Author Archives: John Cutrone

Dec 01 2020
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Book of Days Calendar

Dispel the Night, or Your December Book of Days

And now it is December. The nights grow long, and dark. We are taught to fear the darkness, and yet such gorgeousness emerges from it: the twinkling of stars in the distant sky, and the sparkling lights that we toss upon trees and rooflines this time of year to call those stars down here on earth.

Symbolically, we counter the darkness in our ceremonies. Advent begins now with a single illuminated candle in a ring of four; by the Sunday before Christmas, all four candles will be lit. Hanukkah will soon come, too: eight nights, and again, more and more light as we go deeper through those dark nights. Sankta Lucia on the 13th and the brightly burning candles of Christmas Eve, that silent, holy night. Candlelight continues through the Twelve Days of Christmas that follow Christmas Day, and with each night of Kwanzaa, too: each candle representing a principle of heritage. Each candle adding its light to the sum of light.

In this spirit of light comes your Convivio Book of Days calendar for December. It is a printable PDF, and we welcome you to print it, pin it, keep it as a companion to this Book of Days blog. As the month goes on, I will be writing about most of the days listed on the calendar, and then some: each day that follows Christmas Day, for twelve days, has some particular traditional connexion to Christmas. I’ve not yet decided if I’ll be writing a new post each day, as I’ve done in the past, or if I’ll write about several days at a time, for less frequent posts. If any of you have input or suggestions, I’m open. I worry sometimes that twelve posts over twelve days is too much for many folks to take in, but I worry, too, that the significance of days gets forgotten when I write about so many at one time. Whichever way it goes, my wish remains the same: that we each will hide not our light.

Our big Christmas Stock-Up Sale continues at our online catalog. $10 off your purchase of $75 across the catalog, plus free domestic shipping. Or just good old free domestic shipping with your purchase of $50.

 

Nov 28 2020
Advent

Make Our House Fair as We are Able

This weekend, we’ll clean the windows and put an electric candle on the sill inside each to illuminate the night. It’s a winter tradition that Seth brings from his family, and one that has come to signify the start of Advent in this house. Pure white light piercing the darkness; one of the simple pleasures I love about this time of year as we begin our time of expectation for Christmas.

And while we will begin lighting our daily Advent candle and opening each night a window on our Advent calendar on the First of December, the actual Advent season arrives a bit earlier this year: Sunday brings the First Sunday of Advent. The Advent ring is center for each of the four Sundays to come: a ring of four candles in a wreath of pine. In the Catholic tradition, three of the candles are purple and one is rose. Purple, the color of penitence and rose the color of joy. It is a time of expectation and preparation and of making our house as fair as we are able, as a French Advent carol goes… the “house” being not just the literal house but the figurative one, as well: the heart, the soul––the need to feel joy before we start singing all those songs of joy once Christmas actually arrives. And so on this First Sunday of Advent we will light one purple candle. The following Sunday, two purple candles. The Third Sunday, which is called Gaudete Sunday, we light the two purple candles and we add the rose candle, too, as that third week focuses on the joy of anticipation. And finally, on the last Sunday before Christmastime, we light all four candles.

The candle colors vary among traditions. Some denominations use blue and white candles, for instance, others, all white and others, red. But the concept remains the same: that in this time of increasing darkness, as the nights get longer and longer on the road to the solstice of Midwinter, we respond with ever increasing light of our own. If you are religious, it will represent the light of Christ. If you are not, let those candles represent the light within: your own light, your compassion and kindness: Hide not your light under a bushel.

Advent serves another purpose, too: It is part of what we have come to call the Slow Christmas Movement, which to me is about setting the stage to make a proper welcome for the yuletide season that arrives once Christmas Eve begins. But it’s been a tough year, hasn’t it? Lord knows we’ve all set the stage for needing joy over the course of this entire year. You do what’s right for you. Here, we will still follow these old ways, for that is what makes us happiest. What matters is we find joy where we can, and share it with others. That’s the whole point of hiding not your light.

It’s not too late to order from our selection of sparkly Advent calendars from Germany and our daily Advent candles from England! We ship Priority Mail (2 days to most US destinations) AND we’re running a sale: It’s our Christmas Stock-Up Sale: $10 off your purchase of $75 plus free domestic shipping; use discount code STREETFAIR at checkout. Or earn free domestic shipping with your purchase of $50 (no code required). “Yule” find many great gift ideas at our online catalog!

