Almanac for January 7th

Erin O'Riordan's almanac for January 7th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-7th-D1D2Z4T3M

Today's Observance: Eastern Orthodox Christmas
Artist Birthday: Zora Neale Hurston

Bummer January 7th

January 7, 1943: Inventor Nikola Tesla dies alone, of a heart attack, at the Hotel New Yorker.

January 7, 1948: 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Captain Thomas F. Mantell crashes his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin, Kentucky. Prior to the crash, Mantell told Godman Army Airfield that he had sighted an unidentified aerial object (which officials speculate may have been an unpiloted balloon collecting atmospheric data). In pursuit of the unknown object, Mantell banked sharply upward; the lack of oxygen at the higher altitude may have contributed to his loss of control of the aircraft.

January 7, 2012: Eleven people are killed when a hot air balloon over Carterton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), catches fire while attempting to land.

January 7, 2015: Two Islamist extremists target the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Twelve people are killed, including five cartoonists and two editors.

And now, for something completely different, an affiliate link to a Gumroad creative product you may enjoy: Studio Ghibli desktop set

If my words are not being censored by the Trump Regime, you may find my books here on Gumroad.

Yule-Tide in Many Lands

"As the fact of Christ's birth was not recorded and there was no certainty as to its date, the early Christian Fathers very wisely ascribed it to Yule-tide, changing the occasion from the birthday of the sun to that of the Son. For a while the birth of Christ was celebrated on dates varying from the first to the sixth of January; on the dates of certain religious festivals such as the Jewish Passover or the Feast of Tabernacles; but the twenty-fifth of December, the birthday of the sun, was ever the favorite date.

"Pope Julius, who reigned from 337 to 352 B.C.E., after a careful investigation, considered it settled beyond doubt that Christ was born on or about the twenty-fifth of December, and by the end of the fifth century that date was very generally accepted by Christians. The transition from the old to the new significance of Yule-tide was brought about so quietly and naturally that it made no great impression on the mind of the masses, so nothing authentic can be learned of the early observance of Christmas."

- Yule-Tide in Many Lands by Mary Poague Pringle and Clara A. Urann

The Washington, D.C. Evening Star, Dec. 14, 1925

The Chapel Hill Weekly, Dec. 18, 1925

The Chapel Hill Weekly, Dec. 18, 1925

St. Nicholas Day

"The grand Yule-tide festival is opened on the eve of St. Nicholas Day, December sixth; in fact bazaars are held from the first of the month, which is really one prolonged season of merrymaking.

"In Germany, St. Nicholas has a day set apart in his honor. He was born in Palara, a city of Lycia, and but very little is known of his life except that he was made Bishop of Myra and died in the year 343. It was once the custom to send a man around to personate St. Nicholas on St. Nicholas Eve, and to inquire how the children had behaved through the year, who were deserving of gifts, and who needed a touch of the birch rods that he carried with him into every home. St. Nicholas still goes about in some parts of the country, and in the bazaars and shops are sold little bunches of rods, real or made of candy, such as St. Nicholas is supposed to deal in. In some places Knight Rupert takes the place of St. Nicholas in visiting the houses. But Kriss Kringle has nearly usurped the place St. Nicholas once held in awe and respect by German children.

"Because St. Nicholas Day came so near to Christmas, in some countries the Saint became associated with that celebration, although in Germany the eve of his birthday continues to be observed. Germans purchase liberally of the toys and confectionery offered at the bazaars, and nowhere are prettier toys and confectionery found than in Germany--the country which furnishes the most beautiful toys in the world."

- Yule-Tide in Many Lands by Mary Poagle Pringle and Clara A. Urann, 1916

Audiobook at Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/957288116/Yule-tide-in-Many-Lands

Audio only: 

St. Barbara's Day: Yule-Tide Begins in France

"Yule-tide in France begins on St. Barbara's Day [Sainte-Barbe], December fourth, when it is customary to plant grain in little dishes of earth for this saint's use as a means of informing her devotees what manner of crops to expect during the forthcoming year. If the grain comes up and is flourishing at Christmas, the crops will be abundant. Each dish of fresh, green grain is used for a centerpiece on the dinner table."

