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Editor's ViewpointMeditations Of A Minnesota Mossback |
Red Letter Day
What a month. They say that selling your house, changing your job and going through a divorce are about as stressful as it gets. I won't dispute that, having endured the first two myself - albeit not lately.
However, I maintain that the uproar caused by bringing three kids home from college for the summer, with the requisite pile of boxes, bedding, plastic hangers and unwashed laundry (the 19-year-old) - in combination with the emotional upheaval of graduating one from college and preparing to move her out of state to grad school - can't be too much further down the list.
It has been a month filled with highs and lows - and its share of red-letter days.
As that word popped into my head, I wondered where the term "red-letter day" came from.
So I looked it up.
Etymology - not to be confused with entomology, a topic that I last got excited about while playing "Cootie"- is the study of words and their origins. I never enjoyed bugs, but the history of words - now there's an interesting subject.
So, I found out that marking a calendar with red letters, thereby designating a "red-letter day," has been around since at least 1490, when William Caxton's newly translated book referred to the practice: "We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth rede lettres of coloure of purpre." One etymology dictionary sets the date earlier, around 1385.
In 1549, the first Book of Common Prayer included a calendar: holy days ("holidays"), Sundays and the Feast Days of the Saints were marked in red ink. For instance, "Lady Day" - the Feast of the Annunciation - is celebrated as a red-letter day on March 25.
I wondered what new dates of note have crept into modern-day calendars. Being a bit of a Google addict, some research ensued.
June is a great month for red-letter days. (It's also National Accordion Awareness Month. I don't know about you, but I think accordions - like bagpipes - are kind of hard to miss.)
Good Neighbor Days is always a red-letter weekend.
Did you know that June 28 is Paul Bunyan Day?
It's not too late to celebrate Eat Your Vegetables Day on June 17.
But I'm really sorry I missed the Festival of Popular Delusions Day on June 5. (This celebration had its rather somber origins in Germany in 1945, after D-Day, but that's another story.)
I am now working on a list of personal delusions I can celebrate next year. Whether my delusions will become popular has yet to be seen.
The first is that my son will someday wash his laundry without being prodded. Never mind which son - either one will do.
And I anticipate that someday my family will celebrate Eat Your Vegetables Day every day.
On second thought, though, I think there are some delusions that are simply destined to remain wishful thinking - all year long.