Hi, friends!
Today is St. Nick’s day in a lot of areas. It’s one of those things we always did as kids where I thought everyone did it. Then I thought maybe it was just a Catholic thing. Then I thought maybe it’s just a regional thing in the Midwest.
Anyways, childhood me would have left a shoe out last night and St Nicholas would have left me a treat that I found this morning. Usually like some candy or a small inexpensive gift.
Do you have traditions you grew up with and then realized weren’t actually national things?
Definitely St Nicholas Day. We would get stockings loaded with candy, nuts, fruit (an orange was always stuffed into the toe) and small gifts. It was like a Christmas preview. I loved it.
Wait stocking like a knee sock or a Christmas stocking?
Because legit my experience was put out an actual shoe.
definitely a shoe over here
….also you have to sing a song at the fireplace
(the northern dutch have a wierd hang up about songs and sweets when it comes to kids)
is not a one night thing either….its at least 2 weeks of nightly sing songs for shoe sweets leading up to dec 5th
An actual Christmas stocking. You got screwed.
I never heard about until I was an adult, but St. Lucia’s Day in Sweden sounds pretty badass – girls walk around with crowns of burning candles on December 13 and have to be careful not to trip.
Clearly you have never seen my favorite Christmas movie.
After searching around online, and factoring in what I know about you, I’m 99% sure you’re talking about The Ref.
https://www.goretro.com/2011/12/my-favorite-christmas-movie-you.html
Judy Davis is the best.
Bingo we have a winner.
Some of us learned about St Lucia’s day reading the American Girl books about Kirsten!
Yes! Kirsten was my instant association with St. Lucia’s Day.
Up in Northern MN/ Northeastern ND, they like to celebrate St. Urho’s Day on March 16th….
All because if gives the Finns & Irish an additional day to drink green beer…
The holiday is entirely made up, and was started back in the 1950’s as a joke😉;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Urho
OK, that’s better than Festivus.
In Boston, I learned to my peril, they celebrate something called “Evacuation Day.” It’s St. Patrick’s Day under a different name. It notionally celebrates the withdrawal of British troops from Boston during the Revolutionary War. In reality, as I understand it, there was a movement to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but their legislature didn’t want to do something so overtly Irish and Catholic. So, they decided to commemorate this fairly obscure tactical military maneuver from 250 years ago. I mean, well, maybe the holiday was instituted up there a hundred years ago. But it was still far in the past, and I believe NYC has the oldest and largest St. Patrick’s Day parade so I don’t know what Massachusetts is so concerned about. We don’t get the day off, of course, but if you’re into it you can take a personal day and no one will bat an eye.
We also are home of the only people who play the original (and CORRECT!😉😁🤣) version of that childhood game where children sit around in a circle on the ground, with the child who is “It” walking around the circle, tapping each of the *other* children on the head, saying, “Duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck…. GREY DUCK!!!!!
Apparently, back in the 1800’s & 1900’s migration from Sweden, there were two types of Swedes, those who played, “Anka, anka, grå-anka,” and those who played, “Anka, anka, gås.”
And the Swedes who settled in MN and Western WI, were the ones who played the *proper,* more challenging version, “Anka, anka, grå-anka,” also known as “Duck, duck, Grey-Duck.”
This Reddit thread gets into the Pre-K Speech-Articulation & Color-Recognition reasons as to *why* Duck, Duck, Grey-Duck is the FAR superior version…😉
Buuuuuut much like “Hotdish” and “Pop,” Iowans & North Dakotans *insist* the wrong version of the game is the “correct” one…🙄🙄🙄
But we allllll know what “IOWA” stands for,*** so rest assured–much like the way that “The Hotdish is the entree, which is cooked in the casserole;” and the one-syllable word, “Pop” is DEFINITELY the superior shortened-form of “Soda Pop” (rather than the two-syllable “So-duh”!); Duck, Duck, Grey-duck is the far better version of the game, when compared to the lowly, boring, and less-educational, “Duck, Duck, Goose.”
***Every Good Minnesotan, Wisconsonite, *most* Dakotans, and even a *few* Iowans know that “Iowa” is short for “Idiots out wandering around.”
They get lost pretty easily down there, what with alllllll those cornfields, and all…..
😉💖
Also, “Whippin’ Shitties” really is muuuuuuuch more fun to say (and what *I* grew up saying), than “Doing Donuts”!😁💖
We celebrated Nikolaustag for the first time today with our German meetup group. The kids thought it was hilarious to find a chocolate and a clementine in their shoes.
We postpone St. Martin’s day and go Laternelaufen on a snowy evening near the winter solstice instead. It feels more magical than way because of the snow and Christmas lights. All while trying to coax out kids into singing these songs.
apparently saint maartens day is only thing up here in the north
the south doesnt have it
they have carnival and a culture of day drinking
cant help but feel i picked the wrong corner of the country to settle in
no singing kids and booze for days…..only thing ive got up here is a pretty sweet race track
It’s not really a regional holiday, since it comes from Sicily and they observe it in Chicago for sure and probably in other places with concentrations of Italians, but my favorite is the Tavole di San Giuseppe (aka St Joseph’s Table) where people bring out the really good eats. It’s in the middle of March and there’s always great breads and the wonderful pasta ca’ muddica (aka pasta with bread crumbs with is much better than it sounds) and five desserts with figs in them and zeppole di San Giuseppe fritte which is so good you wouldn’t believe and sfinges which my grandma used to make with grain alcohol and if you’re diabetic or have heart issues you might as well just call the EMTs before you go in and holy shit am I hungry right now.
À propos de rien. I’m done! It turned out way cuter than I thought it would be. The simplicity of Hello Kitty lends itself well to pixelation. Not bad for a fifty year old cat.
Oh, I love it! Nice job! I never have the patience to follow a pattern, I start improving and then wonder why it doesn’t look the same 🙄