hmm looks like my liturgical year needs more feast days
(Liturgical calendar from www.twitter.com/owenbroadcast)
Every happy institution is alike. Each has their own calendar that marks the year. Religions call it a liturgical calendar. States call them holidays. Small towns have their parades. Neighborhoods that are actually neighborhoods have their block parties. Families don’t call them anything, just “that thing we do.”
These observances arise naturally but don’t always continue naturally unless recognized and encouraged. Green shoots need watered.
Whether you are trying to put together a multigenerational family that will survive the ongoing lineage collapse, an enterprise that has a goal other than just making you some money, or are trying to build or restore a neighborhood, a town, a country, a people, a religion, a way of life, or a network state, you need your own annual occasions. Time is the most important dimension of group health.
We should be aware that there is some deep human feeling about time, and the calendar, and sacredness, and order, that is tied together on a level that we experience more than we can say. We are dealing with an anthropological truth. Anthropological truths cannot be ignored.
In a real sense, steading is applied anthropology.
https://steader.substack.com/p/colonize-the-calendar
Most cultural communication is implicit. What having your own holidays implicitly communicates is that you are not just a subunit of some larger group. Your group is real and exists for itself.
What is something you want to remember?
Did something really funny happen that would be hilarious if you re-enacted it again a year later?
Your observances and calendar days don’t have to all be elevated. They can be serious, fun, practical, or anywhere else on the register.
Steader Reports
My wife spent time in Switzerland, she talks about it a lot to the kids. Every year on Swiss Day we go up to the mountains. This year we roasted sausages to eat with Swiss cheeses and mineral water.
We have a day each year where we go pick strawberries. And similarly, we have a weekend away on the anniversary of our son's death.
Our anniversary is a family holiday, we don't dip out by ourselves, we have a big party at home with a nice meal with the kids.
In high school my brother and I started watching all the lotr movies in a single day during Christmas break, we creatively called it 'lotr day', and now that we're grown and have families it's ballooned into a whole thing, there have been years where there are 30 people between 2 carefully synced tvs all watching and eating together. My mom will cook all the same tasty food every year, we all crack the same jokes during the movies every year. It's one of my favorite holidays.
As for unique family things we celebrate national and international waffle days by getting together and making waffles and having a small celebration of the kids’ accomplishments.
My wife is from China, so we celebrate Chinese New Year with the kids each year.
My friend’s daughter died, every year they do her birthday and wear black ribbons on the day she died.
You can see the range of possibilities.
If you have your own unique holiday, or an idea for one, comment or link below.