- Yule-Tide in Many Lands by Mary Poagle Pringle and Clara A. Urann, 1916

Audiobook at Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/audiobook/957288116/Yule-tide-in-Many-Lands

"Noel" by Linda Pastan

 

This is an affiliate link.

Like a single
ornament,

the red cardinal
on a pine

outside
the window

is our only
decoration,

until
the snow.

Victorian Christmas Horror

Merry Christmas Eve! We are blessed to be able to listen to a brand-new spooky Victorian Christmas tale read by author Carla Pettigrew this year. Enjoy. 

These are Carla's links from the show notes, should you wish to explore more about William Wilthew Fenn:

Strange Stories of Coincidence and Ghostly Adventure

Table of Contents

Bibliography

About the Author

Carla's Substack

Carla's Reddit

Support There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast on Spreaker

W. W. Fenn Building, Fenn School, Concord MA. John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

New Victorian Christmas Horror Story from There Might Be Cupcakes Podcast 2022

 

Find Carla’s short story “Holly Jolly Christmas” in Antimony and Elder Lace Press book Monsters Vol. 1 - preorder for $4.50 

Or follow Carla on Patreon and the cost of your book is included in your Patreon subscription.

***

December 10th is the birthday of poet Emily Dickinson, born in 1830.

Lo-Fi Grunge Emily Dickinson Bubble-free Stickers

The Woman Who Couldn't Stop Reading 'The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming'

Hanukkah begins at sundown tomorrow, but I (finally) read this book at a really inappropriate time: in mid-March, much closer to Purim than to Hanukkah.

...but I couldn't find any books about screaming hamantaschen, so it had to do.

Actually, I bought it because I got a good deal on a used copy from Better World Books, and it happened to be almost springtime. I'd been wanting to read this for years, and I wasn't disappointed.

Like almost everything Daniel Handler writes as Lemony Snicket, it's laugh-out-loud funny. Some of the best quotes in it are:

1) “Santa Claus has nothing to do with it," the latke said. "Christmas and Hanukkah are completely different things."

"But different things can often blend together," said the pine tree. "Let me tell you a funny story about pagan rituals.”

2) “It is very frustrating not to be understood in this world. If you say one thing and keep being told that you mean something else, it can make you want to scream. But somewhere in the world there is a place for all of us, whether you are an electric form of decoration, peppermint-scented sweet, a source of timber, or a potato pancake.”

One caveat: It did make me crave deep-fried foods.

'Christmas in the Cotswolds' by Jenny Kane

A seasonal easy read romance, Christmas in the Cotswolds is Jenny Kane’s festive sequel to Another Cup of Christmas. (It can also be read as a stand alone story.)

Blurb

Izzie Spencer-Harris, owner of the Cotswold Art and Crafts Centre, is due to host the prestigious Cotswold Choir’s annual Christmas carol concert in her beautiful converted church. Or at least she was, until a storm smashed a hole right through the chancel roof.

Days from Christmas, Izzie suddenly finds herself up to her neck in DIY, with her last dodgy workman having walked off the job. She does the only thing she can … calls in her best friend Megan to help.

Leaving Peggy and Scott to run Pickwicks Café in her absence, Megan heads to the Cotswolds for Christmas. Within minutes of her arrival, she finds herself hunting down anyone willing to take on extra work so close to Christmas. It seems the only person available to help is Joseph Parker – a carpenter who, while admittedly gorgeous, seems to have ulterior motives for everything he does …

With Izzie’s bossy mother, Lady Spencer-Harris, causing her problems at every turn, an accident at work causing yet more delays, and the date for the concert drawing ever nearer, it’s going to take a lot more than Mrs Vickers’ powerful mulled wine to make sure everything is all right on the night …

Extract

Izzie closed her eyes and counted to ten as the door of the Cotswold Arts Centre slammed shut.

There was no point in panicking. She simply didn’t have time for such luxuries if her converted church was going to be ready to host a Christmas carol concert by the renowned Cotswold Choir in nine days’ time.

