January 13th - Poetry Break Day

Finally almost caught up! I'll have today's actual post (the 14th's) up by midnight and will be back on track for tomorrow, w007!

HOW I CELEBRATED

I simply took a break to read poetry for a bit today.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

Simply doing the same as I did should suffice.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

It's another of the made-up ones that I found online.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

"Poets" by the Tragically Hip seems to fit.

FOOTNOTES

-This is probably the single shortest post that I'll make in this blog.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-St. Knut's Day, a Swedish day ending their Christmas season with the disposal of their Christmas Trees
-Old New Year in various Russophone countries is celebrated on this night
-Make Your Dreams Come True Day
-Rubber Duckie's Birthday (yes... Ernie's toy on Sesame Street...)
-Catholic Feast Day for Hilary of Poitiers

January 9th - National Apricot Day and National Static Electricity Day

So here's the deal, Blogger was having server problems apparently and that meant I couldn't put a full post in to be saved for a few days in a row, but now I think that problem's been fixed and I'm editing in these proper posts for the days I was forced to miss. I'm really sorry about what happened, but it was out of my control.

HOW I CELEBRATED

For National Apricot Day, I got a can of apricots, tried a bite, discovered I hated their taste and dumped the rest in a blender with some fruit juices (orange, cranberry-raspberry, strawberry-kiwi, and white grape) and made a mix that wasn't too offensive to the taste.

National Static Electricity day was also simple. Though I wasn't able to get the static shock trick to work, the old balloon-to-hair one worked like a charm.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

I've decided that from now on, (and eventually retroactively) I'm going to try to find a good recepie online for food-related holidays like this one. It will be edited in later, however, due to my unfortunate problems before, and mega-rush to get back on track.

National Static Electricity Day seems better suited for a museum visit or a grade-school classroom than for regular holiday celebration, but if you want to follow in my footsteps about this next year, the basic static electricity tricks seem simple enough. Another one that I didn't actually try is getting static cling on a sweatshirt.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

A theory I postulated when talking with some family recently says that most of these holidays were made up either by people who wanted some random excuse to celebrate and/or grade school teachers for the same reason. These then somehow got posted up on various sites online. Today's holidays fall under that sort of suspicion for me, but no matter, at least they give me a reasonable chance to go through with my challenge.
There are actually a handful of days throughout the year that had absolutely NOTHING for them, however, which required me, for the sake of the self-imposed challenge, to make stuff up. I will inform you folks of those days when we come to them.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

I was not able to find one for either holiday, sorry.

FOOTNOTES

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Martyr's Day in Panama
-Black Nazarene feast in the Quiapo district in Manila, Philippines
-Republic Day in Bosnia and Herzevogina
-Catholic feast days for Adrian of Canterbury, Metropolitan Philip II of Moscow, and Theophan the Recluse

January 7th - Old Rock Day... and one huge disappointment

Folks, before I get into the regular format of the blog tonight, I have to share some rather significant disappointment with you. I originally planned to celebrate the traditional Japanese tradition of Nanakusa-no-sekku (Festival of Seven Herbs) by making and eating their Seven Herb Rice Porridge as well as following whatever other traditions are in connection with the day for my first significant spreading of foreign cultural tradition via this blog, but I was unable to find a market or restaurant that had the ingredients or dish. I spent about an hour yesterday checking around to try to find a place, but to no avail, so I had to switch to another holiday instead. I really hope that I don't have to go through this sort of disappointment many more times this year. I hope you readers out there will accept my heartfelt apology.

HOW I CELEBRATED

Because I couldn't find information online to clarify whether the 'rock' in Old Rock Day referred to geological rocks or rock music, I did my best to celebrate both. For the geological definition, I went to the Cranbrook Science Museum and looked through their hall of minerals there. For the musical definition, I listened to some old 1950s rock n' roll.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

Unless you're a geologist or a science teacher, a museum exhibit and/or old school rock n' roll in the same manner of my celebration is about the best I can think of.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

To be honest, I'm feeling really unenthused about this whole thing right now, so I'll edit this into something better later. Sorry.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

Going with the assumption that the holiday is in reference to music, I'd have to say that Chuck Berry's "Maybelline", considered by many to be the first true rock n' roll song, would have to be it. If it's actually geological, I'd actually probably just skip today for the theme song thing.

