Holiday Celebrations

[Gryphon]

Throughout the world we have such an incredibly wide range of holidays that we celebrate and reasons for celebrating them. Official holidays are recognised for so many different reasons: historical, religious, institutional, even commercial show's up now and again.

 

Please let me know what your favourite holiday (or celebration) is and why it's special to you. Also if your country has any special days that you believe are (fairly) unique please, share those with us too.

 

Personally I'd have to go with Guy Fawkes as my favourite. I think it's fairly universal, but in case you're not familiar with it there's a Wiki Link that tells you all about it. Here in New Zealand we get together and set off fireworks on or around the 5th of November to remember the treasonous plot to blow up British parliment. Mostly it's enjoyed here because it's the only time we ever get to set off fireworks - they're not sold at any other time of year because that's illegal, and our government is currently discussing banning the sale of fireworks all together.

 

Personally I've got pretty poor memories or reasons to dislike almost every holiday we celebrate here. Some of them are getting better for me as time goes on with the help of my friends, however the only times I've ever not enjoyed Guy Fawkes night is when I've been utterly alone without friends or family around to celebrate it with... and I really love those sparkly bangy fireworks.

 

What's your favourite?

 

[reverie]

I like Christmas or as I've celebrated in the last few years: Chrismanukkah. Heh, my religion totes both holidays say I often end up in a celebration that honors both, but even before that I found myself often celebrating with friends that had already combined the two.

 

Just a sucker for the music really.

 

rev...

Edited November 6, 2006 by reverie

[Sweetcherrie]

I can mention 2 we have in holiday, or I should say, used to have. At the moment it's getting less and less since all is americanized...I always wonder why we can't just have theirs on top of ours, the more the merrier, no?

 

11th of november: St. Maarten.

 

He was a good giving man way back when, and especially did a lot of good for children as far as I know. Either way he did do a lot of good for me when I was little, because on his nameday we went trick or treating like most people do now with Halloween. Difference was that we had lanterns instead of costumes.

 

Used to come home with a bag full of candy, and then divide it in candy with and without paper. Oh, and my mom would of course confiscate a lot, since we kids would otherwise be throwing up within 2 hours.

 

5th of December: Sinterklaas or St. Nicolaas

 

Also one of those happy days for kids. This saint used to come from spain on his steamboat. He had black helpers, and a white horsey. If you had been a good kid all year he would bring gifts, if not you would get a bag of salt or something like that.

 

Lots of great songs, and it's still celebrated, though getting less now christmas is taking over unfortunately.

 

Leading up to this day we were allowed to put down our shoes in the evening with a carrot in it. At night the good saint would then come on his horsey (hence the carrot) and put a small gift in the shoe.

 

On the day itself the doorbell would ring mysteriously (the neighbour) and then a biiiiiiig bag of gifts would be in front of the door.

 

Of course as you grow up the mystery disappears, and the Sinterklaas I remember most was when I didn't believe in the saint anymore but my little brother did. My dad asked me to press the doorbell and then I should quickly hide in the toilet.

 

Stupid enough...I forgot to close the door, so my smartass brother just had to ask howcome the saint had not come in on his horsey if the door had already been open anyway. Think my dad never had a more difficult time coming up with something, all while shooting discomfortable looks at me.

 

Anyway, these were mine, and I have very fond memories of both

[Savage Dragon]

My favorite holiday may have the same roots as Sweetcherries's second one, becuase there are a lot of obvious similarities.

 

The reason I picked this one as my favorite is because it's the only holiday that my family celebrates that pretty much no ones else i know in America actually celebrates.

 

Its called St. Nick's Day, and it occurs over December 5th night and 6th morning, im not sure which bears the actual holiday. On the night of the 5th my 3 sisters and I would put a shoe (i guess to symbolize stockings) outside our bedroom doors, and in the morning there would be little gifts in them (there were a couple of years i put out a cowboy boot).

 

The gifts were pretty much the same every year. A holiday shirt, a new CD, an ornament for the upcoming christmas tree, and always, without fail a Twinkie! One of the nicer things about the holiday was that since St. Nich was a close friend with Santa Claus, we put our christmas lists in our shoes to be picked up and sent to the workshop.

