Do the Holidays Influence Your Blog

December is ripe with holidays from several religions and cultures. Has any of the celebrating come to your blog? Some bloggers adopt a new color scheme (red and green or blue and silver). Others add holiday music that plays on page loading. I've even seen my mouse pointer turn into Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

So tell me, A to Z bloggers, who among you is bringing the holiday spirit (or anti-spirit in some cases)?

• Where can I click to find kittens in Santa hats?
• Has anyone done a book review guide on the best eight books to give this Hanukkah?
• Is there a craft blog with instructions to make a shimekazari for Omisoka?
• Is there a recipie for a Kwanzaa dish?
• Any blog posts out there with tips on what card to send to my favorite atheist scientist?
• How about a list with the very best movies to watch this month?
• Is anyone posting about the best games?
• What about the mythology behind all the December celebrations?
• Who has the best history post about the Greek letter "Chi"?
• Is there a web comic to explain Boxing Day to Americans?
• Any lifestyle bloggers giving insight to the fasting, introspection and prayer that takes place during Ramadan?
• Is there a great personal blog out there with posts about what a certain holiday means to that blogger?
• Which photography blog has the best pictures of the Rockefeller Center tree, and which has the most unique pictures of another December icon?
• Have any of you poetry bloggers written a poem to celebrate Our Lady of Guadalupe?
• Has there been a travel blog post showcasing a Saturnalia traditions?
• How many writers out there have a sale special going in December? (Perhaps a naughty special from the Adult Content bloggers?)

The holidays in December are a wonderful time to explore our diversity and to show the very best parts of our religions and cultures. Be good to each other this month. And please share some links to entertain me!


by J Lenni Dorner
Reference and Speculative Fiction Author
A to Z Challenge Co-Host
Operation Awesome Debut Author Spotlight Organizer

June, the Love and Marriage Month

We're nearly halfway through 2015, time flying by as it tends to do. Have you written more than half the posts you'll produce for the year. Probably yes if you survived April.

June if a favorite month of mine. As a teacher, of course, it meant the start of summer break. But it's so much more than that. It's the month my oldest son was born, the month of my anniversary, the birthdays of two my sisters and generally considered a time for romance and marriage.

There will be weddings galore and many of us will be invited to at least one. The name June comes

Juno

from the Roman Goddess Juno, Juno was the goddess of marriage, pregnancy and childbirth. So which came first, the name of the month or all the weddings during the month? I think the name.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." William Shakespeare

But June isn't know just for marriage. June 6th was D-Day, marking the day when 160,000 Allied troops landed on be beaches of Normandy. A day to be marked forever.

June 14th is Flag Day in the USA representing the date when in 1777 when the Continental Congress accepted the design made by Betsy Ross for the fledgling US Navy as our national flag. My oldest son was born on June 14th but we didn't name him 'Old Glory.'

June's birthstone is the pearl, which was once thought to be a cure for insanity. So wear those pearl earrings just to be on the safe side.

Today, June 17th, is Bunker Hill Day in Suffolk County in Massachusetts, marking the battle at said hill during the siege of Boston in 1775. Not a widely noticed holiday but it was an important day.

Tomorrow, June 18th, marks the start of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting where followers do not eat from sunrise to sunset each day.

June 21st is Father's Day and the Summer Solstice. My husband is always thrilled on that day when our five boys come over to play all day. Maybe even a golf outing. I love that longest day of the year but I don't like how our hours of sun start to shorten again after ward. And for those long summer nights, here's some wisdom from The Old Farmer's Almanac. The warmer the temperature, the faster a cricket chirps.

"The summer night is like a perfection of  thought."  Wallace Stevens, American poet

Is there a June highlight I missed? Do you wear pearls and if so, are they keeping you sane? Why are there so many weddings in June? Are you number of posts for 2015 well past the halfway number for this year?