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The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department Encourages Safe St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations

San Jacinto, Calif. – This St. Patrick’s Day, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, San Jacinto Station will be on alert for suspected impaired drivers and reminds the community to celebrate the holiday responsibly.

Additional officers will be on patrol March 17 from 6:00 PM to 2:00 AM looking for drivers suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

“Have a game plan before you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day,” San Jacinto’s Sheriff Station, Deputy Ray Cortez said. “Designate a sober driver or make other plans to get home safely.”

During the 2019 St. Patrick’s Day holiday period, nearly half of all traffic deaths throughout the country involved a drunk driver.

The San Jacinto’s Sheriff Station, Deputy Ray Cortez wants to warn the community that alcohol is not the only substance that can cause impairment. Cannabis, prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs, and illegal drugs can all lead to a DUI.

If you ever see a suspected drunk driver on the road, call 911.

Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.

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This guidance outlines safer alternative ways to celebrate Halloween and Día de los Muertos during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 continues to pose a severe risk to communities and requires all Californians to follow necessary precautions in light of this ongoing risk.
 
Some of the traditional holiday activities promote congregating and mixing of households, which increase the risk of transmitting COVID-19.  For this reason, CDPH recommends that you choose a safer alternative way to celebrate Halloween and Día de los Muertos, and strongly discourages trick-or-treating. It is important to plan early and identify safer options.
 
Your local health department may have additional restrictions; check with your local public health department for information about Halloween in your community.
 
This guidance may be modified based on the changing conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Safer Alternatives for Halloween

The safest way to celebrate Halloween is to spend time with people in the same household or to celebrate virtually. Some specific alternatives that are low risk but still capture the holiday fun include:

• Creating a haunted house or candy scavenger hunt in your home
• Having a scary movie night and Halloween-themed activities (pumpkin carving, face painting) at home
• Participating in online parties/contests (e.g. costume or pumpkin carvings)
• Attending car-based outings where people do not leave their car including drive-in events or contests or movies; driving through an area with Halloween displays
• Eating a Halloween-themed meal with your household (alone or with up to 2 other households, not including your own, for a meal outside following all other gathering guidelines)
• Enjoying a Halloween-themed art installation at an outdoor museum with your household
• Dressing up homes and yards with Halloween-themed decorations
• Giving treats at home only to those in your household.
• Send a curated playlist and/or themed treats (or tricks) to your friends ahead of time.
• Designing face masks that reflect your child/ren’s Halloween costumes
• Prepare a Halloween basket for your children or Halloween hunt in your backyard

Safer Alternatives for Día de los Muertos

The safest way to celebrate Día de los Muertos is to spend time with people in the same household or to celebrate virtually. Some specific alternatives that are low risk but still capture the cultural celebration inlcude:

• Altars: Consider placing and creating your altar in a front window or outside so others can view from a safe social distance.
• Virtual Altar: Create a virtual space to honor lost loved ones. Share with family and friends via email or social media.
• Cemetery Visits: If you visit the cemetery, only visit with those you live with, wear masks and maintain appropriate social distancing. Limit time spent to minimum necessary.

Trick-or-Treating

In general, the more people from different households with whom a person interacts, the closer the physical interaction is, and the longer the interaction lasts, the higher the risk that a person with COVID-19 infection –symptomatic or asymptomatic — may spread it to others.  Trick-or-treating without necessary modifications promotes congregating and mixing of many households, particularly on crowded doorsteps, which can increase the spread of COVID-19. That type of mixing is not currently permitted in California. Additionally, if there is a positive case discovered, it is very challenging to do appropriate contact tracing to identify all those who have been potentially exposed.

To protect yourself and your community, you should not go trick-or-treating or mix with others outside allowed private gatherings this Halloween season.

