Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[ChocolateMouse]

That’s awesome you have something like that! Too many people, for any holiday, just focus on the candy, costumes, presents, whatever so nice you have an actual tradition!! Sorry about the insomnia though! and wow! Big log!

Eh, the insomnia is what it is. I manage it, albeit not well sometimes.

It is a big log! About 3' long and over 1' around! The whole day is a journey - in the morning we rise at dawn to bless the log and reflect upon the old year that's now passing. It's a moment of sober reflection - of both good and bad - and a moment to acknowledge what our needs are and how we can be better the next year.

And then, well... Actually presents and food are a big part of the deal for us - I have been carefully selecting and making presents for a month or more. But there's a reason for it. You're expected to share your generosity around the winter holidays (when times are grim for many) and bathe the people you love in your excess. It's all about giving back to the people you love and who have less out of love rather than obligation. If you can't give back, you're not obligated - it's specifically about sharing love and bounty and well, if you don't have bounty that's OK, that means it's more important to share ours with you. We are generous on Yule because the world has been generous to us. A lot of the gifts we give are hand made and specifically wanted and useful - not just "stuff" of obligation. Same with the feast we usually hold for our friends. It's also encouraged to give to charities that help people who are down on their luck without judgement - food pantries are usually an ideal choice - and be kind to animals and wildlife on this day. My faith has a lot of traditions rooted in things like that. Giving back is important - especially within your immediate community and environment. It plants the seeds for a better future.
It also carries an additional goal to have a big party like that - to spread joy on earth and make the world so happy that the sun WANTS to come back. In a hurry! For just a bit you live only in the moment and just be as happy as possible! This year we went wassailing at our friends houses and leaving them gifts. <3 It was super great to see all their faces. I was so happy! Then I held a videochat party with a bunch of them! It was so nice! I think we all left today feeling much happier and a little more hopeful for the new year.

And now it's the long vigil, where I think about how grateful I am for all the people I got to celebrate with and how life will be different next year and what our plans are and what we hope will pan out while I wait to see if it worked and we were joyful enough for the sun to rise again.
(Of course, we do a good job so it always does. .)

 

[ShrekDawg]

Eh, the insomnia is what it is. I manage it, albeit not well sometimes.

It is a big log! About 3' long and over 1' around! The whole day is a journey - in the morning we rise at dawn to bless the log and reflect upon the old year that's now passing. It's a moment of sober reflection - of both good and bad - and a moment to acknowledge what our needs are and how we can be better the next year.

And then, well... Actually presents and food are a big part of the deal for us - I have been carefully selecting and making presents for a month or more. But there's a reason for it. You're expected to share your generosity around the winter holidays (when times are grim for many) and bathe the people you love in your excess. It's all about giving back to the people you love and who have less out of love rather than obligation. If you can't give back, you're not obligated - it's specifically about sharing love and bounty and well, if you don't have bounty that's OK, that means it's more important to share ours with you. We are generous on Yule because the world has been generous to us. A lot of the gifts we give are hand made and specifically wanted and useful - not just "stuff" of obligation. Same with the feast we usually hold for our friends. It's also encouraged to give to charities that help people who are down on their luck without judgement - food pantries are usually an ideal choice - and be kind to animals and wildlife on this day. My faith has a lot of traditions rooted in things like that. Giving back is important - especially within your immediate community and environment. It plants the seeds for a better future.
It also carries an additional goal to have a big party like that - to spread joy on earth and make the world so happy that the sun WANTS to come back. In a hurry! For just a bit you live only in the moment and just be as happy as possible! This year we went wassailing at our friends houses and leaving them gifts. <3 It was super great to see all their faces. I was so happy! Then I held a videochat party with a bunch of them! It was so nice! I think we all left today feeling much happier and a little more hopeful for the new year.

