Carpe Diem #183, Honey (provided by KZ)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Today our last prompt for April. It was a great month of Carpe Diem and I am glad that you all enjoyed it and participated in it. Today our prompt is Honey (provided by KZ of The Eclectic Eccentric Shopaholic ), but first I have to tell you all something else.
April 30th is the day on which the people of The Netherlands are saying goodbye to Queen Beatrix. She steps back from the throne after a reign of 33 years. Her oldest son, the Crownprince of Oranje Nassau, prince Willem Alexander, will be our new king and today he will be crowned a king. Today is a great holiday for us all here in The Netherlands.

Queen Beatrix, Crownprince Willem-Alexander and princess Maxima

OK ... enough about this memorable day for the people of The Netherlands back to our prompt for today.

As I was preparing this episode of Carpe Diem the first thing I thought of was a song by Abba titled 'Honey, Honey'. It was their 2nd single after Waterloo and it was published in 1974. I love their music and I was a great fan and admirer of their wonderful music. So I love to share that song here with you.

Well ... did you like it? OK than ... back to the prompt for today, but now the natural meaning of this prompt or the spiritual meaning or use. Let's go on a quest for honey (smiles).

Honey (pron.: /ˈhʌni/) is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to, as it is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans. Honey produced by other bees and insects has distinctly different properties.

At Araña Caves in Spain.Honey collection is an ancient activity. Humans apparently began hunting for honey at least 8,000 years ago, as evidenced by a cave painting in Valencia, Spain. The painting is a Mesolithic rock painting, showing two honey-hunters collecting honey and honeycomb from a wild bee nest. The figures are depicted carrying baskets or gourds, and using a ladder or series of ropes to reach the wild nest.

Painting of Honey-seekers found in a Spanish cave. (Cueva Araña)

Some cultures believed honey had many practical health uses. It was used as an ointment for rashes and burns, and to help soothe sore throats when no other practices were available.In Hinduism, honey (Madhu) is one of the five elixirs of immortality (Panchamrita). In temples, honey is poured over the deities in a ritual called Madhu abhisheka. The Vedas and other ancient literature mention the use of honey as a great medicinal and health food.

In Jewish tradition, honey is a symbol for the new year, Rosh Hashanah. At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten to bring a sweet new year. Some Rosh Hashanah greetings show honey and an apple, symbolizing the feast. In some congregations, small straws of honey are given out to usher in the new year.

The Hebrew Bible contains many references to honey. In the Book of Judges, Samson found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of a lion (14:8). In Old Testament law, offerings were made in the temple to God. The Book of Leviticus says that “Every grain offering you bring to the Lord must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in a food offering presented to the Lord” (2:11). In the Books of Samuel Jonathan is forced into a confrontation with his father King Saul after eating honey in violation of a rash oath Saul made (14:24-47). The Book of Exodus famously describes the Promised Land as a "land flowing with milk and honey" (33:3). However, the claim has been advanced that the original Hebrew (דבש devash) actually refers to the sweet syrup produced from the juice of dates. Pure honey is considered kosher even though it is produced by a flying insect, a nonkosher creature; other products of nonkosher animals are not kosher. 

In Buddhism, honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima, celebrated in India and Bangladesh. The day commemorates Buddha's making peace among his disciples by retreating into the wilderness. The legend has it that while he was there, a monkey brought him honey to eat. On Madhu Purnima, Buddhists remember this act by giving honey to monks. The monkey's gift is frequently depicted in Buddhist art.

Madhu Purnima

In Islam, there is an entire Surah in the Qur'an called al-Nahl (the Honey Bee). According to hadith, Prophet Muhammad strongly recommended honey for healing purposes. The Qur'an promotes honey as a nutritious and healthy food.

Honey ... a natural product with a nice background on divers religions and spiritual ways. Awesome ... honey so pure ... and delicious.

I have sought for a few examples of haiku with honey in it. I found this nice one written by Khalid:

Flowers have bloomed
Bees have sucked the sweet nectar
But bear's stolen the honey

Or this one, I couldn't retrieve the name of the author/poet of this haiku, but it's a nice one:

Honey sweet honey
tirelessly bees make you.
So sweet is this treat

I love to share a cascading haiku which I wrote last year somewhere in April. In that time a strange illness under honeybees did bring death to honeybees worldwide. I wrote than a kind of  'in memoriam' for the honeybees.

all over the world

honeybees are dying -

flowers never bloom again

flowers never bloom again

Mother Earth's face will be

colorless

colorless

no more fruits to eat

all over the world

Honeybee on Calyx

OK ... I just have to write a new haiku ... it's an obligation ...

divine Champagne
pure fluid gold of Mother Nature
honey heavenly honey

honey heavenly honey
thanks to those little honeybees
divine Champagne

Well ... this concludes our last episode of Carpe Diem for this month April. Hope you enjoyed the read and I hope that this episode will inspire you all to write new haiku and share them with us all.

If you would like to look forward to our new prompt-list for May 2013 than see it HERE

This episode will stay on 'till May 1st 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our first prompt for our new Carpe Diem month, Tarot (regular), later on today around 10.00 PM (CET). Have fun!

Carpe Diem #180, Chocolate (provided by KZ)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Time flies when you have fun ... it's already April 26th and our Carpe Diem month is crawling to her end and looking forward to a new month of wonderful prompts to write and share haiku about.
Today we have a nice prompt I think. Several weeks ago I posted a haiku on my home-weblog Chèvrefeuille's haikublog with the same prompt. It's a delicious prompt. Today we share haiku on Chocolate (provided by KZ of The Eclectic Eccentric Shopaholic ). I like chocolate and the first thing which came in mind was Forrest Gump, that wonderful movie with Tom Hanks, in which Forest is sharing choclates from it's choclate-box.

Credits: Forrest Gump

I have seen that movie several times and every time I like it again. Look at him ... sitting there with his box of chocolates on his knees ... awesome.

Yesterday I got a present from my colleagues in the hospital for my 50th birthday and that present was, next to a nice perfume, body paint with chocolate ... (smiles) ... maybe I will use it sometime ... , but it brought me the following haiku:


my sweet love
covered in chocolate
arouses my senses


Maybe a bit to much ... and not my style, but I just had to share this one with you. Chocolate ... heavenly ..., but what is it? Let's look for a little background on chocolate.

Chocolate i/ˈtʃɒklət/ is a processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central America and Northern South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC. The majority of the Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Aztecs, who made it into a beverage known as xocolātl [ʃo'kolaːt͡ɬ], a Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavor. 

Cocoa Pods

Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world. Chocolate chip cookies have become very common, and very popular, in most parts of Europe and North America. Gifts of chocolate molded into different shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot beverages, to produce chocolate milk and hot chocolate.
Cocoa mass was used originally in Mesoamerica both as a beverage and as an ingredient in foods. Chocolate played a special role in both Maya and Aztec royal and religious events. Priests presented cacao seeds as offerings to the deities and served chocolate drinks during sacred ceremonies. All of the areas that were conquered by the Aztecs that grew cacao beans were ordered to pay them as a tax, or as the Aztecs called it, a "tribute".


offering cocoa
to please the deities -
hot chocolate drink

hot chocolate drink
arouses my senses, opens my mind
my deities pleased


Well ... I hope you liked the read and that it inspired you to write haiku on Chocolate. Have fun and share your haiku with Carpe Diem, the place to be if you like haiku.

This prompt will stay on 'till April 27th 11.59 AM (CET) and I will post our next episode of Carpe Diem, Storyteller (provided by Sigrid), later on today around 10.00 PM (CET).