Personal Protection Measures:

Regardless of how you choose to celebrate Halloween or Día de los Muertos it is important to keep the following in mind:

1. Face Coverings: Face coverings must be wornin accordance with the CDPH Guidance on the Use of Face Coverings, unless an exemption is applicable. Please note plastic, rubber, vinyl and other Halloween costume masks are not an acceptable substitute for cloth face-coverings for the prevention of COVID-19 spread.  
2. Practice Social Distancing:  Avoid confined spaces, especially indoors. Stay least 6 feet away (3 or more adult steps) from all other people who are not part of your own household, especially while talking, eating, drinking, and singing.
3. Good Hygiene: Wash or sanitize your hands often. Clean frequently touched items regularly.
4. Minimize Mixing: Plan activities to limit mixing between different households. Currently gatherings of more than three households are prohibited in California.  Californians are permitted to gather with a maximum of two other households. This means that on Halloween, if you are spending time with others, you must stick with a maximum of three households (including your own), and not mingle with others.
5. Stay Home if You are Sick or You are in a High Risk Group: If you are sick, or you have been in contact with someone who is sick with COVID-19 or has symptoms of COVID-19 stay home, and away from others. People at higher risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 (such as older adults, people with chronic medical conditions) are strongly urged to stay home.

1. If you are sick or in a high risk group, you should discourage trick-or-treaters from coming to your door by turning off your porch light and other Halloween decoration lights on Halloween night.

Please respect your neighbors and your community: Everyone is navigating the COVID-19 pandemic to the best of their abilities and has different comfort levels about what is safe to do. Your local community or your neighbors may be more restrictive than these CDPH guidelines, and we ask that you respect your neighbors’ wishes and concerns.

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If you read my stories you already know from last week that Christmas is not the All-American sport. Far from it. In other lands we find other celebrations and customs when it comes to Santa Claus and the Nativity .

I did some digging into Christmas lore this week and came up with some other ways that Christmas is celebrated in the Eastern and Southeastern parts of the globe.

MERRY CHRISTMAS DOWN UNDER                                                                            It might sound odd to you that anyone would celebrate Christmas in any way other than we do in America. We believe that celebrating Christ’s birthday anytime but December 25^th, with sleight bells ringing and we up to our knees in snow would be a disgrace.

Historians and many theologians know better. Many of them believe that Jesus was actually a July baby. I only know what I was taught and later read…so who really knows?

Christmas in Australia is celebrated from mid-December to early February. Christmas takes place in Australia during their hot season. Factually families might even been tanning and picnicking at the beach during the Christmas season.

Due to the excessive heat, folks down under spend much of the holidays fighting brush fires, protecting property and rescuing people,

In some instances they are like us. They are big on hanging lights house to house, with large displays, in competition as to who has the largest and grandest displays. A regular Macy’s parade in stand still.

Each state capital city hosts a “Carols by Candlelight” service (very much like ours, the one with the most money presents the largest display). Well-known Australian such as The Wiggles, John Farnham, Anthony Warlow, Colin Gery, Nicki Webster, ad infinitum pitch in the make season bright and musical by singing carols.

It is quite well known that during his visit to Australia, Santa replaces his reindeers for kangaroos and dons lighter garb because of the heat. Children leave carrots for the reindeer and cake for Santa. They swear that the cold beer for Santa is non-alcoholic. Santa gives us a sly wink on that one.

Then there is “Boxing day” when crowds assemble at the beach for barbecues. Also on Boxing Day there is a famous race that starts in Sydney and comes to an end at Hobart in Tasmania.

Also, like us, Christmas day is for families, finding most families at home, with big dinners that include a cold Christmas dinner or seafood barbecue in the back yard.  Christmas Day usually ends with Christmas Pudding: cold desserts and Christmas Crackers at every Christmas meal. A bit strange these Aussies-and don’t you know, they have the dandiest way of singing?

AND, OH THOSE CHINESE – THEY’VE GOT THEIR OWN STYLE

There are not a lot of Christians in China-perhaps one percent of the billions of Chinese. Given that, it might come as a surprise to many of us to learn that they do not mimic our December celebrations.