 

My family still celebrates this tradition every year, although this being my first year at college, i wont be home for it i'm sure St. Nick would be willing to make the trip, but i dont think i trust my dorm-mates enough to leave a perfectly good shoe out where they can take it.

[Mardrax]

Yeah, I would guess that stem from the Dutch Sinterklaas holiday. Like Sweet explained, that's the day St. Nicolaas' supposed birthday is celebrated. By historically accurate terms however, december 6th is actually the day in which he officially died according to christianity. Ofcourse, this is hardly a reliable fact, and the coincidence with an ancient germanic holiday relating to a figure named Nikolaus I percieve with alot of skepticism. Along those lines, a lot of the tradition associated with the Dutch celebration stem from germanic customs and holidays. Especially the similarity between Nicholas and germanic Woden is striking, whom was mainly celebrated through the days surrounding the turn of the year.

 

-On a sidenote, St. Nicolaas (Nicholas, and -propably- popularly Nick) lived around the turn of the 4th century AD, (from the top of my head) and was the bishop of a town called Myra, in Asia Minor (present day Turkey). He is considered patron saint of sailors, children and some other things, including alot of port cities. He is still heavily revered in Russian Orthodox christianity today.-

 

December 5th was used from somewhere in the 1400's (again from the top of my head) by the St. Nicholaschurch in a major Dutch city to let the poorer inhabitants of the city leave a shoe there, where the richer inhabitants would leave things, which the poor would collect on december 6th. I couldn't tell anyone wether or not that's the actual origin of the setting of shoes, however I can say the tradition had emerged into living rooms in the 1600's, as there is a paining by Jan Steen (a famous Dutch painter) depicting it.

 

In current times I know it to be celebrated in some (albeit small) measure by pretty much all northwestern European countries, and pockets of mainly Dutch immigrants in Australia, New Zealand and the US, however you'll probably find it everywhere you'll find a Dutch family. Especially if you have a dutch heritage running through your family that you know of, I wouldn't be surprised at all if your Nick would be our Nicholas.

 

About missing it, give me an adress and I'll send you a chocolate letter to try to compensate

 

*deep breath*

Alright, after that little history lesson... Actually answering the question.

 

Personally I dislike pretty much all holidays. I'm not one to go around being nice to people because the calendar tells me I should. Instead, I rather just always try to be as nice as I can. The ammount of force that accompanies holidays unsettles me.

That said, there is one holiday I like: new year's. Although I don't spend any of it with my family, unless my mom decides to visit her sister, who is the only person in my family I can actually stand, I usually follow my own little ritual. I usually pick up my guitar and go sit by (or on, would be a better description, on a three foot wide stone pier, at most a foot above the water surface, 20 metres from the mainland or so) the sea here.

It's a mixture of grounding myself, and trying to get as far away as possible from the people that insist on ruining a perfectly good night with bangs, flashes and a whole lot of smoke. Not to mention my mother attempting to get me to like her.

 

I depress myself at times

[Katzaniel]

March 17th, St. Patty's Day.

 

I don't know where or why it started, but in my family we always eat green food for supper on this day. It's so much fun gathering everything we can find that's green, and colouring the milk green in the morning (or being surprised on the years when I forget, and I pour it in my cereal and it's green..) and putting out lime candies and stuff. We almost always make green mashed potatoes, and spinach alfredo makes excellent green pasta... one year we even made green bread! (Colour the water, not the flour...) Only thing we've never found is good green meat or a way to effectively colour meat.

 

When I was younger we'd also put flour on the floor the night before and wake up to discover leprechaun footprints in it. Sometimes we'd make a patchwork trap but those wily leprechauns never fell for it. *sigh*

[Quincunx]

Mole verde (green sauce)? Green food dye in your favorite sugar-based meat marinade? Now that you point it out, I do remember that my preschool dish was less "Green Eggs and Ham" than "Ham and Green Eggs".

 

For the non-Dutch among us, a chocolate letter is exactly what it sounds like--we would call it an initial, and not an ordinary letter.

