Word-Wednesday for December 25, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 25, 2024, the fifty-second Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of winter, the fourth Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred sixtieth day of the year, with six days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 25, 2024
Snowy Owl
Nyctea scandiaca, generally nests in the arctic tundra in northern Canada and Alaska, but during hard winters, this large, white raptor comes to the tropics of northern Minnesota to hunt voles, mice, and other small animals. Snowy owls stand about 22 inches high with round heads, no ear tufts, and a black beak standing out on a white face and white to speckled body — depending on the bird. Snowy owls hoot during the nesting season but are otherwise silent.

December 25 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 25 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 25, 2024
Sunrise: 8:16am; Sunset: 4:32pm; 25 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 3:02am; Moonset: 12:55pm, waning crescent, 26% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 25, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             16                     45                     31
Low              -3                   -46                    29

Star Silver
by Carl Sandburg

The silver of one star
Plays cross-lights against pine green.
And the play of this silver
crosswise against the green
is an old story…..
thousands of years.
And sheep raisers on the hills by night
Watching the wooly four-footed ramblers,
Watching a single silver star—
Why does the story never wear out?
And a baby slung in a feed-box
Back in a barn in a Bethlehem slum,
A baby’s first cry mixing with the crunch
Of a mule’s teeth on Bethlehem Christmas corn,
Baby fists softer than snowflakes of Norway,
The vagabond Mother of Christ
And the vagabond men of wisdom,
All in a barn on a winter night,
And a baby there in swaddling clothes on hay—
Why does the story never wear out?
The sheen of it all
Is a star silver and a pine green
For the heart of a child asking a story,
The red and hungry, red and hankering heart
Calling for cross-lights of silver and green.

December 25 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Pumpkin Pie Day
• A’phabet Day or No “L” Day
• Christmas Day

December 25 Word Pun
Wee Fish Ewe a Mare Egrets Moose,
Panda Hippo Gnu Deer!


December 25 Word Riddle
What do you get when you cross a Christmas bell with a skunk?*


December 25 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
CHRISTMAS, n. A day set apart and consecrated to gluttony, drunkenness, maudlin sentiment, gift-taking, public dullness and domestic misbehavior.

    What! not religious? You should see, my pet,
    On every Christmas day how drunk I get!
    O, I'm a Christian—not a pious monk
    Honors the Master with so dead a drunk.


December 25 Etymology Word of the Week
Christmas
/KEIS-məs/ n., the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ's birth, held on December 25 in the Western Church, from "Church festival observed annually in memory of the birth of Christ," late Old English Cristes mæsse, from Christ (and retaining the original vowel sound) + mass (n.2).

Written as one word from mid-14th century. As a verb, "to celebrate Christmas," from 1590s. Father Christmas is attested in a carol attributed to Richard Smart, Rector of Plymtree (Devon) from 1435-77. Christmas-tree in the modern sense is attested by 1835 in American English, rendering German Weihnachtsbaum. Christmas cards were first designed in 1843, popular by 1860s; the phrase Christmas-card was in use by 1850. Christmas present is from 1769. Christmas Eve is Middle English Cristenmesse Even (circa 1300).


December 25 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1 The first Christmas according to calendar-maker and Eastern Roman monk Dionysius Exiguus.
• 337 Earliest possible date that Christmas was celebrated on December 25th.
• 352 The first definite date Christmas was celebrated on December 25th.
• 1223 St. Francis of Assisi assembles first Nativity scene.
• 1621 Governor William Bradford of Plymouth Colony (now in Massachusetts) forbids game playing on Christmas Day.
• 1651 Massachusetts General Court ordered a five shilling fine for "observing any such day as Christmas".
• 1758 Return of Halley's comet first sighted by Johann Georg Palitzsch.
• 1760 Jupiter Hammon, an African American slave, composes poetry broadside An Evening Thought (first poetry published by an African American 1761).
• 1818 First known Christmas carol, Silent Night, Holy Night (Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht), is sung in Austria.
• 1818 Handel's Messiah, premieres in the US in Boston, performed by The Handel & Haydn Society.
• 1902 Clyde Fitch's play The Girl with the Green Eyes premieres.
• 1937 Arturo Toscanini conducts the first Symphony of the Air concert over NBC Radio.

