Advent Blog Day 24: A Very Merry Jolabokaflod and a Happy Twelfth Night

So I thought I would write about two things here, since they both relate to Christmas Eve. In Iceland on Christmas Eve, they celebrate Jolabokaflod. No I don't know how to pronounce that. It means Christmas Book Flood. Every year the publishers put out the bokatindindi - a don't know how to pronounce that either. It's a catalogue of all the books published in Iceland that year. So think of this - the publishers join together to publish ONE catalogue that is FREE and it goes out to EVERY household a couple of months before Christmas. It blows my mind. They're actually co-operating with each other. And it works. You see, Christmas Eve is all about giving and reading books. In my family I gave my children pajamas for Christmas but there they give books. Okay, the best, would be to give a box or basket filled with pajamas, slippers or slipper socks, a book or series of books, a blanket, and some eating and drinking goodies - cookies, chocolates, crackers, cheese, wine for those who drink wine, hot chocolate or cider for kids, tea or coffee for those who like hot drinks. And THEN people go curl up somewhere and READ BOOKS all night. I could do this. Although I work until 10 pm Christmas Eve. But there's no church services to go to

this year. No family to gather with and play games and laugh. So it's something I could do. Now it would be nice to be with family doing this - or with a nice man to cuddle with while we both read our own books, but I can do it curled up by my fireplace and my Christmas tree. I probably won't read the book I'm currently reading because somehow reading about Ronan Farrow exposing Harvey Weinstein doesn't give me warm Christmas feelings. So likely I'll crack open one of my many Christmas novels. Either that or a murder mystery.

All right second thing - the twelve days of Christmas does not start twelve days before Christmas. It starts on Christmas Day and ends on Jan 5 Epiphany Eve which is the last day of the Christmas season. It's often referred to as Twelfth Night - which is also a Shakespeare play by the way which was performed on the Twelfth Night celebrations. People end the Christmas season way too soon. I always try to go to Ukrainian Christmas which is January 6. Then the tree supposedly gets taken down (actually it really doesn't and will often last until February because I'm lazy). Apparently it's bad luck to leave the decorations up after that which might explain a few things. I know some people take down their tree on Boxing Day. I don't get it. At least wait until after New Years. Anyway, this where wassail comes in. It's a punch. And there's a cake with a bean and a pea baked into it. A man who finds the bean becomes king for the night. The lady who finds the pea becomes queen. Which makes me wonder - what if a man finds the pea and a lady finds the bean? Or what if the pea and bean are found by men, or by women? Another thing I don't get. And people dress up in weird costumes, and masters become servants and servants become masters and there's all kinds of cavorting to be had. All right so on January 5 you can guzzle punch, eat cake, while sitting under your Christmas Tree wearing a crown and a weird costume and watch a version of Twelfth Night.

Oh, and since we're talking about the Twelve Days of Christmas - I wrote a book called that, based on the song. Yes, I know you know, but it's required to be annoying when you're an author. It's not too late to buy this for Christmas since it's digital and you'll have it instantly! So there you go, something to read for Jolabokaflod. Oh, and if you want to- you could read a chapter each day because that coincides with the 12 days.