December Daily: party in the dark times

[resonant]

azurelunatic - 5 reasons you enjoy a party in the dark times of the year

Not sure I'm answering the same question you're asking, but here are some dark-times fests that I myself have experienced at least once and would like to experience again.

I could only come up with four, actually. It's a pity you don't know for sure which snow will be the last snow, because I'm sure those of us in northern climes would enjoy an observance of Last Use of the Snow Shovel Day.

All Cats' Day, September 25. (This one is borderline, but it's after the equinox, so I'm going to count it.) We never know what our cats' birthdays are, so we celebrate them all on September 25. Back when I lived in a town with a Steak 'n' Shake in it, if you signed up for coupons, it allowed you to get special coupons on your birthday and on another date you chose; I think they were thinking anniversaries or something, but I always chose All Cats' Day. Otherwise this is celebrated by doing thing cats like, and also by doing things they don't like, such as making up All Cats' Day anthems and singing them.

The Godparents' Ball, December 26. This was celebrated in my hometown by a family I used to babysit for. They only had two children, but they had amassed an amazing collection of godparents (including my parents, which is how I got to attend). They made plum pudding. They flamed it and everything.

No Year's Eve, December 31. This is where you have two introverts and one small child, and so at 9 p.m. you jump up and down on some bubble wrap and cheer and yell and say "Happy New Year" and hug each other and then you go quietly to bed. Now that the small child has grown up into a fellow introvert, we dispense with the bubble wrap and just keep the quietly to bed part.

Twelfth Night, January 5 or 6. I only had this party twice, and then it was supplanted by the kidlet's birthday, but I'd love to renew the tradition. This was in the dawning of the internet, so there was no wikipedia to look up how the holiday was celebrated, and the sites I found were of dubious accuracy, but I just did everything that sounded good to me. Once we wanted to do an apple wassail but we didn't have an apple tree, so we wassailed the strawberry plants. (The kid-friendly wassail recipe I found contained both pineapple juice and jellied cranberry sauce, but it was actually pretty good.) We played the Christmas music one last time and un-trimmed the tree. We had a fire in the fireplace, and we wrote down things about the old year that we wanted to see the last of and then we burned them.

I'm missing hosting. I didn't do that much of it before, but covid, commuter marriage, small apartment, etc., have conspired to reduce it to practically nothing. That's something I want to think about for next year.





Upcoming prompts below the cut.





28 james - Top 5 places in the past you would like to visit. Top 5 places in the present you would like to visit.
29 laurenthemself - Top five snack foods (sorry, the requested date got taken between the time you posted and the time I edited)
30
31 mergatrude - what five complements/encouragements would you give your young self.