Bored of being propositioned by men who weren’t remotely interested in her until they discovered she was a daughter of the gentry, Izzie had ejected the carpenter through her front door before he’d quite had time to work out just how insulting her rejection of his latest lurid suggestion was.

Now, her hasty tongue having deprived her of a desperately needed pair of tradesman’s hands, Izzie sat with a heavy thump onto the nearest pew. She knew she had to find fresh help, and fast. A task that wouldn’t be easy so close to Christmas.

‘Although,’ Izzie addressed the image of Noah, who smiled benevolently at her from his stained-glass window, as if grateful he hadn’t been smashed to pieces by the tree branch that had come through the top of the chancel and caused so much seasonal inconvenience, ‘I’m damn sure I’m not asking my mother to help out ever again!’

Reaching for the offending package of invitations that had arrived by courier first thing that morning, Izzie emptied it onto the table. The invitations were supposed to have been posted by now. As soon as she’d seen them, Izzie understood why her mother had left them to the last minute.

Unfussy, cost-effective, and with a medieval Christmas flavour in keeping with the spirit of the converted fourteenth-century church where the concert was to be held. That’s what she’d asked for.

What she’d got was decadent Victorian-style gold-edged invitations which weighed so much, Izzie was sure that posting them alone would break the bank. And if that wasn’t bad enough, her mother had done the one thing that she had expressively forbidden. She’d put Izzie’s full name on the invitations.

Lady Perdita Spencer-Harris had been unable to comprehend why her daughter didn’t want to use the family name to help sales. She simply didn’t understand that Izzie wanted people to come to hear the choir for its own sake, or because they wanted to see what she’d done in her art centre; not because she was a young and single female member of the landed gentry.

Miss Isadora Spencer-Harris

cordially invites you to a magical festive evening at

The Cotswold Arts Centre, Chipping Swinton

to hear the renowned Cotswold Choir’s

Christmas Carol Concert

Saturday 21st December

7 p.m. for 7.30 p.m. start

£25 per ticket

Refreshments provided

RSVP by 18th December to Harris Park

Wrapping her stripy woollen scarf more tightly around her neck, Izzie breathed warm air over her cold fingers. Deciding it wasn’t cost effective to heat the church this late at night just for her, she gathered up the invitations, and with one last check that the polythene sheeting would keep the rest of her chancel roof in place overnight, Izzie headed home.

Izzie scooped up three Christmas cards from her doormat. A smile replaced her frown as she opened the first envelope to see a cartoon robin wishing her a Merry Christmas. Inside, beneath the seasonal greeting, her friend Megan had written Must meet up SOON! I’d love to see your new art centre.

‘Should I?’ Izzie was sure her dearest friend from college would help. Megan always helped. Izzie addressed the picture of the robin, ‘But won’t she be hugely busy at Pickwicks café this close to Christmas?’

Switching on her laptop, Izzie started to hunt for a replacement tradesman to help repair her church roof. Half an hour of searching later, and her quest was looking increasingly hopeless by the minute.

It was no good, if she wasn’t going to be forced to ask her parents to bail her out – which was an ‘over her dead body’ situation as far as Izzie was concerned – she needed alternative assistance. Izzie picked up her mobile before guilt at disturbing her friend’s life at Christmas overtook her.

‘Megan, thank goodness you’re there! How can I put this … help!’

Buy links

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PK2MA3I/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=B00PK2MA3I&linkCode=as2&tag=lucyfelthouse-21&linkId=3FJ2YO4DDR2UHV3R

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PK2MA3I/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00PK2MA3I&linkCode=as2&tag=lucyfelt-20&linkId=BM3PY24HJVKHWVVI 

Bio

With a background in history and archaeology, Jenny Kane should really be sat in a dusty university library translating Medieval Latin criminal records, before writing research documents that hardly anyone would want to read. Instead, tucked away in the South West of England, Jenny Kane writes stories with one hand, while working for a Distance Learning Company with the other.

Jenny spends a large part of her time in the local coffee shops, where she creates her stories, including the novels Romancing Robin Hood (Accent Press, 2014), the best selling contemporary romance Another Cup of Coffee (Accent Press, 2013), and the novella length sequels Another Cup of Christmas (Accent Press, 2013) and Christmas in the Cotswolds (Accent Press, 2014).
Jenny’s next full length novel, Abi’s House, will be published by Accent Press in 2015.

