Today my Hubski stickers arrived! A big thank you for mk. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo camera (until I transform my raspberry pi into one that is), so photos will be infrequent.
But, when I asked myself with what my first picture of the stickers would be, I found a big bag with kruidnoten on my desk (there is no english word for this treat, all I can say is that they are delicious). Now let me explain. Kruidnoten, along with other candy, are supposed to only be sold and eaten in the period that saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) is in the country. The holiday Sinterklaas is similar to Christmas in the US. Presents are bought and given while the children are blissfully kept in the dark. On the night of 5 December Sinterklaas and his black peters go and deliver presents for all the children who haven't been naughty. The naughty children go with Sinterklaas to Spain. I have included a video to show what I am talking about
Now my question: What holidays do you have in your country/region which are typical for your county/region?
In Detroit, our unique holiday is Devil's Night. I actually was surprised to learn recently that this is a Detroit thing. I always tacitly assumed the whole country "celebrated" in the inner cities.
You sure the whole country doesn't do this? Wow!! I assumed the same thing. When I was a kid, we used to go out into our neighborhood with rolls of toilet paper and hit all of the trees. Some years we would protect our home and we would sit on the rooftop of our house with a hose and any kids that tried to toilet paper our yard would get soaked. We would also egg houses. That was how you celebrated Devils night in the suburbs. In Detroit proper, you celebrate by burning down abandoned houses and shooting people.
You have a holiday dedicated to mischief? How is that even possible? :S
I was talking to a co-worker of mine from Chicago when I mentioned Devil's Night and was surprised to see that he had no idea what I was talking about. I assumed it would've made its way at least to there, but I guess it really is just a Detroit thing.
I currently live in Los Angeles, which is essentially the vehicle by which all American holiday traditions are exported to the rest of the world. If there were unique holidays, we would have figured out a way to market them to you by now. However, I grew up in Northern New Mexico, which is unique in celebrating the Fiesta to commemorate the day the Spanish retook the city from those damned heathen pueblo indians. Which would not be noteworthy except for the fact that this "celebration" is accomplished by the Kiwanis Club assembling a human effigy, giving it voice, filling it with fireworks and setting it on fire, thereby transforming greater Santa Fe into a disaster area of drunken debauchery. Yeah, "Burning Man." Except we've been doing it since 1924. The body count has gone down considerably since my youth; used to be the violence would claim a half-dozen lives every year. Great effort has been expended to make Zozobra a "family-friendly" event since the nadir of the early '80s. Pretty fucking pagan for a state so breathtakingly catholic that you couldn't even buy mouthwash on Sundays because of the alcohol content. Part I, 3 min. The making of. Part II, 3 min. They used to "sentence him to death."
We no longer have Christmas/Hanukkah. It's just wintery fun/holiday break or happy new years. Everything I've made for family and friends is overly generic bullshit. It's ridiculous. I've done 2 snowflake cards, a card with purple presents (because being red, green, blue, or yellow would be leaning in favor of one religion, and one with a snowman with sunglasses. And a few fireworks ones that just wish people a happy new year.
I guess red & green is "Christmas" and blue & yellow or blue & white is Hanukkah.
It's Christmas on the 25th in the Midwest US for us. We've got a tree, and there will be presents under it. I can only hope that it will be a white Christmas. Our winters seem to grow weaker with every passing year. Our daughter is too young, but next year she'll probably be leaving cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer, who will deliver our presents. I was raised in a Polish Catholic family. Some Christmas eves we would go to Midnight Mass, which is an extra long mass at midnight, -very painful for young ones. We'll be with one side of the family on Christmas eve, and the other side on Christmas day.