Diogenes' Birthday - December 19th!

You are all encouraged to lavish praise, compliments, and gifts upon me.

December 18th: National Wear a Plunger on Your Head Day

You have got to be farking kidding me.

One of my old photoshops is relevant again.

8. December 22nd: The Shortest Day of the Year
For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, December 22nd is the shortest day of the year - the day when the Earth's axial tilt is farthest away from the sun.


I'm gonna celebrate by going to bed early.

11 offbeat holidays you still have time to celebrate ignore.

FTFM. I've been a poor college student for years (yes, I graduated, but the situation is pretty much the same, so...), and therefore holidays have always been either a day to sleep the hell in and drink, or days that I can work and get paid extra. My family lives everywhere up and down the coast, so we only get together once a year, thusly I can never be arsed to decorate or celebrate or anything anyway. Except St. Patrick's, but I was already going to be drinking, so it's rather moot.

I'm a little offended that Boxing Day is on that list. It's not exactly "offbeat". In fact, it's right on the main beat of holidays from England to the British Empire to the world. It's still an official statutory holiday in Canada, or rather, the next working day after the working day off in lieu of Christmas is. This year the Boxing Day holiday falls on Tuesday, December 27. Four day weekends! God bless us, every one!

The simplest explanation for the origin of Boxing Day is the obvservation that the year was divided up into four seasons and each of them began and ended on a Quarter Day, on which debts were settled, rents were paid, and quarterly salary payments were made. It was also a day that people gave alms to the poor.

Christmas is one of the quarter days, but it's a very important religious, public and private holiday and the alms-giving and other duties were naturally put off to the next day.

Once again, I would like to point out that the Season is the Reason.

In case you are wondering what the other Quarter Days are, here is the full list:

Lady Day (25 March) Spring Equinox
Midsummer Day (24 June) Summer Solstice
Michaelmas (29 September) Vernal Equinox
Christmas (25 December) Winter Solstice

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_days

The year used to begin on March 25 and the fiscal year still ends on March 31 and begins on April Fool's Day, April 1st for many governments and businesses.

The giving of alms on Halloween was also traditional, as was mummery. Mummery occurred on a number of other official alms-giving days, including Christmas time. The poor (and some not-so-poor) disguised themselves to beg for food and drink on these occasions.

The traditional Christmas song with the lines

Give us some figgy pudding
We won't go away until we get some

is a reminder of this custom of mumming. (from mime and miming?) as are Christmas plays and pageants, etc.

The Season is the Reason.

Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge was right. God and Christ are just clubs to bully and beat the honest businessman over the head with if he doesn't give us a holiday at least once or twice a month. Holidays are designed so Lucky Duckies like us can legally steal a day's wages from our employers. In Canada, that's about eleven days a year, the barest minimum. In civilized countries, it's about forty or fifty days a year, less than half way to Roman levels of celebration for the slaves and clients of the Roman rich.

Put up or shut up. There are no atheists among Fox News a-holes.

LordOfThePings: FTHA: 8. December 22nd: The Shortest Day of the Year

Hmm, wonder if there's another name for that.

"Kryllith's Wife's Birthday"

Optimal_Illusion: They forgot Biatchmas. Or should we formalize it first?

I think that happens every month for some of us. :)

/yes, yes, I know what you mean
//I was there