Jenny Kane is also the author of quirky children’s picture books There’s a Cow in the Flat (Hushpuppy, 2014) and Joe’s Letter (coming soon from Hushpuppy).

Keep your eye on Jenny’s blog at www.jennykane.co.uk for more details.

Twitter - @JennyKaneAuthor

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JennyKaneRomance 

Jenny Kane also writes erotica as Kay Jaybee. (www.kayjaybee.me.uk)

Wordless Wednesday: A Writer's Merry Christmas

Whether or not you celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, have a happy and safe December 25th.

Enokson on Pinterest.





















This is an affiliate link:

The Impossible Quest Of Hailing A Taxi On Christmas Eve by George Saoulidis. $3.99 from Smashwords.com
Scrooge Is Looking For A Taxi In this modern retelling of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," Scrooge is looking for a taxi to get home on Christmas Eve. But he will get the ride of his life, as he is walked through his past, his present and his future to end up a changed man. Set in modern day Athens, this science-fiction version of the classic ghost story is guaranteed to make you smile.

Top 10 Tuesday: 10 Books I Wouldn't Be Sad If Santa Brought Me

Inspired by this post at It's a Book Life, which in turn took its cue from this post at The Broke and the Bookish.

I love to give books for the holidays, as my nieces will find out tonight (they're also getting Subway gift cards so they can pay for their favorite sandwiches with their own money - very exciting when you're 7 and 9) and my cousin's baby daughter will find out tomorrow.

Which books would I most like to get from Santa Claus? I checked with my Goodreads to-read list, and here's what I came up with (in no particular order):

1. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai with Christina Lamb

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

I really want to see the movie, because Emma Watson looks amazing in the previews, but I want to read the book first. I've simply refused to pay the full retail at my local Barnes and Noble.

3. Delirium by Lauren Oliver

4. Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

5. Lillian Holmes and the Leaping Man by Ciar Cullen

Gender-swapped, steampunk Sherlock Holmes? Uh, yes please!

6. The Latke Who Couldn't Stop Screaming by Lemony Snicket

Hanukkah is over, but my desire to read this is not.

7. Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman by Harrison Cheung

8. House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones

9. Little Women and Me by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

10. This Star Won't Go Out by Esther Earl

Okay, this one doesn't come out until January 28th, 2014, but Santa can preorder it for me if he wants to.

Which books are you hoping for on Christmas morning?

Christmas Lites III - Anthology to Benefit the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence

The Christmas season is upon us yet again. Yes, my friends, it is a time of giving, loving, and sharing. Within these pages is a way you can help many people desperately in need of love, support, and goodness: the victims of domestic crime. By purchasing this anthology, you are sending every last dime made off this book to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

The NCADV is an amazing charity that saves these people and lets them know there is still hope, still goodness, and still a reason to carry on.

Twenty-one authors have joined in this year, giving their time and their stories to these people – and to you. We all hope you enjoy our holiday tales captured in bite-size pieces. Whether you read this on the bus, before bed, or snuggled by the fire, please, do read – and share.

Authors in this anthology:

Addison Moore

A.F. Stewart

Amy Eye

Angela Yuriko Smith

Ben Warden

Cassie McCown

Elizabeth Evans

J.A. Clement

JG Faherty

Jonathan Tidball

M.L. Sherwood

Monica La Porta

Ottilie Weber

Patrick Freivald

Phil Cantrill

Robert Gray

Ron C. Nieto

S. Patrick Pothier

Tricia Kristufek

Vered Ehsani

*Brandon Eye bonus story

Editor/compiler: Amy Eye of The Eyes for Editing

Cover Design Kyra Smith

Or purchase on Smashwords

Link to the charity: www.ncadv.org

OHP: All Is Calm, All Is Bright

Stopping by from the #XMasGiveaway blog hop? Please visit this post for your chance to win.

Hopefully, you've had a lovely and peaceful December 25th. Perhaps today you're enjoying Boxing Day, if you live in one of the countries that used to be part of the British Empire.



