Happy New Year. We are well past the halfway mark now in the Twelve Days of Christmas. Some years I write about each day here on the blog, but that’s a big endeavor, so other years (this year, for instance) I just write something brief each day and post it with a picture to the Convivio Bookworks Instagram page, which cross-posts to our Facebook page, as well. Brief but meaningful. Yesterday’s post, as an example, included our recipe for a New Year’s Day Wassail, which we are just finishing drinking as I write this late at night on New Year’s Day. If you’d like to follow along, please do so at our Instagram page (@conviviobookworks).
I know some folks have wrapped up the Christmas season by now, especially now that New Year’s Day has passed. But in our family things continue through to Epiphany, or “Little Christmas,” as my mom sometimes calls it. And even beyond: In this house, we continue our Yuletide celebration all the way to Candlemas at the start of February. Perhaps this is what happens when you don’t even decorate your Christmas tree until Christmas Day (which is how things went this year), or perhaps this is what happens when you love Christmas as much as we do. We keep the spirit going for as long as we can.
And why not? Twelfth Night and Epiphany are still to come: Twelfth Night on the evening of the 5th of January, and Epiphany on the 6th… Epiphany being the day, we are taught, when the Magi arrived at the stable to visit the child born twelve days earlier. Your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for January celebrates these old and venerable festivities in earnest with a painting called, in English, Singing Round the Star on Twelfth Night by Cornelis Troost, an artist working in Amsterdam in the early 1700s. Caroling by the light of an illuminated star-shaped lantern is an old tradition especially in Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. And judging by Cornelis Troost’s painting, in the Netherlands, too. There are Star Boys that accompany the Lucia, in her candle-lit crown, on Sankta Lucia’s Night in Sweden, too. The Star Carolers are a lovely thing to see.
The calendar is a printable PDF, so you may enjoy it on your screen, or print it out and pin it to a door or your bulletin board. The calendar is a fine companion to this blog. Enjoy!
LOCALS: COME SEE US! WE HAVE A SALE FOR YOU!
The shop is open this weekend: Saturday & Sunday, January 3 & 4, from 11 AM to 4 PM both days, for a rare event: A sale! In-house only at our Lake Worth Beach shop, we’re offering 20% off everything in the shop during our TWO DAY SALE. (Two exclusions from the “everything”: Millie’s Tea Towels and workshops.) We’re looking at this Two Day Weekend Sale as a festive way to close the Yuletide season at the shop with good company, good music, and, on the house while you shop, our own Löfbergs Coffee from Sweden and Bahlsen cookies from Germany. Do come! We love seeing you.
WORKSHOPS
Come learn something new at our Lake Worth Beach shop! New offerings: Pure Bookbinding on Saturday January 31; Pasta Making: Cavatelli on Sunday February 8; Pasta Making: Mambricoli on Sunday February 22. Coming soon (not yet on the website): Pysanky Egg Making on Sunday February 1. CLICK HERE to see what’s new at our Workshops page.
JOIN ME FOR SOME ONLINE FESTIVITY
I’m hosting the first Real Mail Fridays of the year for the Jaffe Center for Book Arts today, Friday January 2, from 2 to 5 PM Eastern via Zoom. We’re closing the Yuletide season there with good music and good company, and you get to take part whilst you do other things you need to do. The music and the company are simply there to keep you company. We break for a short chat a couple of times during the program, and you may come and go as you please (no need to stay all three hours). It’s quite heartwarming, and visitors join us from all over the world. CLICK HERE to join us, too.
Image: “Singing Round the Star on Twelfth Night,” pastel and gouache on paper by Cornelis Troost, circa 1740. [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.