & to seek to repel witchcraft, & to repress demonic infestations by whatsoever means

The work itself is broken up into three sections. The first part contains general instructions and preparations for exorcisms: things like how to determine if a person is suffering from demonic possession and not from natural diseases, learning about various symbols and their effects, proper time and place for an exorcism, and various precautions to take against demons. The second part details the methods and practices used in an exorcism, including many different prayers, invocations, and solemn oaths, with selected prayers and exorcism methods included from respected authors. Finally, the third part contains methods and practices to expel various kinds of witchcraft or enchantments from both bodies and other objects, including chapters on exorcising dairy products, cereals and other foods (with specific chapters on milk and butter); exorcising a spirit from a home; exorcising witchcraft from your own body and exorcising witchcraft from the bodies of others; remedies against pests, fevers and other natural diseases; and remedies against love potions, amongst others.

Though old and written in Latin, the text reads very much like a modern-day field guide, written in a no-nonsense referential manner so that it could be easily used during field work.

The Digital Library team (more specifically, this author) is currently in the middle of creating an amateur translation of this work, which on completion will be offered as a companion document in the Digital Library (author’s note: who knew those two semesters of Latin in college would pay real world dividends? Then again, two semesters of Latin from over ten years ago makes translation work on this manual slow going, so publication of the translation may be awhile…)

The manual in its entirety can be seen here:

http://digital.library.villanova.edu/Item/vudl:230357

 

It is with great pleasure and humble thanks on this Easter that we make available the small but important Elizabeth Ann Seton collection.  This collection includes letters from  Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton to Matthias and Joseph O’Conway.  Matthias, a prominent Philadelphian, especially within the Catholic community, was the father of Cecilia O’Conway, Philadelphia’s first nun and the first woman to join Seton’s order, the Sisters of Charity.  The correspondence is personal in nature and relates to several members of the O’Conway family.  Members of the Digital Library team are working on formatting transcriptions of the letters for increased readability.

This also marks a first for the Digital Library:  the scanning of materials physically owned and of course created by a Saint.   Indeed actually touching and photographing these sheets of paper involved treating the objects with the highest degree of reverence.  Speaking for only myself, handling the letters as a scanner was a sacred experience.

 

 

 

 

 

Photograph taken on Easter 2011