Book of Days

In case you missed the Convivio Dispatch announcement on the First of the month about the August Book of Days calendar, well, here it is on the Convivio Book of Days Blog: The newest edition of the ongoing Convivio Book of Days calendar project is now available at our website. This month’s Book of Days calendar focuses on the traditions of Obon, which is one of the major summertime festivals in Japan. Thanks to the Morikami Museum in western Delray Beach, we here in South Florida get an annual immersion into this old celebration.

With August, summer matures and already is waning, heading toward fall. And by traditional reckoning of time, with the arrival of Lammas on the First of August, we have actually crossed over into autumn. We are headed for the equinox in September, approaching once again a time of balance of sunlight and darkness.

Here’s that link once more:
http://www.conviviobookworks.com/Images/August2014.pdf

The monthly Book of Days calendar is a printable PDF document. It’s designed to print nicely on standard letter size paper in the US (8.5″ x 11″). Think of it as a good companion piece to the Book of Days Blog.

Image: Lanterns in the nighttime sky at Obon at the Morikami.

It’s the First of July, Canada Day, since it’s the First of the month the newest edition of the ongoing Convivio Book of Days calendar project is now available at our website. This month’s Book of Days calendar has a watermelon theme, because it is that time of year. If you live here in Florida, the truth is a mango theme may be more appropriate… but I am reaching mango saturation point and I don’t know if I can even look at one today. Watermelons seem so much more… patient? I think that’s a good word to describe them… than mangoes. It’s not often you’ll find yourself inundated with watermelons, whereas mangoes, well…. All things in their time, however. Enjoy the watermelons. And if you have a mango tree, don’t worry, chances are it’s almost done bearing fruit for this summer!

Here’s that link once more:
http://www.conviviobookworks.com/Images/July2014.pdf

It strikes me for the first time ever (I can be a little slow, on occasion) that readers of the Convivio Book of Days Blog might be interested in the monthly calendar that I design. It’s printable so you can print it out on standard 8.5″ x 11″ paper (standard in the US, at least) and pin it to your wall. A real wall, with a real pin. We are big on “real” here at Convivio Bookworks.

These monthly calendars are the foundation of the Book of Days project. The first one was in October 2003. You’ll find all of the old calendars at www.conviviobookworks.com in the Book of Days Archive pages. This month’s Book of Days calendar focuses on one of my favorite Shakespearean works, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for this is the month for such dreaming. It’s a month where the traditional reckoning of time gets confusing for people: How can midsummer come at the start of summer? The calendar explains, as will the chapters that will be published this month here on the blog, especially as we get to St. John’s Day, the counterweight to midwinter and Christmas. The year is all about balance in a circular nature. It’s all about seeing things slightly differently. We become better for doing so.

Here’s that link once more:
http://www.conviviobookworks.com/Images/June2014.pdf