And now it's the long vigil, where I think about how grateful I am for all the people I got to celebrate with and how life will be different next year and what our plans are and what we hope will pan out while I wait to see if it worked and we were joyful enough for the sun to rise again.
(Of course, we do a good job so it always does. .)

Oh wow that all sounds amazing!! I feel like the world would be way better if everybody did stuff like that!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Haha, thanks! It's a wild and emotional ride. XD I cry a lot every year. I get why it's not for everyone, but it means a lot to me and I'm proud to celebrate it!

 

[IamRainey]

A lovely tradition and anything you can do, CM, to end the past year and bring on a better one will be much appreciated.

Your concept of giving is also lovely and reminds me of when we lived in Cape Town. We were there for Eid which breaks the fast of Ramadan for faithful Muslims. Cape Town has a large Muslim population. A great many of them are the hard working people who are on the bottom of the wage scale and who spent much of their lives in apartheid if they're middle aged adults. Nevertheless, our housekeeper told me with great joy on her face what an honor it was to give to others. She and her sister had a tradition of making food in big 10 gallon pots and taking them to the public Eid celebration where they served it to people who were less well off.

Giving to others is one of the 5 pillars of Islam and I'll never forget how animated she was in describing how blessed she felt to be able to give to others. I'm not a person with a value for institutional religion but I've never seen such a genuine spirit of charity -- and this, mind you, within a culture where affluent people live in houses and apartments where they can bolt lock the housekeepers out of their rooms in the spaces they share. She was a lovely woman and I'm glad I got to spend time with her.

She would be very familiar with what you're describing, CM. You would be very comfortable in her traditions, I suspect.

 

[ChicklyManor_Manager]

It's not disturbing at all. The bill gates foundation does a lot of work with medical charities and johns hopkins is, obviously, a hospital/health org.

SARS is a type of corona virus, which had an outbreak in the early 2000's that effected china really badly. It also hit the USA. After that USA started working internationally to make pandemic preparedness plans.

It makes complete and total sense that international organizations dedicated to public health would be having committees and plans made for a type of virus that has already been internationally epidemic and frequently mutates into new strains.
No conspiracy theories needed to add the the garbage fire. This was just people doing their jobs. Those meeting and preparedness plans were happening, and have been happening for decades, because stuff like this has happened before and will happen again. Cornoa virus isn't new - just this strain of it. This whole thing would probably be a lot worse if those sorts of meetings weren't happening at all.

Who said anything about conspiracies? They are stating their opinion in which is what this post is for. The fact that Bill Gates decides to set this up makes you wonder that a year later, we get hit by this ‘pandemic’

 

[Ruthster55]

Who said anything about conspiracies? They are stating their opinion in which is what this post is for. The fact that Bill Gates decides to set this up makes you wonder that a year later, we get hit by this ‘pandemic’

PECK!!!

Well, look who just waltzed into our mostly-pleasant conversation (up until now) with garbage conspiracy theories.... now they’re over on another board trying to promote some trash site of their own.

This is NOT the way to promote your site here on BYC!!!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Oh Chickly. That post was, like, a MILLION years old. Nice try tho.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Rainey, that sounds really nice. ♥ I love traditions like that. It's really inspiring to experience it in other cultures and I suspect I'd feel very happy with it.

It's now dawn - happy pagan new year! The Yule Log stayed lit all night but the fire was hot and strong and ate what was a hip-high hulking monstrosity of a log down to about 1/2 a cubic foot of charcoal and wood. This has been put out and will get wrapped in paper and stored in a closet for next year. It'll start next years yule fire!

Hope it was a great solstice for everyone! Today I will spend the day starting garden planning - no better way to look towards the future than that! Dinner will be leftovers - game pie and roast rabbit and pies and cakes and cookies. We cooked far too much and we were given some things generously by our friends. The funniest bit was definitely my immune compromised sister. We sang "We wish you a merry christmas" at her house - you know, demanding figgy pudding aggressively. She gave us a snack pack of pudding and a box of fig newtons she bought for us in advance. XD But it was a really wonderful day all around!