[Mardrax]

Yepyep... chocolate rocks, letters or no

 

Having seen a cambodian friend of mine eat meat that was black almost all the way through on force of pepper alone, I'd think dyeing meat green shouldn't be too much of a problem with a regular green food dye.

 

Still I wonder how anyone could ever want to eat green meat

[Wyvern]

The doors to the Cabaret Room slam open as Wyvern barges in, shoving a loaded cart of broken birthday bottle rockets and wagging his tail with the ugliest of holiday cheer. The overgrown lizard sets the cart in the center of the room and glances left and right with a look of anticipation on his twitching snout, only to droop his wings when he realizes that the discussion of green objects doesn't involve wads of thousand dollar bills. Wyvern still perks his head up and sneers, however, as he waves a claw towards the junk on his cart.

 

"My favorite holiday to cccelebrate would have to be Almost Dragonic Brand Brandy Brandishing Day™. It goesss hand-in-hand with yer beloved St. Patrick's in terms of alcohol consssumption, but places less of an emphasis on four-leaf clovers and more of an emphasis on cattle irons. Think 'Idiots Flashlight,' but more pointy... those beloved scars that never heal! Oh, believe me, I speak from-"

 

Wyvern pauses for a moment, then digs through one of his front pockets until he finds a crumpled sheet of paper. The reptilian Elder clears his throat as he unravels the paper, then trails his claw down to around the middle of the page and squints at the word written there.

 

"-the heart. *ahem!* Of course, the trouble with this holiday is that you can never remember when it is, since it's always the last thing you want to think about the morning after. But now, every day can be Almost Dragonic Brand Brandy Brandishing Day™ with your very own Almost Dragonic Brand Broken Bottle Beerkeg Ornaments™! Comes in three exotic designs: 'broken glass,' 'leaky acidic,' and 'holycrapthefuseisstilllit.' Makes a great stocking stuffer for St. Nicacolyte's Day or whatever the name of that holiday was... the kids love'em! 45 geld a pop. Get'em while suppliesss last!"

 

Wyvern grins and begins pointing both of his claws towards the packed "Ornament" cart, but frowns when he's met by a bunch of blank pennite stares. The overgrown lizard scratches his chin for a few minutes as an uncomfortable silence fills the Cabaret Room, then shakes his head and sighs.

 

"O.K O.K, fine, a serious holiday." The overgrown lizard brushes back a scale on his head and snaps a claw. "July 22nd: Mighty Pen Babe Hottywatch. Celebrates the anniversary of Merelas' Mighty Pen Fashion Show, which remains one of the sexiest displays of pennite gals I've seen. I usually celebrate by standing under the ceiling area where I once caught a peep of Salinye in all her glory, waiting for another crack to poke my head through. I often end up snooping around in the middle of the night and attempting to spy on Pen gals, but that part'sss hardly limited to the holidays..."

 

*crickets*

 

;-)

[reverie]

mole sauce is an acquired taste. I've yet to acquired it.

[Cerulean]

*Interrupts*

 

I love the word 'mole' and wish there was a mole celebration day then I could add something more meaningful to this topic!

 

*Slinks off*

[reverie]

a local hispanic restarant talks about celebration for mole sauce in their menu... maybe I'll swing by and see what the date of the festival was...

 

rev...

[Cerulean]

a local hispanic restarant talks about celebration for mole sauce in their menu... maybe I'll swing by and see what the date of the festival was...

 

rev...

 

That would be brilliant!

[Quincunx]

At risk of being thrown out of my own chocolate-loving presence, I haven't acquired a taste for molé poblano either. However, I do like the molé verde, and while hunting for a recipe* for it, think I may also have found revery's forgotten holiday. Does Day of the Dead ring any bells?**

 

*Epazote (one of the recommended spices) is VERY MUCH an acquired taste. Phew! It's a sort of mad cousin to cilantro.

 

**Other than the ones Minta's shaking while she zooms around, right now. For some people, every day is a Day of the Dead. . .

[Mardrax]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_Day

 

*grin*

[Cerulean]

TWO celebration days - one for Cerulean and one for Harpy!

 

Cerulean claims the scientific celebration and deliberates on the similarity of Avogadro and avocado.