 

Nov 26 2020
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Thanksgiving

The Ragamuffin Thanksgiving

As someone who loves Hallowe’en and who remembers every single costume I ever wore as a boy, I am naturally fascinated by old photos of Hallowe’en costumes and stories of trick or treating. But years ago, when I was old enough to start getting curious about my family’s own stories, I inadvertently stumbled onto a bit of a mystery. I had asked my parents about Hallowe’en costumes and trick or treating when they were kids in Brooklyn, and they both said the same thing: that they didn’t really do much of that for Hallowe’en. Mom, however, piped in that she did remember dressing up and going door to door on Thanksgiving. “Anything for Thanksgiving?” was the phrase the costumed kids uttered when folks opened their doors. When I learned this from Mom, all those years ago, I think I just tucked the information away in my head under a category called That’s Weird, for I had never heard of such a thing, and it was definitely not the answer I was looking for when I had asked the question.

Be that as it may, this strange Hallowe’en-like Thanksgiving tradition, it turns out, was prevalent across the country in the early 1900s, but most especially in New York, where Mom and Dad grew up, and where the word Ragamuffin became associated with the Thanksgiving begging. There was even an annual Ragamuffin Parade. These things would eventually be frowned upon by leaders seeking a more genteel city––an early victim of gentrification. Nowadays, this old Thanksgiving custom is hardly known, faded with other relics of distant memory of that place once known as New Amsterdam.

Lately, I’ve come to learn more about this tradition, mainly through stories I’ve heard in recent years on NPR. The stories all back up my mom’s story, making her experience sound less bizarre. Rather than retell the story myself, I’m going to send you to one of those stories in the archives of the NPR website. Fittingly enough, it’s titled When Thanksgiving was Weird. The story is accompanied by some wonderful photographs. I probably wouldn’t even have thought about it this year were it not for the fact that my friend Jim Hammond, of Florida Day of the Dead fame, mentioned the Ragamuffin tradition recently on a social media post. So thank you, Jim, and thank you, Mom. And thank you to each of you who faithfully reads this blog. It means the world to me that you do. Happy Thanksgiving. May it be weird for you, in only the best way.

Image: Thanksgiving Maskers, circa 1910–1915. Photograph, Bain News Service / Library of Congress.

CHRISTMAS STOCK-UP SALE
Please do keep in mind our big Christmas Stock-Up Sale continues! $10 off your purchase of $75 at our catalog, plus free domestic shipping, makes a savings of $18.50. So many wonderful gifts to choose from, including Mom’s own handmade Millie’s Potholders, some new things from the Sabbathday Lake Shakers that smell incredible (plus their teas and herbs and rose water that taste wonderful), plus sparkly German Advent calendars and handmade British Advent candles, and a brand new shipment of Mexican painted tin ornaments arriving this week. And more, more, more. Your support of our mission on a transactional basis like this means you believe in what we do and in the work of all the artisans we support, too. That’s a powerful thing in these uncertain times.

COME SEE US!
Looks like we WILL be popping up in a safe way this Christmas season! Watch our Facebook and Instagram feeds (@conviviobookworks) for current news of days when we’ll be setting up shop at our favorite Christmas tree lot, Mr. Jingle’s Christmas Trees, in the heart of Downtown West Palm Beach at the corner of Quadrille and Lakeview, just across the tracks from Rosemary Square (formerly known as City Place). Proper address: 419 Lakeview Avenue, West Palm Beach 33401. Current plan is for Convivio Bookworks to be there for the first time this season the weekend of December 5 and 6 (and other days, as well), with a big selection of our Christmas and Advent artisan goods from Germany and Sweden and Mexico, our Shaker herbs and teas, Millie’s Famous Candy Wreaths (and her potholders, too), and more. It’s an open outdoor space so it is as safe as it gets these days, and face masks are required when shopping in our open tent, off to the side of the big tents at Mr. Jingle’s. Get your tree, too, while you’re there, from our pal Brandon Helfer. He knows his trees and will steer you in the right direction. We’ve been getting our Christmas trees from Brandon for years now. He’s a good guy.

 

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