Happy New Year to one and all, and may it be filled with wonderful books, lots of love and happiness … and then some!
Let’s kick the bad times in the butt once and for all!
Tag: Holidays
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to One and All!
To my American friends …
… and to everyone who celebrates:
It’s been a difficult year for many of us, but I hope you all still have things to be thankful for! And
for being my friends and for making a difference in my life, this year perhaps more than ever.
Agatha Christie: Murder on the Orient Express (David Suchet Audio)
Still as much fun as ever. David Suchet obviously is Poirot — but this is the one audio recording where he is equally obviously having the time of his life with the rest of the cast in an “Alec Guinness in Kind Hearts and Coronets” manner, and I’m enjoying being along for the ride every single second, every single time.
Original review (also of this audio version) HERE.
Now onwards and upwards on the Snakes and Ladders board!
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1851203/reading-progress-update-i-ve-read-100
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: THANK YOU — and Final Tally
Sooo … with a staggering two-week delay, your hosts are finally getting around to the game’s closing post. (Yeah, we know. Let’s just say the new year started rather busy for both of us …)
Anyway, MbD and I wanted to thank all of you so much for joining the game and participating so actively! It’s been great fun watching the truly amazing things that everybody came up with to complete to the various tasks and book themes that we’d cobbled together into a semi-coherent whole — “imaginative” is putting it mildly; “6 degrees of separation” has got nothing on this crowd! (Not to mention the effect of this game on our respective TBRs … and the “oooohhs” and “aaawwws” induced by all the adorable pet photos floating down our dashboards.)
A special thank you, too, to everybody for reporting in and tallying up posts and for using the “16 festive tasks” tag; particular those of you who put together “final count” posts — all of this was a great help in keeping track of the running score and compiling the final count!
Speaking of which, without further ado:
The final count of points comes to a total of 528
— which translates into a donation of USD 55.00 from MbD and myself to each of the two charities we picked,
Book Aid International and
Room to Read.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some fun details on the outcome of the game:
Number of active participants: 27
(“Active” = completed at least one book or other task for the game)
Average number of points reached: 19.56
Number of card blackouts: 7
(“Blackout” = completed at least one book or other task per square)
Single biggest point-earning square: No. 2 (Guy Fawkes Night & Bon Om Touk) — 45 points total
Runners-up: Squares Nos.1 (All Saints Day / Día de los Muertos & Calan Gaeaf) and 3 (St. Martin’s Day & Veterans’ Day / Armistice Day) — 43 points total each
Least point-earning squares: Nos. 11 (Soyal & Dōngzhì Festival) and 14 (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti & Quaid-e-Azam’s Day) — 17 points total each
On a total of 11 squares (Nos. 1 – 4, 7 – 10, 12, 13 and 15), one or more participants completed all four tasks (book tasks and other tasks). Of these, the squares with the highest number of participants completing all four tasks (3 participants in each case) were:
No. 2 (Guy Fawkes Night & Bon Om Touk)
No. 3 (St. Martin’s Day & Veterans’ Day / Armistice Day) and
No. 15 (Newtonmas & St. Stephen’s Day / Boxing Day)
Square for which the highest number of participants read at least 1 book: No. 1 (All Saints Day / Día de los Muertos & Calan Gaeaf) — 17 participants
Square for which the highest number of participants read a 2nd book: No. 3 (St. Martin’s Day & Veterans’ Day / Armistice Day) — 7 participants
Square for which the highest number of participants completed at least 1 non-book task: No. 4 (Penance Day & Thanksgiving) — 20 participants
b]Square for which the highest number of participants completed a 2nd non-book task:[/b] No. 2 (Guy Fawkes Night & Bon Om Touk) — 8 participants
Bonus points scored via bonus books / tasks referring to individual squares: 17 total
Most bonus points scored via square-specific books / tasks for: No. 5 (Advent) — 6 bonus points total
Bonus points scored via Surprise, Surprise Jokers: 15 total
Points scored via Holiday and Light Jokers: 8 total
Congratulations, everybody, and thank you all so much again!