 

[MROO]

Eh, the insomnia is what it is. I manage it, albeit not well sometimes.

It is a big log! About 3' long and over 1' around! The whole day is a journey - in the morning we rise at dawn to bless the log and reflect upon the old year that's now passing. It's a moment of sober reflection - of both good and bad - and a moment to acknowledge what our needs are and how we can be better the next year.

And then, well... Actually presents and food are a big part of the deal for us - I have been carefully selecting and making presents for a month or more. But there's a reason for it. You're expected to share your generosity around the winter holidays (when times are grim for many) and bathe the people you love in your excess. It's all about giving back to the people you love and who have less out of love rather than obligation. If you can't give back, you're not obligated - it's specifically about sharing love and bounty and well, if you don't have bounty that's OK, that means it's more important to share ours with you. We are generous on Yule because the world has been generous to us. A lot of the gifts we give are hand made and specifically wanted and useful - not just "stuff" of obligation. Same with the feast we usually hold for our friends. It's also encouraged to give to charities that help people who are down on their luck without judgement - food pantries are usually an ideal choice - and be kind to animals and wildlife on this day. My faith has a lot of traditions rooted in things like that. Giving back is important - especially within your immediate community and environment. It plants the seeds for a better future.
It also carries an additional goal to have a big party like that - to spread joy on earth and make the world so happy that the sun WANTS to come back. In a hurry! For just a bit you live only in the moment and just be as happy as possible! This year we went wassailing at our friends houses and leaving them gifts. <3 It was super great to see all their faces. I was so happy! Then I held a videochat party with a bunch of them! It was so nice! I think we all left today feeling much happier and a little more hopeful for the new year.

And now it's the long vigil, where I think about how grateful I am for all the people I got to celebrate with and how life will be different next year and what our plans are and what we hope will pan out while I wait to see if it worked and we were joyful enough for the sun to rise again.
(Of course, we do a good job so it always does. .)

Years ago, I had a Native American friend who celebrated Yule in much the same way.
The "Yule Log" was a bonfire that had to be fed and saged regularly throughout the "Longest Night."
The tradition has a beautiful name that I can never remember, much less spell. It has to do with showing the sun that we are are grateful and worth its' notice ... then patiently hoping and waiting for it to return. There's a song/chant for the setting of the sun, asking it to please remember us and return after its long rest and another with a solemn celebration of gratitude for its' return in the morning. For the time in-between, there are songs, skits and irritatingly fun to play games to keep everyone busy while they wait. And food. LOTS of food. Despite its' having a different name, many of the concepts and beliefs are similar. It's all about community - human, animal, all living things, the physical, the spiritual, the whole nine yards.
She moved some time ago. Maybe I can find her again. Now THAT's a NY resolution I can live with!

 

[Molpet]

Rainey, that sounds really nice. ♥ I love traditions like that. It's really inspiring to experience it in other cultures and I suspect I'd feel very happy with it.

It's now dawn - happy pagan new year! The Yule Log stayed lit all night but the fire was hot and strong and ate what was a hip-high hulking monstrosity of a log down to about 1/2 a cubic foot of charcoal and wood. This has been put out and will get wrapped in paper and stored in a closet for next year. It'll start next years yule fire!

Hope it was a great solstice for everyone! Today I will spend the day starting garden planning - no better way to look towards the future than that! Dinner will be leftovers - game pie and roast rabbit and pies and cakes and cookies. We cooked far too much and we were given some things generously by our friends. The funniest bit was definitely my immune compromised sister. We sang "We wish you a merry christmas" at her house - you know, demanding figgy pudding aggressively. She gave us a snack pack of pudding and a box of fig newtons she bought for us in advance. XD But it was a really wonderful day all around!

Interesting facts about others beliefs/customs
what year is it with a pagan calendar? Or has that been lost in the centuries