The Old-Year Kicking Party Parties on: Day 5: If you could invent a holiday ... ?

[capri0mni]

So, we're all gathered here to celebrate the New Year (more or less). And what is a year besides a collection of holidays, and other observances, with long stretches in between?

Most holidays have their roots in Long Ago. But some are modern. There's "Star Wars Day" (May the Fourth), and International Talk Like a Pirate Day (19 September). And this year, the idea for Wolfenoot went viral.

If you could invent a new holiday, or three, what would it be? Or, if you're happy with all the ones currently on your local calendar, which is your favorite?

• Name (Tentative): Vernalia
  
• Time (Tentative): 40 days after the Winter Solstice (so it would be celebrated ~30 January in the Northern Hemisphere, and ~30 July in the Southern Hemisphere).
  
• Purpose: To celebrate and honor all the “Green People” (plants) on the Earth, and to honor our connection to them (especially the oxygen we breathe).
  
• Reasoning behind the Date: 40 Weeks is roughly the period of human gestation, so 40 days reminds us of that connection (see also: the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter in the Christian Calendar). Also, it’s still winter, but winter is loosening its grip, and we are psychologically ready to look forward to the greening.
  
• Special foods: anything flavored with herbs -- special treats: minty things, fruity things.
  
• Appropriate gifts: packets of seeds appropriate for your region, small potted houseplants
  
• Special Greeting: “(May you) Breathe Easy!” (All greeting cards are made from Recycled Paper, natch!)
  
• Magical Personage? Not sure.

Okay, this is not, technically a brand new holiday, since, technically, Arbor Day and Tu Bishvat already exist. But from what I can tell, after a quick double-check on the Web, these days both seem to focus on trees as planted and cultivated and harvested by humans, and this would be for all plants, both wild and domestic (though it falls around the same time as Tu Bishvat).

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• Name: Pluto Day
  
• Time: 14 July
  
• Purpose: To celebrate the New Horizon’s closest Fly-by with the Dwarf Planet Pluto, and, by extension, all the strange and wonderful things in our solar system, including all the planets, moons, and asteroids, the sun, and comets.
  
• Reasoning behind the date: The anniversary of the space probe New Horizon’s closest fly-by with the dwarf planet, on 14 July, 2015
  
• Special Foods: cakes and cookies decorated to look like planets, or with galaxy designs
  
• Appropriate gifts: binoculars, solar eclipse glasses, tickets to a local planetarium show, or a sci-fi movie.
  
• Special Greeting: Broad Horizons, and/or: Keep looking up!

Comments

[siliconshaman]

I'd make Mid-summer solstice a holiday.. 3 days [solstice plus one either side] to go out and enjoy the summer.

Ditto mid-winter solstice... but that would mark the beginning of Wintermas, a holiday running from Dec 20th through to Jan 2nd, inclusive.

Because *nobody* feels like working then anyway, and I'd merge it with Jolabokaflod to give that a wider circulation.

[capri0mni]

Jolabokaflod is perfect!

It also reminds me a bit of my family's (just the three of us) giving each other long-playing records for Christmas, and playing them as soon as they're opened, so we'd have an ongoing music track to our day from the time we got up until we went to bed...

Or it would be like that, if on Christmas, people read aloud to each other -- at least paragraph snippets.

[readera]

Vernalia sounds nice. :) Thanks for the reminder of Tu Bishvat

[capri0mni]

I didn't even know about Tu Bishvat until I looked up Arbor Day ('cause in my Tumblr post, I was challenging people to invent a new holiday, and I wanted to make sure I wasn't just renaming a holiday that already existed.

(Speaking as an aro/ace, too, Vernalia would be a holiday that comes at the tail end of winter, and throws some color about the place, without the usual amatonormative nonsense, so there's that, too ;-))

[readera]

I would love some more color during winter too. :)

[capri0mni]

I mean, when I was in college, the whole romantic angle of Valentine's Day struck me as ridiculous.

But I did love seeing all the bouquets of flowers that showed up in the campus mail room, and all the kind-hearted souls who made it a point to hand out carnations to anyone who didn't have a sweetheart to give them a flower.

We have lots of color at the start of winter (in the Northern Hemisphere), thanks to Christmas. But by the end of January and July (depending where you are), the "Winter Wonderland" aspect has long been replaced by grey slush...

You know, as I was first writing that up, I was making up "Vernalia" on the fly. But the more I think about it, the more I think it should be a real holiday. ...Especially with the threat of Global Warming turning catastrophic, and the way we'll need plants to save us.

...But I'd be careful about mentioning that aspect, depending on who I promoting the holiday to.

Vernalia

[jesse_the_k]

...is brilliant.

It fills a need.

It would be an excellent teaching holiday for school kids.

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My thoughts on Pluto Day are captured in this elegant icon.

Re: Vernalia

[capri0mni]

Thank you (re: Vernalia)!

It would be an excellent teaching holiday for school kids

Perhaps. But pedantry is to celebrations what thin gruel is to supper... I was having more fun imagining all the ways you could dress up for the holiday...

[readera]

I feel like we don't have enough nature or plant-based holidays or at least we don't celebrate the ones we have... I can't remember the last time I heard about arbor day celebration locally.

[capri0mni]

Exactly! That was exactly my thought!

The problem I have with 99.999999% of the holidays we celebrate now is that they are either religious (which exclude people who don't believe in that faith), or nationalistic (which means you end up either celebrating--or glossing over--things like war, and racism)*

So I was just daydreaming about how I'd fill out a calendar so that the holidays are comfortably spaced and actually celebrate things that I actually feel happy to be celebrating. ...I think that's why the idea of Wolfenoot got so popular so quickly -- it's about being nice to dogs, even if you don't have a dog.

*Especially here in the States... :-/

[readera]

That is a problem.

[capri0mni]

*Nod.*

I didn't want to go overboard here. But I'll think I'll make a separate post for all the things I'd like holidays for. In part, I also chalk that up to how much I enjoy world-building when I'm writing fantasy stories:

If I were to invent a culture, what things would they consider important enough to take time out of their ordinary lives to reflect on?

...And by "culture," I mean me. ;-) Besides, while I'm not in a position to actually host parties, anymore (I can't do 90% of the prep-work by myself, and my aide/housemate is an introvert, and doesn't like parties), I still like imagining celebrations.