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1632316/16-tasks-of-the-festive-season-thank-you-and-final-tally
A Cornucopia of Holiday Stories
Turns out I already knew five of the ten stories in this anthology:
Ellis Peters’s The Trinity Cat
Julian Symons’s The Santa Claus Club
Ian Rankin’s No Sanity Clause
G.K. Chesterton’s The Dagger With Wings
and Marjorie Bowen’s Cambric Tea.
So I skipped those (though I do really like the stories by Ellis Peters, Julian Symons and Ian Rankin — care somewhat less for the other two, though) and just read the remaining five entries:
Michael Innes: The Four Seasons
John Dickson Carr: The Footprint in the Sky
Val McDermid: A Wife in a Million
Lawrence Block: As Dark as Christmas Gets
and Marjorie Allingham: On Christmas Day in the Morning
Of these, far and away my favorites were the stories by Michael Innes and Lawrence Block (Marjorie Allingham’s On Christmas Day in the Morning came somewhat close because of its bittersweet solution): Innes’s The Four Seasons is a variation on the country house mystery set in the Fen Country and centering on a painting — actually, it’s a country house story within a country house story, because the actual story is being told by a guest at a country house holiday party in turn –; and Block’s As Dark as Christmas Gets is an extremely cleverly conceived hommage to Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries, in everything from tone to characters, setting, plot, book title name checking, and even solution.
Since this book has a(n, umm, mostly) black and white cover, for 16 Festive Tasks purposes I’ll be using it as my read for All Saints’ Day.
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1628233/a-cornucopia-of-holiday-stories
Family Christmas Traditions
6 Tasks of the Festive Season: Square 13 – Christmas
Tasks for Christmas: Post a picture of your stockings hung from the chimney with care, –OR– a picture of Santa’s ‘treat’ waiting for him. –OR– Share with us your family Christmas traditions involving gift-giving, or Santa’s visit. Did you write letters to Santa as a kid (and if so, did he write back, as J.R.R. Tolkien did “as Santa Claus” to his kids)? If so, what did you wish for? A teddy bear or a doll? Other toys – or practical things? And did Santa always bring what you asked for?
I’m afraid I was disabused of the notion that there actually was a Santa Claus even before my mom “officially” did so when one year — I think I may have been four at the time — I found something she hadn’t yet gotten around to hiding really well that later showed up wrapped up under the Christmas tree. (Of course I didn’t let on I had found it before, or at least I did my best not to.) Also, I think it was even in kindergarten that I first learned about the historic St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra, and where we were told that the “Christ child” (Christkind) who in Germany is said to bring all the presents in addition to / or in competition with Santa Claus is to be understood symbolically, with the gifts we receive “from him” as a tangible manifestation of the good brought into the world by the little boy in the manger some 2000 years ago.
So I didn’t write letters to Santa, but my mom had me write out a wish list nevertheless, and yes, some of the things from the list would usually be part of what I received.
Germans exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, not the morning of Christmas Day, and I think our family tradition is the same, or at least very similar to that of many other German families (with the only significant differences being whether you go to church or not — and if you do, whether it’s in the afternoon / early evening or at midnight — and whether you exchange gifts before or after dinner). We go to church early in the evening, usually at 6:00 PM — while I was growing up and in the years until I moved away after I’d graduated from university, the church where I was confirmed, which was the closest Protestant church to where my grandparents lived (and where we used to live when I was a kid)
— whereas these days, we go to the Protestant church closest to where we now live, which is a 15-20 minute walk from our home.
