Salon post: April 19

[jenett]

Welcome to this week's salon post!

Topic of the week
What's your favourite holiday? (Been thinking about this because of a thing I'll put in a comment.)

What I've been up to
A short work week, and a quiet one, and trying to line up ducks for various other projects (including a "Wow, my June is busy.")


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Comments

[jenett]

So, this Monday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts (and Maine, for historical reasons), which is the celebration of the battle of Lexington and Concord, and also Boston Marathon day.

It's probably my favourite legal holiday, for several reasons:

1) It's sort of cool to have a day off when most other people don't.

2) April is a really nice time to have a short week. (March is the longest month, in my experience, in terms of how it feels)

3) You get a day off at at time when spring is really hitting, and there's this luxurious feeling in being able to get outside or just look outside and see things growing.

[eseme]

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, for how my family celebrates it. My sister lives in Nova Scotia, Canada, and my parents and I live in Maine. Getting the family together for Christmas is not feasible with a 9 hour drive between us. So my parents and I drive up to Canada each year at American Thanksgiving (my parents, being retired, are also in Canada for Canadian Thanksgiving in October).

Second Thanksgiving is celebrated on Thursday night at my sister's farm. Most years (but not last year because she was pregnant and did not want a large affair) they invite friends of theirs. Other ex-pats and also Canadian friends, and most people can come because for them it is a dinner party on a random Thursday. There are often 12-16 people there, and my sister has a farm and wonderful food and her friends are either farmers or people who love good fresh food. The food is amazing.

Friday is not Black Friday (as that is not really a thing in Canada - the stores are trying to drum up the rush of business, but it is not a thing). Friday is First Christmas, when we exchange family gifts.

And it is my holiday from my work, going to the farm where there is satellite internet and most of the day is spent nowhere near a glowing screen. I read a lot, and do crafts, and play with my niece (I shall be meeting niece number 2 for the first time this year), and spend time with my family.

Thanksgiving is the very best holiday.

[julian]

Christmas Eve.

I'm not religiously Christian, but I am culturally Christian. So generally, my (immediate nuclear) family has the day off for both Christmas Eve and Christmas. (My dad, mom, brother, brother's wife, my partner.)

We tend to get together for lunch, and then (historically) we've decorated the tree. (At my parents' house. My partner is even less Christian than I am, and isn't interested in this -- she comes over for dinner afterwards; I am expecting that my brother and his wife (and new kid!) will start some kind of tradition of their own, except they're still living in a communal co-op that's technically owned by someone else, so they may stick with Dedham instead for awhile.)

We decorate the tree (or, used to), and then decamp for the Unitarian Chrismas Eve carols and candlelight service, which still tends to stick to the King James version of the Christmas story, and reliably makes me very happy in the light and the awe and the everything. And then we go home (sometimes keeping the candles lit), and Calluna shows for dinner.

(And then we sometimes go to an Episcopal service, which makes me more of an anthropologist, so it's less fun.)

And then Christmas itself is a lot more filled with Present Opening and cooking and having 9-11 people over for dinner and so on, so it's busier and less filled with light.

Part of this is the layers of accreted tradition that are a) still going, or b) have changed but which we acknowledge having changed.

[jazzyjj]

Well...I like all holidays for various reasons. My church always has services and other fun festivities for Christmas and Easter. We used to make a big deal of Thanksgiving, but ever since the original choir director got sacked it has been rather dull. Long story though, but I'll just say it wasn't at all his or my family's fault. He was very popular though.





I also like all the food and drinks, and the presents at Christmas. But the other reason I enjoy the holidays so much is that for most of them, I get out of the building and spend some quality time at my parents' 2-flat and their previous houses. Such is the case today. I just worked out, and after lunch I'm taking an ADA paratransit ride to my parents' place for the Easter and Passover weekend. I'm Christian--Episcopalian to be specific--so celebrate Easter, and I haven't gone to church in awhile due to travel reasons.

[fandomonymous]

I've become really fond of Gregorian New Year('s Eve).

It's the one American legal holiday not tied to religion or really specific problematic ideas of patriotism/American history. It's also a night with both intense hedonism and deep reflection of the future. I picked up from rax a tradition of writing long missives about how my year went and what I want from them for the future to send to friends and loved ones near and far, and crafting that is a really fascinating and useful personal exercise.

I'm also culturally Catholic and have complicated feelings about Christmas; my anchor partner is culturally Jewish. We've agreed to swap cards and gifts on New Year's (plus going out for a night of intense hedonism at our favorite bar), and I love that very much.

On Advent/Christmas, I'm still figuring out what traditions I want to keep and which ones to put aside, but most decor I have I keep up until Epiphany, so all the beautiful lights are still up on New Year's too. It makes winter - which is otherwise a really rough time for me - more beautiful and easier to bear.

[cjsmith]

I shall have to consider making New Year('s Eve) my new favorite. Thank you for your comments on it!

[cjsmith]

For a long time it's been Halloween. As a kid I loved making costumes and I loved pretending, and as an adult I loved handing out candy. Now no children come to the door and I am sad. Perhaps I shall adopt New Year's Eve / New Year's Day as my new favorite!

[jjhunter]

OT: would you consider resuming hosting your fabulous salon posts again at some point? I really enjoy these.

Also, any chance you'd be open to some of your previous salon topics being recycled over at covidcoffeecorner with links back to your original salon posts?

[jenett]

Let me think about that - it takes holding a certain kind of brain space, and the last round I tried, the last half dozen or so posts didn't get a ton of conversation. But I'll think about it!

I am definitely fine with topics being recycled - I'm enjoying the conversations over there as I get a chance.