A slightly different jump story

THREE, TWO, ONE, BUNGEE!

I love adventure. I have been loving it all my life.

At the age of thirteen I decided that I had to bungee jump as soon as possible. Two problems occurred: Firstly, it is not allowed to jump under the age of fourteen. Secondly, a permission of your parents is necessary if you are not eighteen or above. It took me two years of persuasion and two actively supporting brothers, one of them even works on the bungee bridge I jumped off, until my father finally agreed to sign the application.

Thank you for the mischievous smile, dear brother.

Standing on the edge, seconds before I was meant to jump, I felt weak and small, not sure anymore if I wanted to do this. My brother stood behind me, holding the rope that was going to safe my life, smiling and saying sarcastically:”If you hesitate, you do not need to come home anymore.” At the same moment the crew began to count down:“Three, two, one, BUNGEE!”, and I jumped.

Did it!

I actually cannot remember what I thought during my flight in free fall, but as soon as I bounced up again, it was great. I felt as if I had tricked death. The Drau below, wonderful nature surrounding and the Jauntalbrücke above me: By the time I slowed down, I was getting aware of the things around me for the first time on that day. I was brought back to land by a boat and wanted to jump again immediately.

Flying - no, actually falling.

Years went by and I got interested in the origins of this uncommon sport. After doing some research I found out that jumping of a very unsafe tower, only secured by a liana wound around the ankles, is the tradition of a folk that lives on an island called Vanuatu in Melanesia which is in the North-West of Australia.

As soon as European adventurers discovered this custom, they tried to transfer the sport into a safer one so as to promote it to western adrenaline junkies.

Relieved

The breakthrough, though, happened in New Zealand. A man called A. J. Hackett invented the first flexible bungee rope which he specially designed for this risky activity. In order to demonstrate it, he did the probably most famous jump, the one of the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1987. After that, bungee jumping quickly evolved to a popular extreme sport throughout Europe.

A lot of people bother about the risks of bungee jumping and they actually should do if they do it secured just by a liana but not if they use a bungee rope and have a competent crew around them. The most frequent injury is an excoriation which can occur if you get in contact with the rope while you bounce back, but you are told to cover your head with your hands in order to avoid that.

As with a lot of extreme sports, it goes without saying that you should be in a good condition, physically and psychologically, if you intend to try it.

In conclusion, you should pick the company you want to jump with carefully, in order to prevent accidents.

Have fun, it is worth every penny! :)

YOUPOST 1

A spooky Halloween to all of you !

The estimates for this years Halloween per capita expenditure on costumes, decorations and candy lie at about 90$. That amounts to nearly seven billion dollars spent all in all, keeping in mind that this statistic only covers the United States. Beforehand mentioned numbers raise Halloween to the second largest feast, right after Christmas.

This typical American tradition evolved... – wait, is it actually American? Almost everyone of my friends in former times as well as myself were told by family that this tradition from overseas should not have been shipped to Europe because we already have our own customs. We do not need to walk from door to door begging for sweets. Pumpkins are not European, so Halloween cannot be either. We already have got Carnival, why should we dress up twice a year?

Thinking about the topic for more than just one minute, probably lets you discover that there could possibly be a relation between All Saints´ Day and Halloween. If so, you are totally right.

2000 years ago, the tradition was born in the form of a festival called Samhain which meant Summers´ end in the Celtic language. It was celebrated on the first of November, whereas the 31^st of October was believed to be the day on which the dead reasserted their presence. Nobody wanted to face the spirit of a deceased person, thus citizens disguised before walking out of their houses, in the hope to confuse the ghosts or be mistaken for a fellow one. They left food and wine on their doorsteps and lit bonfires in order to soothe the restless souls. Priests even tried to foretell if a village was able to get through the last night of October or not.

In the 8^th century, Catholic church weakened the ancient tradition by imposing the first of November as either All Saints´ Day or All Hallows. The relation to Halloween is obvious.

Nevertheless, the Irish kept on doing what they were used to and when they immigrated to America, they introduced and mixed up their customs with those of other cultures, hence the festival as we know it, with trick-or-treating, Jack O´Lanterns, decorated yards, dressed up children and adults, arose.

Some creative, modern Jack O`Lanterns

By the way: Jack O´Lanterns refer to the carved pumpkins with a candle in them. They are named after Stingy Jack, a man who tricked the devil. God did not want to welcome such an underhand person in heaven and of course the Devil prohibited him entry to hell, so Jack had to wander around on earth. The only thing the Devil gave him, was a burning coal that Jack put into a turnip to be able to light his way.

When this myth was finally brought to America, the pumpkin substituted the turnip. In England, for instance, they used large beets.

There is actually quite a big difference between the various versions of Halloween, depending on the culture. The Dia de los Muertos, an example that surprised me in some way, is held from the 31^st of October to the 2^nd of November in many Spanish speaking countries. The bereaved family and friends construct an altar in honor of the dead and celebrate “together with the spirits of the deceased”. On the last day they assemble at the graveside to picnic, reminiscent and simply have fun thinking about the good old times.

To each his own.

After my intense research on the origins, myths and legends around the 31^st of October, my opinion on the subject has definitely changed. Although the commercial part dampens my enthusiasm, I like the former ghoulish, now rather funny basic idea of the tradition.

Now go and spread the word: Halloween is not American!