In apology:

I would like to take a quick opportunity to apologize to whatever small, but hopefully loyal, readership I have amassed thus far. The thing I would like to say that I’m sorry for is the inconsistency in the quality of my posts. I’d like to think I have a standard for them, but thinking back on some recent entries, I see that I’m sadly mistaken. As much as I would like to say that some day when I’m feeling particularly inclined that I will edit the offending posts to improve their quality, but if I’m going to be completely honest with myself… it’s probably not going to happen. I’d also like to say that from here on out I’ll keep the standard of posts to a high point, but I’m likely to falter on that, too. Indeed it will most likely happen frequently and on many a post. Quite frankly, it’ll probably happen on the easier holidays. I mean, how much more can one really put for Strawberry Ice Cream Day than “I ate some strawberry ice cream”. It’s a shame, but it’s the truth. I’ll try to keep better blogging habits up for you folks out there, but… please keep in mind that I will more than likely falter more than once in the future, and I hope you’ll forgive me for that.

-z

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