In the years up until my graduation from university, our gathering on Christmas Eve consisted of either just my maternal grandparents, my mom and me, or in addition there would be the family of my mom’s sister, with whom we were particularly close, and who lived near Bonn for a few years while I was in elementary school, and then again after my uncle had retired. “The kids” (actually, all the family except for either my mom or my aunt, depending in whose home we were celebrating) would be banned from the living room until all the lights on the Christmas tree were lit, then a little bell would call us in, and we’d exchange presents, and after that, we’d have dinner.
Ca. age 4, with my mom and my grandpa (I think I’ve shared this one before)
Christmas dinner table at my aunt and uncle’s house, ca. 1996 or 1997
These days, it’s just my mom and me on Christmas Eve (though we may get together with other parts of the family on Christmas Day or on Boxing Day), and we still follow essentially the same routine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Santa Claus / Saint Nick actually comes twice in Germany, once in his incarnation as St. Nicholas, on the evening of that saint’s official holiday (December 6), and then in his incarnation as Father Christmas / Santa on Christmas Eve. While his Christmas visit is said to be a secret one, his visit on St. Nicholas”s Day is one equally dreaded and anticipated by children, because it’s then that they get to account for their misdeeds throughout the year … or get presents — nothing major, mostly chocolates, cookies, tangerines, nuts and the like — for being able to prove they’ve been good kids. Of course they always end up being loaded with sweets, but if “St. Nick” is sufficiently convincing — or is actually accompanied by his scary servant, Knecht Ruprecht, whose job it is to administer the punishment to bad children –, there’s a moment of a certain frisson at the beginning, with St. Nick, typically a member of the family and thus excellently informed, going through their “record of behavior” for the year. I have only vague memories of this (and no photos at all) from my own childhood, both at home and at my kindergarten, but here’s my uncle dressed up as St. Nicholas for my cousin’s kids:
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1626973/post
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Eighth Square – Hanukkah and Las Posadas
Hanukkah
(December 12th – 20th)
Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid (Macedonian Greek) Empire (167 to 160 BC). Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. It is also known as the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication. The festival is observed by the kindling of the lights of the nine-branched menorah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical menorah consists of eight branches with an additional visually distinct branch. The extra light, with which the others are lit, is called a shamash (Hebrew: שמש, “attendant“) and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. Other Hanukkah customs include playing dreidel and eating oil-based foods such as doughnuts and latkes.
The Reading Tasks:
Read a book whose main character is Jewish, any story about the Jewish people –OR– where the miracle of light plays a significant part in the stories plot.
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Light nine candles around the room (SAFELY) and post a picture. –OR– Play the Dreidel game to pick the next book you read.
Assign a book from your TBR to each of the four sides of the dreidel:
נ (Nun)
ג (Gimel)
ה (He)
ש (Shin)
Spin a virtual dreidel: http://www.torahtots.com/holidays/chanuka/dreidel.htm
– then tell us which book the dreidel picked.
–OR–
Make your own dreidel: https://www.activityvillage.co.uk/make-a-dreidel, –OR–
Play the game at home, or play online: http://www.jewfaq.org/dreidel/play.htm and tell us about the experience.–OR– Give some Gelt: Continue a Hanukkah tradition and purchase some chocolate coins, or gelt. Post a picture of your chocolate coins, and then pass them out amongst friends and family!
Las Posadas
(December 16th – 24th)
Las Posadas is a novenario (nine days of religious observance) representing the nine-month pregnancy of Mary, the mother of Jesus, celebrated chiefly in Mexico and by Mexican-Americans in the United States. Las Posadas – Spanish for lodgings or accommodations, which in this case refers to the inn in the story of the nativity of Jesus – was introduced into Mexico when Spanish missionaries brought the custom of the religious pageant to Mexico, where they used it to teach the story of Jesus’ birth to Mexico’s people. In 1586, a papal bull ordered that a Christmas Mass was to be observed as novenas on the nine days preceding Christmas Day throughout Mexico. – Las Posadas is a procession going from one house designated as “inn” to the next, during which either individual participants play the various parts of Mary and Joseph with the expectant mother riding a real donkey, and with attendants such as angels and shepherds acquired along the way, or the pilgrims carry images of the holy couple instead. Children may carry poinsettias. The procession is followed by musicians, with the entire procession singing songs asking for lodging at the inn. At the end of each night’s journey, there are Christmas carols (villancicos), children break open star-shaped piñatas to obtain candy and fruit hidden inside, and there is a feast.