FOOTNOTES

This is the first holiday that I've celebrated that I kinda hate. I like old rock n' roll, but the lack of clarity on what the holiday is actually about and the disappointment regarding the Festival of Seven Herbs made me far from enthused about today. Quite the opposite in fact.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Distaff Day
-Tricolour Day (Italy's Flag Day)
-Christmas in Eastern Orthodox Catholicism and in the Julian Calendar
-Catholic feast days for St. Canute Lavard, St. Charles of Sezze, St. Lucian of Antioch, St. Raymond of Penafort, Bl. Windukind (Duke of Saxony)
-Feast Day of St. John the Baptist in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his Synaxis in Copic Christianity

January 6th - Epiphany, Cuddle-Up Day, Sherlock Holmes' Birthday, and National Shortbread Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

Since I am not religious, and as such not a part of the Christian faith, Epiphany was a hard one for me to find a way to celebrate. No local Churches appeared to have services today, so I couldn't attend one as a guest, nor do I have a Nativity set to place the kingly figures into. The only thing I could ultimately think of to do that would be fitting was to read in the Bible about the kings/wise men's journey to the baby Jesus's manger-crib, and listen to the song "We Three Kings" which chronicles their journey.

Sherlock Holmes' Birthday was significantly easier, especially considering the fact that I have an omnibus hardcover called "The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes" containing 38 short stories and the complete "Hound of the Baskervilles". I simply read a few short stories out of the book and figured that was good.

National Shortbread Day was easiest of all the ones I've managed to celebrate so far today, I ate a couple shortbread cookies.

Cuddle-Up Day may or may not be celebrated by me, depending on whether I can find a willing person to cuddle up with when I head up to this local coffee shop I frequent. It's called Trixie's and it's on Gratiot just south of Hayes in Roseville Michigan, it's on the southbound side of the road. If you live in the area or come through, stop in and buy something.
EDIT: At about 10:30 P.M. I was able to celebrate with a friendly cuddle from a girl I know.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

If you're a practicing Christian, or live in a country where Epiphany (known by other names including 'Little Christmas', 'Theophany' and 'Three Kings Day') is nationally celebrated, following your regular traditions should be easy enough, but if you're not a practicing Christian, it's not one that really needs to be observed, so I feel an explanation is unnecessary for this one.

Sherlock Holmes' Birthday was already pretty much explained above, but reading any of the stories, watching any of the movies, any television series based on him, any old radio serial, any video game... basically any way you can celebrate the character works. Many of the original stories have lapsed into public domain, and have been collected here.

National Shortbread Day can be as easy as eating a couple shortbread cookies like I did, but it'd probably fit in with the spirit of the day better to actually bake some shortbread or shortbread cookies before eating them.

Cuddle-Up Day is self-explanitory: if you have a significant other go cuddle up with them and enjoy yourselves.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

Epiphany is simply the day that the kings/wise men arrived at the manger where the baby Jesus was being cared for. Whether it would actually fall on this date or not in proper historical records is a matter of debate as many historians argue that Jesus's birth should be celebrated in the Spring to more properly coincide with the Bethlehem Census that Joseph and Mary were travelling to be counted for, but the Church disagrees, claiming that it was December 25th that he was born, and that the wise men appeared on the 12th day afterward.

Sherlock Holmes is one of the most popular and well-known literary characters in existence. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's own writings may have only appeared from 1890-1927 (covering a period of 1878-1907 with a definitive final case occurring in 1914) but has had countless fan-stories from novice and professional authors alike as well as hundreds of movies, radio serials, video games, television episodes, etc. adapted from and/or inspired by the original adventures. January 6th was chosen as it is canonically the character's birth date.

I do not know the significance or reason for Cuddle-Up Day or National Shortbread day being this date.

OFFICIAL THEME SONG

While I usually select an unofficial song to act as a theme for one of the holidays ocurring on a particular date, Epiphany has an official theme song of sorts in "We Three Kings".

FOOTNOTES

-There are no Catholic feast observances for saints on this date due to Epiphany.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Phi Day
-Befana Day in Italy
-Zvaigznes Day was celebrated in Ancient Latvia
-Armenian Christmas
-Haile Selassie's Birthday celebrated by Rastafarians
-Bean Day
-New Mexico Admission Day
-Apple Tree Day