Global Holidays and Celebrations

[Róisín]

And a happy Pesach to you, Wavewright! We are having our monthly music night on Saturday, so there will be parties all over!

[Sunflower]

Well into seder preparations for tonight's Passover celebration. My husband & I have already made: skimmed chicken broth to be made into soup, potato kugel, charoset (apple-raisin-walnut condiment), hard-boiled eggs, chopped liver, brownies, dairy-free cappucino 'ice cream', cranberry-orange relish, and am in progress of chopping piles of veggies for soup, tzimmes and stuffing. It's glorious.
Washing the dishes, not so much.
Wishing a Happy Pesach for those who celebrate.

Wow, that sounds delicious!  We have cranberry-orange relish for American Thanksgiving (finely chopped fresh cranberries, oranges, and sugar, allowed to mellow till the sugar almost "pickles" the fruit and turns it translucent) -- is yours similar?  I'm intrigued by how the menu for the holiday I know as a spring celebration in the Northern Hemisphere adapts so nicely to fall. 

And likewise, chag Pesach sameach for those who celebrate it. 

Meanwhile, I am studying the reading I am giving at my church's Good Friday noon service tomorrow and preparing to boil eggs for Easter.  Happy Easter to those in Western Christian churches.  (Most Orthodox churches celebrate Easter this year on the following Sunday, April 8.)

[Mr_Plinkett]

Happy Good Friday.

[thorny]

Wishing a good Passover, a good Easter, a good monthly music night, and merry whatever other celebrations are going on, to all those to whom it's relevant!

[Róisín]

Thanks, thorny!

[wavewright62]

Thank you and joyous (or meaningfully sombre, in the case of Good Friday) celebrations to all!
Sunflower, it is the American cranberry-orange relish, only done with frozen cranberries.  Fresh cranberries are not available here anyway, frozen ones are a reasonably new product, so anytime is a good time.  We only made it on the morning, though, it won't have settled properly before the evening, but never mind.
We had a lovely seder, 6 at table (7 if you count the customary place set out for Elijah) and fabulous food.  We count on eating leftovers for fully half of Pesach anyway.
Here is a photo of my cat taking a break from supervising the set-up:

And on this night we recline...

[thorny]

Except that for cats reclining doesn't make this night different from any other night!

[wavewright62]

Except that for cats reclining doesn't make this night different from any other night!

Touche! So true.

[Purple Wyrm]

Happy Easter, Passover and general celebrations to everyone! May you all be blessed!

[Windfighter]

My calendar says it's the assyrian new year today so Happy New Year everyone!

[Róisín]

Went to the ANZAC Dawn Service this morning. For those not from Australia or New Zealand, it is a solemn commemoration of our war dead. I always go, since many of my kin and friends have died or suffered in various wars. We listen to a commemorative speech as the dawn breaks, there are generally  hymns and poems in memory of the dead, a bugler plays, wreaths are laid at the memorial, (all the little farm towns have one, because traditionally a lot of Australia's soldiers have come from the bush). Then the town has a communal breakfast in the CWA Hall, we drink gunfire coffee and look at historical exhibitions (big fancy ones this year because it is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1). The local choir sang for us, popular songs of the WW1 period. Then everyone adjourned to the car park at the back of the hall for the ritual game of two-up.

This is the first Anzac Day in my memory when it hasn't rained. That felt strange.

[wavewright62]

Anzac Day is often a busy one for brass bands. I am proud to serve.

[Róisín]

Did your band play today? We didn't have a brass band this year, though occasionally one plays for our town, just the bugler. At various times we have had a harper, a piper and a violinist, or a rather fine unaccompanied singer, and often the local choir - depends who is in town that year - but we usually have the bugler. I find it a solemn occasion, for the memory of my dad, both my grandfathers and various uncles and cousins. Most years I help with cooking the communal breakfast and doing the washing-up thereafter, of which there is rather a lot.

[Purple Wyrm]

I was hit with a horrible migraine overnight so I didn't make it to my local dawn service

[wavewright62]

Did your band play today? We didn't have a brass band this year, though occasionally one plays for our town, just the bugler. At various times we have had a harper, a piper and a violinist, or a rather fine unaccompanied singer, and often the local choir - depends who is in town that year - but we usually have the bugler. I find it a solemn occasion, for the memory of my dad, both my grandfathers and various uncles and cousins. Most years I help with cooking the communal breakfast and doing the washing-up thereafter, of which there is rather a lot.

Oh yes, I played two services in my band's patch (which for better or for worse is way across town).  All of the local bands go play at least one service (many do two), and the cornet players often have some other ones stacked up too.
Our poor bugler was left hanging at the first service, having played the Last Post, then paused for the next portion, when the service leader announced wreath-laying instead.  The bugler shifted from foot-to-foot, then just went ahead and played the Reveille portion anyway.  The embarrassed leader then repeated the wreathlaying.