The hinterlands, in many cases, have no idea what one means by “Christmas.” Consequently, most large celebrations take place in the big, more cosmopolitan metropolises like Beijing where they have decorated trees and Christmas lights. It has been said that this is only to satisfy the shopping greed of American visitors.  Postmen dress up as Santa who is known as Jheng dan lao ren’. Don’t ask because I have no idea where that came from.

In recent years young people have begun to embrace Christmas as a time for lovers to exchange gifts. American Valentine’s Day? Who knows, but they seem to be leading the way toward the season.

In-home Christmas trees are usually plastic and might be decorated with paper chains, paper flowers and paper lanterns. Most real trees are consigned to the Shopping Malls (perhaps to also please us Americans with pockets full of spending money). It is somewhat amusing that, even though they are not so gung ho, most all of our Christmas decorations are manufactured in China.

On Christmas Eve, giving apples is quite popular, with the apples wrapped in bright colored paper. The name for Christmas Eve is impossible to read (since I ain’t Chinese, I suppose) but means “peaceful” or “quiet” evening. “Apple” in Mandarin is “pingguo.” Sounds like a word for peace.

It is fascinating to watch Chinese celebrants singing carols as they stroll along the sidewalks and by-ways, mouthing words, the meaning of which they don’t even know. As to the Christians (a minority, one might say), they do strange things like go to Midnight Mass and stuff like that. As they say, these Chinese have their own way of doing everything-but ain’t it nice that they celebrate an American National Holiday? Just sayin’

rustystrait@gmail.com

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Search: Christmas in other lands

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Both the United States and Canada celebrate the agricultural harvest and other blessings of our life with an annual feast day in the fall. These feast days are not only festive celebrations, but also a time to recall our responsibilities as stewards.

Although regional variations of dates and observances arose in later years, George Washington declared the first national day of Thanksgiving in 1789. In 1939 Congress fixed the date of Thanksgiving in the United States as the fourth Thursday in November. Canada celebrated its first national Thanksgiving in 1879, and now observes the day on the second Monday of each October.

Thanksgiving was the first holiday celebrated by the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. The winter of 1620 had devastated the Puritans’ colony with famine and disease. Help from the Native Americans (a Native viewpoint from 2000) and a good growing season resulted in a generous harvest in 1621, an event the colony celebrated by proclaiming a public day of thanksgiving. The three-day celebration, held after the harvest, combined two aspects of similar celebrations from England and Europe: a harvest festival and a public thanksgiving for a specific occasion of deliverance.

Harvest festivals, of course, are found in agricultural communities across the globe and throughout history. Three Jewish festivals — Passover, Pentecostand Tabernacles — had connections to agricultural events. The first occurred at the time of new births in the animal flocks; the second at the harvest of grain; and the third at the time of new wine.

Many different harvest festivals were celebrated by the medieval Church. One such day was Lammas Day in England, which commemorated the harvest of grain with church services and feasting. Though the Puritan settlers did not retain Lammas Day or similar feasts, their celebration of 1621 did retain such harvest festival traditions as prayer, feasting and games. Even our contemporary celebration of Thanksgiving includes these traditions.

“Thanksgiving is a true inward acknowledgement, we applying ourselves with great reverence and loving fear with all our powers to the work that God moved us to, rejoicing and giving thanks inwardly. And so, the power of the Lord’s word enters the soul and enlivens the heart and makes us rejoice in the Lord. This is the most loving thanksgiving in God’s sight.” -Julian of Norwich

The second aspect of Thanksgiving — gratitude for a specific event — is also widespread in human experience. Indeed, such thanksgivings have given rise to the characteristic liturgies of both Judaism and Christianity, as in the Passover Seder and the Christian Eucharist. Throughout the middle ages, days of special thanksgiving were held to praise God for deliverance from famine, plague or war. This tradition was preserved by the Puritan settlers and put to its first use in the autumn of 1621.

We give thanks for all our blessings—especially blessings of food and citizenship in our country—realizing that such blessings demand responsible use of every resource to do God’s will. Remembrance, gratitude and stewardship—let these be the hallmarks of our feast, the hallmarks of our lives.

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Search: Digging Deeper

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