It's just three days past the triple date of 12-12-12 and we won't see another until New Year's Day of 2101 (01-01-01)
However, in just six days we have a palindrome month and day combination: 12-21. This is also the day the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to an end, although it seems perfectly obvious to me that the end of the calendar simply means that the Mayan calendar-makers had found a convenient stopping point. Just because they did not create a calendar showing any dates beyond what is to us next Friday does not indicate their belief that the world would end on that day. It's more like what happens when you buy a datebook for the next five years, but you don't get around to marking down all the family birthdays that far in advance. That doesn't mean you think those birthdays will never be celebrated. This was my take on the situation even before I read what Mayan anthropologists had to say about all this Mayan doomsday poppycock. (Here's just one example: http://earthsky.org/human-world/david-stuart-on-the-mayan-calendar-and-2012-doomsday-predictions)
December 21 has its own mystical significance, with or without the Mayans, because it's the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. As such it's always been useful for anyone (you know who you are) in need of a nice, secular, nature-related holiday around this time of year. Here's a little solstice-celebrating how-to, if you need that, too: http://www.schooloftheseasons.com/celsolstice.html
If you want something to celebrate today, December 15, well, it's Cat Herders Day! I am not making this up -- but the creators of the Wellcat Holiday Calendar did, in 2008, and they've done a good job of spreading the news: This holiday is now cropping up on lots of online calendars. Here are just two of them:
http://itsfiveoclocksomewhere.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-cat-herders-day.html
http://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/cat-herders-day/
Oh, and tonight is also the last night of Hanukkah.
Now's a good time for a super-early head's up on Hanukkah in 2013, to let you know that the first night of the eight-night shebang will fall on the evening before Thanksgiving:
http://brooklyn.about.com/od/Xmas-Hanukah-Kwanzaa-New-Year/qt/Latkes-For-Thanksgiving-Super-Early-Hanukah-Falls-Before-Thanksgiving-In-2013.htm
Some things arrive earlier than expected, and now for something late: We won't have a true palindrome date --month, date, and four-digit year that read the same forwards and backwards-- until February 2, 2020 (02-02-2020).
-----------------
Still Life With Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv, www.cleveland-park.com, and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
No comments:
Post a Comment