 

Scarlett blows the dust off her widow's weeds and declares the 'Day of the dead' to be definitely worth an outing.'

[Elvina]

I love Christmas. Firstly, because it's the day I celebrate my Saviour's birth, and second, because there are so many great things involved in that celebrating. I'm half Danish, so our custom is to make a honking great pork roast with loads of crackling, cheesy potatoes, and gravy, and then top it off with the most glorious dessert ever invented by man. Ris a'lamande is a Danish rice pudding that's really creamy and just yummy. We put skinless almond slivers through it and only two whole ones. They're all invisible when they're put in with all that white, and the idea is to find one of the whole almonds without biting into it and breaking it. If you find a whole one (and manage to keep it like that), you get a prize of some sort (usually chocolate in my family). It's served with cherries or strawberries in syrup. *smacks lips at the mere thought* I also love the decorations and the 'smell' of Christmas, the customs, joviality and solemnity of the occasion, and the opportunity to rejoice and be with great friends and family.

 

Yeah, so I love Christmas.

 

...And now I'm hungry.

Edited November 23, 2006 by Elvina

[Morgane]

i loved christmas as a kid

none of the santa crap then

the christchild came to us:)

i remember being at my uncles who was förster (the closest equivalent would be forest ranger i guess in english) he told us he had seen little footprints in the snow and showed us hair he had found (angelhair grin)

 

nowadays its santa:(

 

we have st. nick too though a bit different

the 5th is nikolaus day

the 6th krampus day or the other way round

nikolaus is the bishop with his book where all the good and evil stuff a kid has done is written down in and krampus is a devil accompanying him taking away the bad kids

LORD was i scared of the guy

here's a link so u can see why i was scared:) http://www.luehrmann.at/BildderWoche/2002/...-02-krampus.jpg

 

anyways we used to get a lil sack with chocolate fruit and nuts in it

 

*smiles*

those were the days

 

but i guess us customs will slowly eat all of our stuff

 

and i HATE the blasted halloween hype that has come over us the last few years

grrrrrrrrrr

[Mardrax]

Actually, that's alot more similar to St Nick than you'd probably expect. I've named Nikolaus as a source for St Nick's cellebration before. Actually, St Nick is more or less the same as Nikolaus, but converted in both meaning and execution by the catholic church ('round the 14th century?). St Nick has the same book, but instead of the demons, he has black helpers (Zwarte Pieten, or Black Pete's) who perform basically the same task, except they carry around big sacks of candy they deal out, and when the sacks are empty, they're supposed to take the naughty kids back to Spain (more to do with historical mash-ups, Nick was a turk, but turkey was Moorish country in the 1400's, his bones had been taken to italy then, where a church still exists in his honour, they were supposed to have been taken to spain after that) with them.

On a sidenote, who wouldn't want to spend those dreary wintermonths in the sunny mediteranean?

The origin of these followers is discussed by less historically aware persons. Their being black would suggest Moores, which would suggest them being slaves, however a story exists where nick helped a Moorish boy out, who stuck around to help him. Wether or not this is evading the issue of slavery, I won't go into guessing. That issue is avoided however, by what is supposed to be the original story nowadays, where they have become black from going up and down chimneys all the time. For anyone with german roots, a knowledge of germanic culture and knowledge of christian "habits" though, their source is obvious.

 

I should get less verbal someday

[Appy]

That'll never happen Mardrax

 

One a side/personal-note: Sinterklaas (as St Nick is called in Dutch) always arrived in the Netherlands on or just before or after my brithday. With a big all-day program on television of course.

From this day on you could put out your shoe and sings songs to the letterbox in the door (if you didn't have a fireplace ).

 

This of course made my birthday's extra special back then, and therefor I would have to say that if any Celebration is my favorite, it is this one.

[Mardrax]

True, true. You know me too well

 

On that note, I'll have to let birthdays (and especially my own) replace new year's as my favourite celebration. It's a day I see my friends, and possibly make new ones.

My friends mean a whole lot more to me than my family, which, with two exceptions, I have no connection with.

It's also one of the few celebrations I could actually call a party.

Edited November 27, 2006 by Mardrax