The Reading Tasks:
Read a book dealing with visits by family or friends, or set in Mexico, –OR– with a poinsettia on the cover. –OR– a story where the main character is stranded without a place to stay, or find themselves in a ‘no room at the Inn’ situation.
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Which was your favorite / worst / most memorable hotel / inn / vacation home stay ever? Tell us all about it! –OR– If you went caroling as a kid: Which are your best / worst / most unfortettable caroling memories?
Bonus task: Make a piñata (https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Pi%C3%B1ata), hang it from a tree, post, basketball hoop, clothesline or similarly suitable holder and let your neighborhood kids have a go at breaking it.
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1623875/16-tasks-of-the-festive-season-eighth-square-hanukkah-and-las-posadas
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Seventh Square – International Human Rights Day and St. Lucia’s Day
International Human Rights Day (December 10th)
Human Rights Day is celebrated annually across the world on December 10 every year. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on December 10, 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations. The day is usually marked by high-level political conferences and meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions organized by governmental and non-governmental organizations dealing with human rights issues. The Nobel Peace Prize is also awarded on this day. — Note: The 2017 award went to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), as announced on October 6, 2017. You can read the Award Ceremony Speech on the Nobel Prize website.)
The Reading Tasks:
Read a book originally written in another language (i.e., not in English and not in your mother tongue), –OR– a book written by anyone not Anglo-Saxon, –OR– any story revolving around the rights of others either being defended or abused.
–OR– Read a book set in New York City, or The Netherlands (home of the U.N. and U.N. World Court respectively).
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Post a picture of yourself next to a war memorial or other memorial to an event pertaining to Human Rights. (Pictures of just the memorial are ok too.) –OR– Cook a dish from a foreign culture or something involving apples (NYC = Big Apple) or oranges (The Netherlands); post recipe and pics.
St. Lucia’s Day
(December 13th)
St. Lucia’s Day is a Christian feast day celebrated on December 13 in Advent, commemorating a 3rd-century martyr under the Diocletianic Persecution, who according to legend brought food and aid to Christians hiding in the catacombs using a candle-lit wreath to light her way and leave her hands free to carry as much food as possible. Her feast once coincided with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year before calendar reforms, so her feast day has become a Christian festival of light. Falling within the Advent season, Saint Lucia’s Day is seen as an event signaling the arrival of the Light of Christ on Christmas Day. Saint Lucia’s Day is celebrated most commonly in Scandinavia, where it is a major feast day, and in Italy. In Scandinavia, where the saint is called Santa Lucia in Norwegian and Sankta Lucia in Swedish, she is represented as a lady in a white dress (a symbol of a Christian’s white baptismal robe) and a red sash (symbolizing the blood of her martyrdom) with a crown or wreath of candles on her head. In Norway, Sweden and Swedish-speaking regions of Finland, as songs are sung, girls dressed as Saint Lucia carry rolls and cookies in procession, which symbolizes bringing the light of Christianity throughout world darkness.
The Reading Tasks:
Read a book set in Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden – and Finland for the purposes of this game) or a book where ice and snow are an important feature.
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Get your Hygge on: Light a few candles if you’ve got them, pour yourself a glass of wine or hot chocolate / toddy, roast a marshmallow or toast a crumpet, and take a picture of your coziest reading place.
Get your Hygge on — light a few candles if you’ve got them, pour yourself a glass of wine or hot chocolate/toddy, roast a marshmallow or toast a crumpet, and take a picture of your cosiest reading place.