I do not think that the figure below signifies any particular goddess. In the Germanic tradition, the goddess associated with this time of year is Frigga. Read more about Frigga here. 



The white stag is a beautiful symbol of winter. He always makes me think of James Potter's silvery-white stag  Patronus, but he also appears in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Snow White and the Huntsman. In medieval Christian lore, both the white stag and the unicorn were symbols of Jesus Christ, as discussed by author Denise Roper in "Harry Potter and the Bestiary of Christ, Part Three."



The association between the stag, or buck, and Christmas comes from Denmark, Sweden and Norway, according to Christmas Customs and Traditions by Clement A. Miles. It's a tradition in those countries for people to dress up in deer hides, hooves and horns to represent the Julebuk (yule buck). People are somewhat fearful of the Julebuk - some stories, for example, tell of young women who've danced with what they believed was a young man in the Julebuk costume, only to find out later their dance partner was the devil. Stories like these probably express an anxiety about combining Christian and Pagan customs.



In Japan, the goddess associated with the Winter Solstice is Amaterasu. The Solstice is the Japanese sun goddess's birthday. Read more about Amaterasu here. In Wales, the appropriate goddess for this time of year is Rhiannon (read more about Rhiannon here).



Merry post-Christmas/after-Solstice to all, and to all a good night.

#OrnamentSwap2012 Reveal: Cute as a Button

http://tutusandteaparties.blogspot.com/2012/11/ornamentswap2012-show-tell.html

Time for the reveal! My ornament swap partner was Julie E. from whitelightsonwednesday.com. This is so cute!

Julie handmade this adorable button craft with the help of her eldest. I didn't tell Julie this, but I LOVE button crafts - I used to do them all the time when I was kid. My Irish granny bought me a box of buttons at a yard sale one time, and I was just in heaven. Thanks so much, Julie!

Not being crafty other than crafty with words, I did not make Julie's ornament. I picked out a mini cupcake ornament from Shana Lira's Etsy shop. Those who can craft do, and those of us who can't craft Etsy.

Hubby and I aren't doing our usual top-only Christmas tree this year - we're putting the wreath on the outside of the house, so obviously none of the good ornaments can go out there. Instead, I made a holiday shelf.

If your holiday shelf doesn't have room for Rainbow Brite, Bella-Edward-Jacob, Pat the Bunny, the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile and a sequin menorah box, then I just don't know how to begin to help you.

An eclectic celebrator of Winter Solstice holidays am I. Fortunately, when you're part Irish and you're part Jewish and you get excited about Hanukkah, there's a song just for you:

Yep, it's House of Pain's "Jump Around" remixed with a klezmer band. Happy Hanukkah (starting Saturday at sundown wherever you are), peeps!

Hogmanay: New Year's Eve in Scotland

The Scots invented the modern-day celebration of New Year's Eve, from "Auld Lang Syne" to the big disco ball. In Scotland, New Year's Eve is called Hogmanay.

The word's origins are obscure; it may be of Celtic, Norman (French) or Anglo-Saxon origin. The nearest Gaelic term is oge maidne, or "new morning." Large Hogmanay festivals are now held in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling.

"Auld Lang Syne" is often attributed to the Scottish poet Robert Burns, but Burns was only transcribing and adding to an existing folk song. Translated from the Scots dialect into everyday modern English, "Auld Lang Syne" means "old long since." In Scottish folk tales, "In the days of auld lang syne" takes the place of "once upon a time," and "for auld lang syne" could be restated as "for old times' sake."

The big disco ball is a modern descendant of the fireballs traditionally swung on Hogmanay. This tradition has its roots in pagan bonfire nights, also observed at Samhain and Beltane. The light wards off evil spirits and encourages the days to get longer. You'll see men carrying a 20-pound fireball attached to a 5-foot pole in Aberdeen's southern neighbor, Stonehaven. The fireball's traditional name is the Clavie.

