{"id":6504,"date":"2022-12-24T00:53:34","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T00:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=6504"},"modified":"2022-12-24T03:54:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-24T03:54:43","slug":"victorian-christmas-cards-holiday-weirdness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/victorian-christmas-cards-holiday-weirdness\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorian Christmas Cards, Holiday Weirdness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Brian<\/a>
The Two Turkeys watching “Wayne and Wanda’s Eggnog Nightmare.” (2015)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ll be sharing some very odd 19th century Christmas cards today. And rambling a bit about holidays, history and whatever else comes to mind. Briefly, for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Christmas and New Year’s Eve: a Double-Header Solstice Celebration<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

\"'Twelfth<\/a>Many if not all folks who experience non-equatorial seasons where they live have some sort of winter solstice celebration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My native culture has two: Christmas and New Year’s Eve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although decorations for each are distinctive, we celebrate both in about the same way: gathering in large groups and making a lot of noise. With a recovery period of about a week between them, most of us can thoroughly enjoy both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weather permitting, which it very likely won’t this year. And that’s another topic, which I may or may not get around to discussing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Christmas celebration has changed over the years. I expect it will keep changing, except for parts of a very special birthday celebration. I talked about that a few days back. You’ll find a link to “Advent 2022: Remembering the Big Picture” near the end of this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the changes involve technology: like television Christmas\/holiday specials, which often present my culture’s “true meaning of Christmas.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there’s a more recent development, which hasn’t become a fixed tradition. Not as far as I know, at any rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, here’s last year’s “Happy Holidays from Expedition 66” \u2014 a cool yule from low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n