How many of you love holidays so much you keep the spirit going all year long, no matter what you are celebrating? I have a calendar I keep in my purse, on which I attempt to collect the birthdays of all my friends and family members. I aspire to have at least one birthday for each day of the year, so I have something to celebrate. As Alice says, in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, "I like birthday presents best,"
But as her fellow Wonderland friend Humpty Dumpty noted after a few calculations, "there are three hundred and sixty-four days when you might get un-birthday presents." Consequently, I don't have to fret, because thanks to Humpty Dumpty's observation, I can also celebrate the famed Un-birthday! Or, I can commemorate half-birthdays, which fall in between birthdays.
Aside from birthdays, I admit that out of all the holidays during the year, I am a Christmas fanatic. I am the opposite of the Grinch because I love to keep the Christmas spirit going. I celebrate Christmas in July, and love to watch Christmas movies all year long, much to my husband's chagrin. I keep my nativity scenes out perpetually, as well as my Nutcracker ballet music box. I haven't gone so far as to keep my Christmas tree up all year long—although I have considered it. I did think about taking the ornaments down and hanging purple, green, and gold beads, moving into Easter with spring ornaments.
Thinking about holidays, I have found just a few more holidays to keep the celebration going all year round, from the New Year, spreading into the Easter season, back to Christmas in July, into other Christian holidays, then back into Christmas before the next New Year begins. Like Bilbo Baggins, our favorite Hobbit, I like to go there and back again.
With a special needs child, I do find that celebrating holidays all year round helps my son stay interested in his schoolwork because it opens up the opportunity for a unit study approach, giving his studies a personal meaning. In addition, it helps us identify with the tried and true traditions of the past.
My husband and I have had discussions about this approach, related to our Christian upbringing. He became a Christian as a teenager, in a large California evangelical church with few ties to tradition, while my grandparents, on opposite sides of the Christian faith (Baptist and Catholic), brought me up in two different faiths. One thing I especially enjoyed about the Catholic Church was its use of the liturgical calendar, which is also used in some homeschooling and educational methods, such as the Waldorf method.
While researching, I found a great deal of information on the Internet, which is a vast resource for finding obscure or interesting holidays. However, there are also many books that offer more information on holidays and traditions. My two favorites are:
A Family Guide to the Biblical Holidays by Robin Sampson and Linda Pierce, which follows the Messianic Calendar. Visit Robin Sampson's wonderful web site for more information on this method and this book.
A Year with God by Catholic Heritage Curricula, which follows the liturgical calendar
Catholic Heritage Curricula also has information at on this book, and has some downloadable handouts relating to the liturgical calendar, among other things.
After Christmas, we celebrate the real Twelve Days of Christmas. So that takes me up to Epiphany. Dennis Bratcher has a great article regarding these most important days, and their Christian meanings, at The Voice Christian Research Institute. He has also written an article on Epiphany. The end of each article has a link to an Epiphany devotional, written by Joe Hittle. The song "O Holy Night" starts playing when you load this page so be forewarned.
After Epiphany there is a little break before Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday (which usually comes around my birthday in February) into Lent, which I still observe as a non-denominational Christian because the practice helps me identify with sacrifice. Then, according to the liturgical calendar, we go from Easter to Pentecost to Advent to Christmas back into Epiphany. I still haven’t figured out where to start and end although I think the Resurrection is a great place to finish!
The Messianic Holy Days are, in order, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Chanukah, Purim, Pesach/Passover, Yom HaBikkurim, and Shavuot.
Liturgical Calendars Sites
Messianic Calendars
This listing is for those who are more inclined to celebrate the Messianic Holy Days, or want to incorporate them into the liturgical calendar.
Miscellaneous Fun or Educational Calendars
Please note that these sites are for your research. Although some of these sites are denominational and/or secular, I do not adhere to every holiday because some may conflict with my beliefs. I choose the ones that best support my beliefs as an evangelical Christian. Such is the beauty of eclectic homeschooling!
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