THE PUSH: With five ways to honor (and make it through) the limbo of Winter’s End

We Revelers in the New Old Tradition recognize a time of year we call “The Push,” which begins around February 1st and extends all the way to the Spring Equinox on or around March 21st. Admittedly, The Push is not a holiday you will find on any calendar outside of our tradition. You will not find its name on any government list of holidays. Nor will you find The Push mentioned in any text book, “A People’s History of…” or otherwise. No, The Push is unique to this band of merry makers and takes its cues from the times when we could all use a little help getting through what needs gettin’ through.

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NEW OLD HOLIDAY NEWS FEED (Dec 8, 2009)

Links provided by the lovely Ernski.

Elf tells mall Santa that he’s carrying dynamite.
“Santa notified mall security and Morrow police quickly arrested the 5 feet tall, 108 pound Caldwell.” Tall elf. Shorter man.

Plus: Jews Gone Wild, Christmas Trees for a cool mil., annoying people saying annoying things, fruit cake, and more!!! All after the break.

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NEW OLD HOLIDAY NEWS FEED (Dec 1, 2009)

Man “hates Christmas,” steals Salvation Army fund-raising kettle
“…he pushed her down and said, ‘I can’t stand you and your bell-ringing. I hate Christmas’.”

More news after the break, including laser hamsters, anti-holiday cheer pirates, and Charlie Brown!

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Looking ahead to the season of Yule…

Another upcoming event for the season of Yule!

The Brooklyn Kitchen and chef Katherine Randazzo celebrate the Southern Italian tradition, the Feast of the Seven Fishes, by offering a class (with eating) on December 17th.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Roman Catholic Christmas eve tradition involving… well, seven fish. Or, I guess, fishes. It’s a nice biblical way of honoring the birth of Jesus. As with all good traditions, the exact origins and reason for seven fish is unclear.

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Looking Ahead to the season of Yule…

The Dutch Saint Nikolaas

The 17th Century is pretty…um… contemporary for the New Old Traditions, but I assume that the figure of Saint Nicolas will emerge eventually, so I would like to call attentions to an upcoming event by the Culinary Historians of New York addressing the Dutch vision of St. Nicolas. Think of it as sort of a middle notch in the time line of meaningful tradition.

Besides, St. Nicolas, the patron saint of children and merchants (coincidence? can’t be) happens to be a really interesting character… wikipedia (always right) gives us the following:

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