Bonus task: Make the Danish paper hearts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jur29ViLEhk
Addendum: Lillelara shared another set of instructions here and explained:
“You can find a link for a pfd file with a lot of different patterns here: http://www.altomhobby.dk/jul/flettede-julehjerter/sadan-fletter-du-julehjerter/
Klick on the link called “52 gratis skabeloner til flettede julehjerner”. They do mean julehjerter – christmas hearts. A julehjerne is a christmas brain. I had to chuckle quite a bit at that :).”
Original post:
ThemisAthena.booklikes.com/post/1623603/16-tasks-of-the-festive-season-seventh-square-international-human-rights-day-and-st-lucia-s-day
16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Sixth Square – Sinterklaas / Krampusnacht / St. Nicholas’s Day & Bodhi Day
Sinterklaas / Krampusnacht (December 5th) / St. Nicholas Day (December 6th)
Saint Nicholas, also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor (modern-day Demre, Turkey). Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker. His legendary habit of secret gift-giving gave rise to the traditional model of Santa Claus, through the Dutch Sinterklaas. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of everybody from sailors and merchants to archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers and students in various cities and countries around Europe. The best-known legend associated with him is his secret nightly gift of money to a pauper whose daughters would have had to remain unmarried if their father had not been able to pay their dowry. According to one version of the legend, in order to remain undetected, St. Nicholas dropped the final bag of gold down the chimney. According to another one, the daughter who was the intended recipient had washed her stockings that evening and hung them over the embers to dry, and that the bag of gold fell into a stocking. – Gifts that children find in their shoes (or stockings) on Sinterklaas / St. Nicholas Day include tangerines, walnuts, chocolates and cookies.
In German and parts of Central European folklore, St. Nicholas has a companion variously known as Knecht Ruprecht or Krampus. While Knecht Ruprecht is a human, Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure, half-goat, half-demon, possibly of pre-Christian origin. During the Christmas season, this companion punishes children who have misbehaved, in contrast with Saint Nicholas, who rewards the well-behaved with gifts. Children can avoid punishment by, inter alia reciting a short piece of memorized poetry to St. Nicholas as a sign of good behavior.
The Reading Tasks:
Read a story involving children or a young adult book, or a book with oranges on the cover, or whose cover is primarily orange (for the Dutch House of Orange) –OR– with tangerines, walnuts, chocolates, or cookies on the cover.
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Write a witty or humorous poem to St. Nicholas –OR– If you have kids, leave coins or treats, like tangerines, walnuts, chocolate(s) and cookies [more common in Germany] in their shoes to find the next morning and then post about their reactions/bewilderment. 😉 If you don’t have kids, do the same for another family member / loved one or a friend.
Bodhi Day (8th)
Bodhi Day is the Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day that the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, experienced enlightenment, also known as bodhi in Sanskrit and Pali. According to tradition, Siddhartha – an ascetic born as a prince in the Northern part of the Indian Subcontinent, in an area today partly in Nepal and partly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh (India) – had recently forsaken years of extreme ascetic practices and resolved to sit under a peepal tree and simply meditate until he found the root of suffering, and how to liberate oneself from it. As the morning star rose in the sky in the early morning of the third watch of the night, Siddhartha finally found the answers he sought, became enlightened, and experienced Nirvana (in Buddhist belief, the ultimate state of release from the cycle of birth-and-pain-and-death). As a result, he became a Buddha or Awakened One.
The Reading Tasks:
Read a book set in Nepal, India or Tibet, –OR– which involves animal rescue. (Buddhism calls for a vegetarian lifestyle.)
–OR–
Other Tasks:
Perform a random act of kindness. Feed the birds, adopt a pet, hold the door open for someone with a smile, or stop to pet a dog (that you know to be friendly); cull your books and donate them to a charity, etc. (And, in a complete break with the Buddha’s teachings, tell us about it.) –OR– Post a picture of your pet, your garden, or your favourite, most peaceful place in the world.
Lioness at Large 
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