Holidays

In all the novels and short stories, there are tales of wonderful excess around the Christmas holiday.* The holidays are sometimes an excuse for the families to get-together, and at other times just for the immediate family to enjoy a cozy time without the dozens of first and second cousins hanging about. LMM never used any holiday as some sappy excuse for two lovers to get together, or even as some magical time when a long-lost relative reappeared. Thank God - Hollywood's played that game way too much.

Besides Christmas, and I suppose New Year's, there aren't any other holidays mentioned. One single exception would be the day for remembrance of the end of WW1. I believe Pat's father marched in a parade, and Jane wore a poppy in honor of her father.

This is different from my 19th/20th century American girlish novels - yes, I also read Louisa May Alcott and Laura Ingalls Wilder. In the American novels, there are scores of holidays. President's Day must be recognized, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day. Canadian calendars had a famine of holidays, by comparison. Of course, most of the holidays on a US calendar are commemorative - Independence Day and Thanksgiving (Pilgrims) are the only 2 I can think of that would apply for this time period. I suppose Canada didn't have anything to commemorate then. ;-)

To make up for this lack of sanctioned state excuses to gather, the great clans have reunions to celebrate themselves. And of course there are clan gatherings for weddings, funerals, and the birthdays of the aged handmaidens. Or just any old excuse - dear Aunt Becky had levees! Levees! For no particular reason at all, she invited her family over to sit around her bedridden old bones and be ridiculed. Such clan loyalty there!

And then there are the celebrations to celebrate some singular auspicious event - dear Aunt Wellington's Engagement Anniversary Picnic. What. on. earth. Valancy's Stirling Family Obligations are magnificent. Everything deserves a gathering, it's fabulous.

I like it. I like the big families, the intermarried clans that magically don't have any genetic problems due to all the cousins marrying each other. I like how they all get together to celebrate events, and the big family weddings, funerals, and dinners. And the loyalty! Those Darks and Penhallows stick up for each other in front of strangers even on distant continents!

Of course, other life events can pass by without any notice. I can't think of any time graduations are celebrated - so many of the heroines went to Queen's College or Shrewsbury High, but I don't think there was ever a mention of even a family dinner recognizing the achievement.

Vacations are practically unknown as well. Some folks went off to Europe on grand tours (Jane's grandmother) and sometimes girls went off to visit family. There was a short story about a girl who went west and fell in love with a man a local girl was in love with. Oh, what a mad triangle that was. But besides those few instances, nobody had the time to go off and play. The farms needed to be run, the stores tended, the schools kept... oh right, there were a few schoolteachers who spent their holiday writing poetry. Kilmeny's beau, I think?

Vacations were taken by folks who traveled to the island to stay at the ol' White Sands Hotel. And rich old cousins who come to lord it over the poor relations, of course, like Jane's cousin. Children are an exception - they'd go off on long visits to become acquainted with their relatives, like the last half of Magic for Marigold.

I don't think I miss the holidays and gatherings - they're just excuses in most other novels to bring people together or cause trouble. Church, ah, now in the churches there's plenty of drama.

*I'll have to devote a post later to sweets - though I will mention now that I've bought dozens of eggs and I wish I could make the Pringle or Lesley pound-cake.