Hogmanay is also celebrated with the custom of first footing. The first person to set foot through your door on the new year should be a tall, dark male. (Blonds, associated with the Viking invaders, were bad luck.) Traditionally, he would bear gifts of coal, whisky and black bun (a really heavy Scottish fruit cake) or another kind of cake. In eastern Scotland's fishing communities, he may also bring herring. Coal meant the house would stay warm for the coming year, and food gifts meant the house would not go hungry.

(Hogmanay 2007 in Biggar - by David Hamilton, Creative Commons)

Clement A. Miles writes in Christmas Customs and Traditions, "Drinking is and was a great feature of the Scottish New Year Eve."

During the Protestant Reformation years when celebrating Christmas was discouraged, Hogmanay became the gift-exchanging day in Scottish custom. Scottish children chose Hogmanay rather than Christmas Eve to go door to door wassailing - a begging custom that will remind Americans of trick-or-treating. Welsh kids carry a gray mare, but the old Scottish wassailing custom is for the leader of each group of children to dress in a sheepskin.

Hogmanay has its own website. This one is specific to Edinburgh Hogmanay.

Merry Christ(ian Bale)mas!

Awww...cute little guy from Empire of the Sun.

Back then, you had no idea you would grow up to be the teenage hottie from Royal Deceit and Newsies...



...and then just keep getting hotter! The Batman Begins premiere:

The Dark Knight premiere:

At the premiere of Public Enemies:

Oscar night, February 2011. I love Natalie Portman because she was in The Professional and because she's a Hanukkah hottie, Melissa Leo because she was on Homicide: Life on the Streets and Colin Firth simply because he exists.

Image attribution:
Towpilot, 1988, Creative Commons license
John Griffiths, 2005, Creative Commons license
Mutari, 2008, public domain image
Asim Bharwani, 2009, Creative Commons license
Public domain image

Happy Christ(ian Bale)mas to all, and to all a Dark Knight!

https://amzn.to/3PfOwbN - this is an affiliate link

Need a last-minute Christmas gift? Books = Gifts

A wonderful quote from author/editor Kristina Wright: "Love to read? Looking forward to a new year and new books? Do your favorite authors a huge favor this holiday season. Buy a book. Buy two books! Give them as gifts, keep them for yourself, donate them to a coffee shop or women's shelter. Start your own book club. Can't afford books right now? That's okay. Really! You can still do something meaningful for your favorite authors. Pick a book you read and loved this year (or any year) and pop over to Amazon (or B&N or Twitter or Facebook or your blog or your PTA mailing list) and post a review. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be a summary of every character and plot point. Just tell people why you loved the book. Your enthusiasm will be contagious. Trust me. Someone else will buy the book because of your recommendation. Your favorite authors will make a few extra dollars this holiday season, yes. But more than that, those positive reviews and enthusiastic recommendations mean your favorite authors will garner enough sales to justify their next contracts--and their next books. Which means you will have more books to look forward to in 2012 and beyond. It's win-win, see? Remember your favorite authors this holiday season. They will thank you for it by writing stories that you love."



One of the gifts I'll be giving this year is World Vision Fair-Trade Coffee. I won a coffee set, including a bag of coffee and a hand-carved wooden coffee scoop, from Tiny Green Mom. The coffee is a blend of fine strains of the bean from Africa, Latin America and Indonesia.

World Vision is a wonderful organization dedicated to making the lives of the world's children better (including children in the U.S. as well as other countries). It publishes a catalog through which you can target your donations toward fighting hunger, sponsoring education, providing clean water, helping women find gainful employment or helping women and girls who've been sexually exploited.

Feminine Yule Traditions: December 13 is St. Lucia's Day

Saint Lucia, also known as Saint Lucy, is venerated as a Catholic/Anglican/Lutheran saint, though her legend is most likely apocryphal and not based on a real historical figure. She's one of the church's virgin martyrs. In one version of the story, a young suitor told her how lovely her eyes were, so Lucia plucked them out so that she could better devote herself to the monastic life without distractions. Thus, she is the patron saint of the blind. Appropriately, her name comes from the Latin word for "light."

I do not know why the French named their beautiful Caribbean island in the Lesser Antilles after this saint.

