Transcript Why the Leaves Fall

Matching Myths
a presentation by
Mrs. Palacios
Why the Leaves Fall
Demeter and Persephone
The Lakota Tribe
• Part of Sioux tribe
• Agriculturalists
• The name means
feeling friendly
• Believed in nature
spirits
• Sought to learn lessons
from animals
Why The Leaves Fall
In the summer, all of the ground plants and grass were happy
and warm. As winter approached, though, the plants realized
that it was very cold.
The grass and flowers were not feeling well at all - they had no
protection from the cold. Just as it seemed that there would be
no hope for surviving the winter, He who looks after the things of
His Creation came to the rescue.
He saw that the grass and flowers were dying from the cold. He
decided that the tree's leaves should provide a blanket for them.
He who looks after the things of his Creation felt sorry for the
trees because they had to surrender their leaves, so in late fall,
before the winter came, he made the leaves of all the trees
beautiful red, orange, golden, and bronze colors to repay them
for their services.
Ancient Greece
• mountainous land
surrounded by sea
• mild winters- long hot
summers
• Believed in goddess of
harvest, Demeter
• People would dance before
altars asking her for good
crops
Demeter and Persephone
(Origin of the Seasons)
One day Persephone, daughter of
Demeter was enjoying time in the
fields and flowers when suddenly
Hades comes from the Underworld
and kidnaps her.
When her mother, Demeter, discovers
that her daughter is gone, she begins
to grieve. Unfortunately, she also
stops doing her job, which is to assure
that crops grow for the humans in
Greece.
That means people begin to starve,
and after a while Zeus realizes he must
intervene. He works out a deal that
Persephone will stay with Hades, her
new husband, for part of the year
because Persephone did eat some
pomegranate seeds while she was
there, and the rule is if you eat, you
must stay.
.... And she will spend part of the year
with her mom. That means Demeter is
happy at that time, and things grow, so
the people can plant, harvest, and eat.
So, this explains why there are
seasons.
When she is about to return to Hades,
her mom gets sad, and it’s fall.
When she’s gone, it’s winter.
When she first returns, it’s spring.
And after a while, it’s summer.
What does this all mean?
It seems that different cultures from
opposite sides of the world were
concerned about the reason for the
seasons.
They must have been perplexed when
it would suddenly get colder or hotter,
and they didn’t have science to help
them understand.
Both of these cultures relied on agriculture
to support their diets. They had to be
worried, for the weather determined if
they would be able to grow food.
Worry is not good. They needed
assurance, so they believed that something
was in control. (a goddess, a spirit)
They probably felt good knowing something else was in control,
and that there was a chance that things would be predictable to
a point, and everything would be okay. The Lakota must have
felt secure knowing that their “nature spirit” cared very much
for the plants. That probably meant it would care for them too.
The Greeks knew gods and goddesses were in charge, so they
thought if they danced or sacrificed an animal once in a while,
the weather might be good. It let them think that they had some
way to influence the weather.
MY MODERN MYTH FOCUSES ON
OUR CULTURE AND THE WEATHER
What kind of myth does
our culture need?
It was the year 2119. Mother Nature
looked down from her perch up in the
sky and grief filled her soul.
The humans below were littering,
driving cars, and making products in
plants that spit poisons into the
atmosphere.
“I need a faster car,” said one rich man.
“I want more plastic containers so that
I can conveniently drink my water,”
said a young woman.
“I want to make money by making
these cars and bottles,” said the
owners of the companies.
She had finally heard enough. She
couldn’t bear to see such disregard for
the planet. She went into hiding,
wishing she could forget what she had
seen.
Jack Frost, her evil nephew, noticed his
aunt was gone when the skies began
to get hazy. Usually, she manipulated
the ocean currents to set off rain
storms that would clear the skies, but
it seemed no rain had fallen for
months.
Wanting to act quickly, he sent chilling
winds that enveloped the earth on one
side and caused a drought on the
other.
Soon, the people below were in a bind.
“My bottled water is totally frozen.
How will I drink it now?” asked that
same woman. “I want to drive my fast
car, but the roads are all frozen,” said
that man. The owners of the factories
were about to go broke because
nobody nearby wanted their products,
and the folks on the other side of the
earth were now too poor to buy them.
Little Lilly Lew saw these changes too,
but she wasn’t complaining. She was
worried. Hoping to make a difference,
she emailed her friends, started a blog,
and eventually launched a website
titled “Save our Planet”.
In no time, the younger kids, those
from age 8-11, were sharing ideas,
coming up with solutions, working on
plans. They began educating others,
cleaning things up, and making
changes in their own lives.
Mother Nature saw this, and she was
pleased.
“I can’t punish all of them,” she
admitted. The little ones aren’t to
blame. If they are acting selfishly, it’s
only because they have been taught to
be that way. But look at them now,
making a change, trying to make a
difference.
And with those words, she summoned
the currents and put the her weather
pattern back in motion.
Rains fell, ice melted, and the earth
returned to normal.
The selfish humans surprised her, for
somehow they knew this was their
second chance. And, they had seen
some of the blogs and websites.
And just as the weather changed, so
did they. “No more plastic bottles,”
one woman declared. “Only smart
cars from now on,” shouted that man.
“We’ll make money, but we’ll do it by
making eco friendly products,” said the
companies.
And all was right with the world once
again. Jack Frost had lost his powers.
His aunt’s weather patterns were much
stronger than his, yet every once in a
while, he got a foothold, froze a few
fields, and made things miserable.
Mother Nature let this happen, for
she knew it would be an annual
reminder that the humans should
appreciate and care for their
planet.