Tuesday, 19 February 2013

A month of festivals

Ah February. The cold month. The last month of winter before spring appears.

But things aren't so bad. Some of the best events of the year are in Feb, for instance:

- Valentine's Day
- Pancake Day
- Karneval/Mardi Gras/Fetter Donnerstag
- Chinese New Year
- Imbolc
- 6 Nations Rugby
- The awards season

With the exception of the last two, all these festivals seem to stem around the final gasps of winter and the first signs of spring. A bit of web searching has shown that:

- Valentine: well apparently was a Roman Christian who performed secret weddings but is set in February as the time when birds start to look for mates

- Pancake Day/ start of Lent. Well this is the last opportunity for excess before the last austere, food -short months of winter.

- Carnival: Europe's version

- Chinese New Year: a time to spring clean as the growing season begins (plus a legend of a terrible beast)

- Imbolc: Pagan festival marking the oncoming spring (which has transformed to Groundhog Day in US) and figuring out if the worst of winter is over.

So I learnt something there!

Here's a few pictures from me of the last couple of weeks.

Valentine roses made out of paper by my good self




Tasty, tasty pancakes. I am not a lemon & sugar girl. I like my toppings to be varied, so here you have halloumi with onions, peppers and tomatoes; bacon and maple syrup; apple and cinnamon. Nom!



Winter is not over yet! Still enjoying the odd snow day here in Scotland


 Valentine heaven: where the wine is red and the roses are white.




Me reminiscing over Karneval. Pic of the German celebrations back in 2008.


And now after all this indulgence, Lent begins! Next post coming up............

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