Years ago, I had a friend, Lillian Brunswick, who had grown up in a Yiddish neighborhood. She said her mother never missed an opportunity to celebrate a holiday. Anybody's. At Christmas, Mama decorated a small Christmas tree with as many lights as it could bear and when the rabbi came to call, it was Lillian's job to put the tree on the fire escape while Mama answered the door. On St. Patrick's, the menorah sprouted shamrocks. St. Andrew's would have the little apartment awash with Scottish thistles. Mama was delighted when she discovered Lewis Carroll's "unbirthdays" which pretty much covered the gaps in the holiday year. Unbirthday cupcakes ahoy! She had a heart for the underdog so when I read about Juneteenth in JUBILEE JOURNEY, I thought immediately of Lillian's mother. Juneteenth is honored by African Americans all over Texas as the day, June 19, 1865 when word reached Galveston, Texas that slaves had been freed back in January 1863.This week includes Pentecost and Flag Day. I can picture Mama wearing red and making her own special flag with its cross-cultural bonanza of symbols. Lillian's best friend, Geonene Scott, wrote to me in 1981 that Lillian had died after a short bout with pneumonia. Since they had taken tap dancing lessons together in their forties, Geonene imagined Lillian in pink tights and snappy tap shoes doing the shuffle ball step in Heaven. I remember adding to the picture: a sidekick. Lillian's Mama with iridescent wings sporting 6-pointed stars dancing off tiny Irish harps and sky blue menorahs. I let Lillian's Mama guide me every day to make sure each day is festive whether it has a name or not. If no name comes already chosen, I invent one. Unbirthday is good but I lean more to something like Saint Gratitude by the Forgotten Fountain Day or Shoshoni (did you know the word for mother in Shoshoni is Pia?) Friendship-in-the-Hinterland Bracelet Day.
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...may the blessings of holiday getaways be yours...
speaking of days, did you know that the second day of the christian week is called 2's-day - isn't that a coincidence, though? seriously, though; i like the idea of celebrating every day as a holiday - it should be, and we should enjoy, and cherish the gift of life that is given to us on each of these special days. c will
ReplyDelete...from cb in Anaheim:
ReplyDeleteWell, the only one that comes to mind is when Ani finishes her last final exam and we go to lunch; she can have anything she wants on the Ruby’s menu. Usually chooses chicken with water to drink, then has “no dessert”. I have the large salad and water. Ani actually has many, many non-birthdays with her classmate friends, however.
--CWAL
...from Diansica in Roanoke:
ReplyDeleteWe celebrate life each day! As for special celebrations, they are usually the conventional holidays. We spend them around my grandmother's old dining room table with either my mother's or grandmother's china and silver. Sometimes, we eat out of the pottery that Tom and I got in 1987, on our honeymoon in Mexico. We like to have guests over that give our dog coconut cake under the table and dance around in the living room. We have entertained many an angel or faerie over the years and you are certainly one!
...from Carolyn Meyer in Albuquerque:
ReplyDeleteHappy Juneteenth in a few days. ....you always cheer me up.
...from John in Ft. Lauderdale:
ReplyDeleteIt reassures me that the redwoods (or most of them) still stand. I also find it reassuring that the Brontes are still banging around in your belfry.