Although revered in many countries, Saint Lucia is hugely popular in Sweden. In Swedish tradition, at the first crow of the rooster on St. Lucia's Day, a beautiful young woman of the household would rise and dress in a white robe tied with a red sash. She would wear on her head a crown of twigs, into which nine white candles were placed and lit. This is the popular representation of St. Lucia. The young woman representing the saint would wake up the household with singing and a sweet drink (coffee, when it was available). The household then sat down to a candlelit breakfast.

Lucia is also venerated in Sicily. An effigy of the saint is carried through the street in procession; she's depicted as carrying a dish containing her eyes. At the end of the procession, there's a large bonfire.

The extensive use of candles and fire on St. Lucia's Day links the celebration to other traditional Winter Solstice celebrations, including Hanukkah, which prescribe light for the shortest, darkest days of the year.

In some parts of central Europe, St. Lucia serves the function of Frigga and her folkloric descendants, punishing young people who've been naughty or neglectful and rewarding the good. Some regions put Lucia in charge of gifts for girls, while St. Nicholas, whose feast day is observed December 6th, serves this function for boys.

Eves often have special significance in Winter Solstice celebrations, owing to the ancient custom of reckoning days from sunset, still observed by Jews and Muslims. St. Lucia's Eve is also associated with witchcraft. Some observers go around saying special blessings to protect themselves from wayward magic. In other places, St. Lucia's Eve is used for divination, often of the "whom will I marry?" type practiced on St. Mark's Eve, St. John's Eve and All Hallows Eve.

Denmark has a particularly lovely prayer for this occasion:

"Sweet St. Lucy, let me know;
Whose cloth I shall lay,
Whose bed I shall make,
Whose child I shall bear,
Whose darling I shall be,
Whose arms I shall sleep in."

Again I refer to Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance by Clement A. Miles.

Can't Get Enough Holidays? What to Read This Holiday Season...and Beyond

For those of us who are “book people,” books are the perfect Christmas or Hanukkah gifts to give and receive. Brick-and-mortar and virtual book stores both offer a dazzling array of choices, from nonfiction on the recipient’s favorite subject to best-sellers, beautiful coffee table volumes to poetry to charming children’s books.

It can also be fun to give books about the holidays themselves, especially if you can support some independent authors and publishers. Here are some choices so intriguing, you may want to keep them for yourself!

The Origins of Christmas Songs and Traditions by Rhetta Akamatsu (2008). Christmas has some curious, colorful traditions with a long history. Learn some of origins of these, as well as the hidden meanings behind the Christmas carols we all know and sing, but don’t necessarily understand.

If you enjoy this book, go to guitarati.com and download “Silver Bells” by Anthony “T-Swang” Gullens. This all-new, original R+B arrangement of the Christmas carol favorite makes it more danceable than ever.

ChristmaSin’ by Ed Williams (2009). Ed Williams calls himself a “Southern outlaw author,” and his fiction shows it! With his trademark humor, Ed weaves a (mostly true) tale of his small, rural town of Juliette, Georgia back in the 1970s. Don’t expect a tranquil white Christmas there!

The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story by Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown (2007). Okay, Lemony Snicket isn’t an independent author, but you’ve got to love this children’s book in which a potato pancake leaps out of the frying pan. The latke is meant to be a Hanukkah treat, and he finds himself explaining this to a variety of Christmas decorations who think Hanukkah is simply “The Jewish Christmas.” The latke may be irate, but readers will be delighted.

Lemony Snicket also wrote The Lump of Coal (2008), a Christmas tale in which a grumpy, tuxedoed coal lump searches for his place in the world, and finds it with a drugstore Santa.

Finally, for the grown-ups to stuff in their own metaphorical stockings, there’s "Spicy, Earthy, Sweet" (2008) by Erin O’Riordan. Caught up in the magic of the Festival of Lights, Gabriella wants everything to be perfect for her holiday with Jared. Jared has very specific tastes--and a slight obsession with teasing the individual flavors out of the aromas of fine wines. Even the kosher wine he chooses for the first night of Hanukkah is subjected to his beloved wine aroma wheel. But wine is not the only thing that can be tasted, analyzed, and savored. Gabriella and Jared discover new uses for Jared's favorite toy as the Hanukkah candles burn down...