Our Celebrations

 I find that life is much more full when we find things to celebrate on a regular basis. While many people talk about feeling stressed during "the holiday season" of November and December, I find the celebratory spirit uplifting and exciting. Celebrations do not (in fact should not) have to mean stress! They can be simple and still be joyful and uplifting without being elaborate or complicated. Our family has ancestors from many countries, so on the national day of each of those countries we have an authentic meal from that place. That is no more stressful than making dinner on any other day of the year, except that I'm learning a few new recipes (which we like to do anyway!) On the equinoxes and solstices we mark the passage of the year and the beginning of a new season by having a potluck with friends.
There are so many days in the year where we celebrate that I thought I'd put together a little calendar here as a sort of index. I've been trying to document them more here with photos this last year especially, so anything that I've posted about has a link (and anything that does not have a link, well, I'll work on making more posts this year!) ☺
As a note, we are Christian, so we celebrate Christian holidays. We celebrate national holidays of the USA, and family birthdays and anniversaries. As I mentioned above, we also celebrate (a little) the national holidays of our heritage. You may also notice several traditional Pagan holidays on this list (the 8 "quarter days" and "cross-quarter days" of the wheel of the year). We do not find this to be in conflict with our Christianity at all, and I have written about that in some more detail. (You can also follow more detail of integrating LDS and pagan holidays at MotherWheel)


1--New Year's Day/Hogmanay
16--Bear's birthday
22--Hubby's birthday


2--Imbolc/Candlemas ~ making candles, candlelit medieval meal (no electric lights, no utensils, just simple food eaten with our hands)
14--Valentine's Day



17--St Patrick's Day (national day of Ireland) ~ Irish meal
21ish--Spring Equinox/Ostara ~ Spring cleaning + eggs, bunnies, lambs (for dinner, as cookies, etc)



1--April Fool's Day ~ crazy dinner (we don't play jokes on anybody)
(varies)--Easter/Resurrection Day ~ all about Jesus, no baskets, no eggs (that stuff was on Ostara)
6--Jesus' birthday
23--St George's Day (national day of England) ~ English meal
30--Beltane

mid--Mother's Day
17--Norwegian Constitution Day (aka Syttende Mai) ~ Norwegian meal

5--Danish Constitution Day ~ Danish meal
6--Swedish National Day ~ Swedish meal
12--Russia Day ~ Russian meal
15--Wolf's birthday
mid--Father's Day
20--Family Birthday ~ celebrate the beginning of our family, usually with a big family gift (such as camping equipment)
21ish--Summer Solstice ~ dutch oven/fire-cooked potluck with bonfire and staying up late

14--Quatorze Juillet (national holiday of France) ~ French meal
22--my birthday!

24--Mormon Pioneer Day


1-2--Lammas


21ish--Autumnal Equinox/Mabon ~ Pie night (usually held on the nearest weekend)
22--Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday ~ a hobbity dinner ☺


3--German Unity Day (national holiday) ~ German meal

12--Eagle's birthday
late--Thanksgiving
30--St Andrew's Day (national holiday of Scotland) ~ Scottish meal

6--Finnish Independence Day ~ Finnish meal
6--St Nicholas Day
(varies)--Hanukkah
20--Our Wedding Anniversary
21ish--Winter Solstice/Midwinter/Yule ~ soup potluck with family/friends, or a solstice spiral
23--Lil Juleaften ("Little Christmas Eve")
24--Christmas Eve
25--Christmas
31--New Year's Eve