Thank you,
Coracle, &
Lady Arwen for your identifying both Twelfth night and Epiphany as January 6th. We spent it taking down the Christmas Decorations, but they still have not yet been put into storage.
Oh by the way, when did the Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas? I believe it is also about 5th or 6th January.
Movie Aristotle wrote:So, how soon is too soon to start the Christmas 2019 countdown?
Oh dear! I confess I might have started something?
I did say, or sing:
We wish you a Merry Christmas
Today and next Year However, you might have a word with one of our local supermarkets who have already been selling Hot Cross Buns as from 6th January. According to them, every day is a day for celebrations of one kind or another. When is Easter, by the way? And what other holidays do we have in between now and then?
Movie Aristotle wrote:Also, I am wondering about ways to eliminate the after-Christmas let-down. I think celebrating all twelve days is a good start, but what do you do to keep each of he twelve days unique and exciting? After the feast is eaten and the presents are opened on the 25th, what’s next to keep the momentum going?
Sing another verse of the
Partridge in a Pear tree song each day? One of our ministers at church once tried to calculate the cost of all these things to your true love. By January 2nd, though, I suspect we would have partaken of too many liqueur chocolates, shortbread biscuits & wee drams of Scotch Whisky to remember how far we got up to. What are the words of the song?
1. Partridge in a pear tree. Well the pear tree might be useful, if both survive the journey, & haven't been impounded by customs getting here. Especially on Christmas Day. I really worry about that Partridge, especially if it decides to go wild. While the partridge dukes it out with the Australian Native Ravens (Drongos), Galahs & the occasional Kookaburra, it might have to struggle against other flourishing pests like the Indian Mynahs & the very ubiquitous Pigeons. Maybe I should say nothing should it ever be mentioned, & pretend that a passing pigeon was the missing Partridge?
2. Two turtle doves? On Boxing Day? Don't we have enough to do cleaning up, after the poor Partridge? And all the other pigeons that infest Sydney, which have accumulated over the years since 26th January, 1788? No wonder the Aborigines didn't like us very much! Pigeon pie wasn't part of their diet, either. Perhaps we should institute one of those traditional Boxing Day hunts, celebrated elsewhere on the planet, to get rid of pigeons of the non-turtle dove variety? Or send them to Tasmania with our traditional Boxing Day Sydney-Hobart yacht race? By the way, I did love Warren Brown's Boxing Day newspaper cartoon: a couple of seasick convicts all decked out in old fashioned prison garb, guarded by an equally seasick red-coat, forecasting that two centuries later, the same journey would be considered sports and Boxing Day fun.
3. Three French hens? Hasn't the sender considered that we are definitely NOT part of the European Union? And that the exchange rate between the Aussie dollar and the European Euro bounces about as much as a real Australian Euro does? What is wrong with the other varieties of hens that might be here, anyway? I used to have a Rhode Island Red, which was my pet, years ago, whilst at school, though I don't remember which Rhode Island that particular breed originated from. The one where there was a Colossus of Rhodes plus the Knights of St John? Or the USA state? In this part of the world we no longer keep a chook run at the bottom of the garden. Council regulations, of course, though I could still donate the hens to the local high school, which teaches agriculture. I hope somebody keeps them fed & tended to, before school goes back the day after this year's Australia Day. Meanwhile it is 27th Dec & the supermarkets are open, so I'll buy a new carton of eggs, free range I hope.
4. Four, um what? Calling birds? What is with "calling birds"? The Australian native
ravens can kick up enough racket already, with their disapproving mating calls. Even the galahs, with a more musical tone of squawk wouldn't let more imported "calling birds" a screech in edgeways. Whilst the Kookaburras are always good for a laugh.
Don't forget the human variety of drongos and galahs who also like to kick up a riot around about this time of year.
Sadly, it might be domestic disputes or an emergency, not roistering, and it is a good idea to ring the police, on triple O, here.
5. I think I'll pass on the five gold rings. I hope they were not merely costume jewellery, since receipt of them might have gone to pay all the duty & fines on the imported stuff "my true love" sent to me". Which is all I received in the first snail mail we got over Christmas.
Just joking. We are now up to 30th of December and starting to get ready for New Years' Eve...... Especially now that the gold rings have been sacrificed as a prize for the winner of some yacht race or other...what was it again? Never mind, we still do have gold mines in Australia, notably in the Kimberleys and at Kalgoorlie.
6. I don't know quite what to do with "six geese a'laying". The eggs might be fantastic, but although there might be occasional guard geese around famous buildings, not to mention Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra, and some imaginative businesses, we don't as a rule actually eat geese, not even for next year's Christmas Dinner. Especially since a half or quarter turkey or a roasted chook might be quite enough to feed shrinking sized families, or people living on their own? Just as well it is December 31st and all we have to worry about is seeing in the New Year, with Scotch, shortbread, & oodles of fireworks up and down Sydney Harbour, especially around our Harbour Bridge, on TV. This year, our flourishing Australian raven population complaining about several local fireworks displays, kept up their own celebrations long after the rest of us went to bed.
7. Seven swans a'swimming, believe it or not, is by far the most expensive item in the Minister's list. Not only are swans protected species in UK but the same is even more true about black swans, a unique variety, native to Australia. On the threatened species list, the
black swan is Western Australia's state emblem, and linked to the Swan River where the first WA settlements were founded by Captain James Stirling in 1829. The fines for keeping captive as many as seven swans would not only be ruinous, but our swimming pool, emptied to save power in the winter, is still only 3/4 full despite several heavy showers of rain last month, and isn't big enough to accommodate as many as seven swans.
8-12 are the cheapest of the list to think about as you return to work on 2nd January, New Years' resolutions firmly remembered beyond last night's screening of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Take 8 maids a'milking for example. They are probably work for the dole volunteers, at best, if you could find so many as 8. You'd need at least two or three cows per maid to milk, for a start, to make it worth their while, and if you had that many cows and were an average cash-strapped farmer, worried about other costs of a crippling drought, you would have long ago invested in a milking machine. A model of a large sized version, called a Rotalactor, housed in one of the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons, imitating a revolving restaurant, adapted for milking cows, has shown why milkmaids can look for more profitable work elsewhere.
All the rest are returning performers from last years' Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, with plans for this year's performance in Edinburgh Castle in August 2019 and looking for somewhere to rehearse.
Now you are up to January 5th. Your time, that is.
Have a very happy, healthy
and prosperous New Year to you all.