Friday open thread: non-religious seasonal events

[dolorosa_12]

Tomorrow — as long as the weather remains clear — Matthias and I will partake of one of our favourite annual traditions: the Mill Road winter fair. This takes place every year (apart from during pandemic lockdowns) on the first Saturday in December. Mill Road is a long street in Cambridge with a lot of restaurants and little supermarkets — all very international (South Asian grocery stores, East Asian grocery stores, Italian delis, Central and Eastern European supermarkets, North African, Korean, Indian, and Chinese restaurants, and so on). During the street fair, all the shops, cafes and restaurants in the street — including those that don't typically serve fresh/hot food on the premises — have stalls in the street selling food or drink. In addition, street food vans and craft stalls set up in a nearby park and carpark and sell their wares. You can wander up and down the street for hours, trying to narrow down a choice for lunch amid all the variety, there are parades, and it's just generally a lot of fun, if you enjoy that sort of thing.

It's seasonal, in the sense that it happens every winter, but it's definitely not a Christmas thing — food fair, not Christmas market. And it's the inspiration for today's open thread prompt:

What is a non-religious seasonal event (it could be local, regional, national, or just a personal/family tradition) that you enjoy and in which you participate regularly?

I'll close this post with a final reminder that I'm collecting links to people's fandomtrees signups and holiday love meme threads on a previous post. If you're worried about either of these things getting lost in the feed, sticking them here might be a helpful thing to do.

Comments

[chestnut_pod]

This is a relatively new tradition of only a few years standing, but going up the coast with my partner and inlaws to a spend a few days in nature. It's cold but lovely and very peaceful at that time of year.

(I would also add seeing The Nutcracker, though that wobbles along the non-religious line.)

[dolorosa_12]

Oooh, those coastal trips sound absolutely wonderful! I love the sea during wintertime, and I can definitely imagine that it would be very peaceful.

I agree with you that The Nutcracker is borderline in terms of being religious or not. I put that specific caveat into the question because I didn't want people answering with stuff like 'putting up Christmas lights — but Christmas is a totally secular holiday in my family/country.'

[troisoiseaux]

I'm not sure this is an "event" per se, but in the winter, my city sets up outdoor ice rinks!

[dolorosa_12]

Oooh, lucky you! They used to do this every year when I lived in Cambridge, and I would go skating at least once each winter, but now that I live outside the city, there are no opportunities for ice skating. I was going to go to an outdoor rink in London when I was there a couple of weeks ago ... and then I found out that they'd stopped having that rink and had turned the area into a nature reserve.

[rmc28]

I love the Mill Road Winter Fair so much. Very fond memories of the year N was 18 months old and very seriously insisted on walking the whole length of the fair at toddler speed.

We will not be there today because we'll be at a wedding in Cambridge instead.

[dolorosa_12]

Very fond memories of the year N was 18 months old and very seriously insisted on walking the whole length of the fair at toddler speed.

Awww, that sounds so adorable! I love Mill Road in general, and the fair itself is always great.

I hope you enjoy the wedding!

[naye]

Ahhh I miss Mill Road! ♥

I find "non-religious" a tricky one - I love Swedish winter holiday traditions, but they are mingled pre-Christian and Christian, so I guess they're all out... And I love the Japanese New Year's traditions, but they have Buddhist & Shinto elements to them?

So, I think: Midsummer! It's the most important Swedish holiday after Christmas, and it's 100% a Solstice celebration that Christianity never quite wrestled away from its pagan origins. (They tried to make it John The Baptist Day, but that very much did not catch on in Sweden.) My two family never actually had (or followed) any traditions (and sometimes weren't even in Sweden for it), but I love that we take time off to celebrate simply because it's summer, and light. So even if I don't do any of the traditional things, I always really enjoy getting a Friday off in June because the days are at their longest, and the nights at their shortest.

And this year I'm planning to start a tradition of New Year's Cleaning, which is a thing in both Japan and China. It's so nice to feel like your year is starting off with everything clean and tidy; no chores weighing on your mind.

[dolorosa_12]

I love Mill Road so much! I miss it too — it's not really somewhere we go regularly, now that we don't live in Cambridge. It was great to be there for the fair.

Midsummer is an excellent tradition, and it's totally understandable that it's such a huge thing in parts of the world that are so close to the Artic Circle, and spend so much time in darkness during other parts of the year. I've never been in Sweden for Midsummer, but I was in Finland for one year during that time, and it was fabulous.

I always clean the house in the days leading up to New Year's Eve, for exactly the reasons you describe, but I didn't realise it was a specific cultural tradition in some parts of the world. I personally find it incredibly psychologically helpful, in the sense of wanting to start the new year how I mean to go on, so I definitely think it's a great idea!

Regarding the religiosity of specific holidays/traditions, this was more to head off at the pass people responding with things like 'Christmas is totally secular in my country/family,' which can be extremely irritating for people in marjority Christian countries who belong to minority religions. But I realise now I should have just have specified the above, rather than barring religious traditions entirely...

[svgurl]

The fair sounds really awesome. I hope the weather cooperated!

[dolorosa_12]

It was cold, but clear — perfect weather!

[windancer]

A recent ritual is visiting a park near my partner's father's house (which is where we have been spending winter holidays the past 3 years). In particular, it has a "songbird trail" and if you bring birdseed and are very patient, you can hold the seed in your hand and chickadees will fly to peck at it. This is true all year, but it feels significant to do it in winter, as the food of the natural world is changing for all creatures.

[dolorosa_12]

That sounds utterly breathtaking! What a wonderful ritual — so beautiful and peaceful.