Downtown Luxury Slum

Hey y’all,

Just checking in for a quick post today.

I’m really not big on holidays. Like I mostly hate them all. Call me a scrooge all you want. I’ll happily own it. But I do like a few strange holiday traditions.

Yesterday was Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday, which I grew up calling Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday when I was feeling fancy. I still call it Pancake Tuesday and make pancakes (in some form) to celebrate. Here’s a link to Wikipedia (the source of all knowledge) that explains the meaning behind all of the names of this day. My TLDR explanation is that it’s a day for good Christians to gorge themselves on bad things (such as sugar and butter) before giving up chocolate or something more meaningful for lent.

This year Andrew and I made crepes with mushrooms and gruyere. We used this crepe recipe from Serious Eats that comes together quickly and works well for sweet or savory crepes.

In the past I’ve made all forms of pancakes including oat-enriched, gluten-free, high-protein,… you name it. I’ve taken them to school when I’ve had classes, I’ve taken them to soccer when I’ve had games, and I’ve invited people over. My conclusion from all efforts is that other people don’t like pancakes as much as I do, so I just continue to make them for myself at home. Nonetheless, I love this holiday tradition and refuse to give it up.

Although I am certainly surrounded by good Christians, most of these people are not aware of these traditions and do not practice them.

But aside from Pancake Tuesday, there are a number of holidays that I celebrate or annual traditions that I practice that people around me otherwise wouldn’t.

For example, I host Canadian Thanksgiving every year, which takes place in October, over a month before American Thanksgiving takes place. For the thirteen(?) years I’ve live in the United States, I’ve hosted friends for a potluck, with more or less traditional Thanksgiving foods, to celebrate this holiday that they wouldn’t otherwise be aware of, let alone, celebrate. And it’s always a crowd-pleaser.

Also in October is Halloween, and although that’s something most people around me celebrate, the only thing that’s important to me is that there’s chili. Over the years, I’ve made chili at home alone or with friends; gone to friends’ homes and made chili, or gone to friends’ homes and they’ve made chili. The important part is that there’s chili. Why? Because that’s what I grew up with. It was the one day a year I knew my dad would come home early from work and make us chili before we went trick-or-treating.

I celebrate Valentines Day, which isn’t remotely unusual, except that I celebrate it with any of the people that I care about that are willing to celebrate it with me. I talked about how we celebrate a little more in this post a few weeks ago.

I also call the fourth of July “America Day,” which I’m hoping with catch on.

So those are some of my weird holiday traditions. Do you have any or is it just me?