December 25 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1583 Orlando Gibbons, English composer.
• 1601 Jose Ximenez, Spanish composer.
• 1628 Noel Coypel, French painter.
• 1646 Harald Vallerius, Swedish composer.
• 1665 Lady Grizel Baillie (neé Hume), Scottish poet and songwriter.
• 1686 Giovanni Battista Somis, Italian Baroque violinist and composer.
• 1698 Jacobus Houbraken, Dutch engraver and illustrator.
• 1711 Jean-Joseph Cassenea de Mondonville, French composer.
• 1721 William Collins, English poet.
• 1725 Esteban Salas y Castro, Cuban composer.
• 1728 Johann Adam Hiller, German composer.
• 1745 Joseph Bologne, French violinist, conductor, composer.
• 1765 Joseph Mazzinghi, English composer.
• 1771 Dorothy Wordsworth, English poet.
• 1775 Antun Sorkocevic, Ragusan composer.
• 1776 Sydney, Lady Morgan, Irish author and poet.
• 1810 Alexandros Rhizos Rhankaves, Greek poet.
• 1815 Temistocle Solera, Italian opera composer.
• 1821 Clara Barton, American nurse and founder of the American Red Cross.
• 1829 Patrick Gilmore, Irish-born composer.
• 1831 Johann Herbeck, Austrian composer.
• 1856 Hans von Bartels, German painter.
• 1859 Raoul Gunsbourg, French composer.
• 1867 Alfred Kerr [Kempner], German-British writer.
• 1883 Fran Lhotka, Czech composer.
• 1883 Maurice Utrillo, French painter.
• 1890 Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts.
• 1892 Rebecca West [Cicely Isabel Fairfield], English author.
• 1898 Theo Swagemakers, Dutch portrait painter.
• 1903 Antiochos Evanghelatos, Greek classical composer.
• 1906 Herman Jan Scheltema [NEM Pareau], Dutch poet.
• 1907 Cab Calloway, American singer, bandleader, writer.
• 1908 Jan Seidel, Czech composer.
• 1908 Quentin Crisp, English author.
• 1909 Louis van Lint, Belgian painter.
• 1910 David Lichine [Lichtenstein], Russian-American dancer and choreographer.
• 1911 Louise Bourgeois, French American artist.
• 1912 Willian Noel Moffet, Irish architect.
• 1916 Daniel Devoto, Argentine poet.
• 1918 Eddie Safranski, American jazz double bassist.
• 1919 Naushad Ali, Indian composer.
• 1930 Salah Jaheen, Egyptian poet and cartoonist.
• 1938 Duane Armstrong, American painter.
• 1957 Jan Rot, Dutch composer.
• 1968 Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F’tang-F’tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel, Silly Party candidate.
• 1971 Noel Hogan, Irish musician.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• arsis: /ÄR-səs/ n., a stressed syllable or part of a metrical foot in Greek or Latin verse.
• balanism: /BAL-uh-niz-um/ n., the application of a suppository or pessary.
• cafard: /ka-FÄR/ n., depression; melancholia.
• eclosion: /i-KLŌ-zhən  n., an emergence, as from a larva or egg, or of an era or movement.
• flong: /flawng/ n., a temporary paper mold used in relief printing to create a metal stereotype for letterpress printing.
• muezzin: /mo͞o-EZ-(ə)n/ n., a man who calls Muslims to prayer from the minaret of a mosque.
• notchet: /NAH-chuht/ n., a small or insignificant thing or quantity.
• riverine: /RIV-ə-rīn/ adj., relating to or situated on a river or riverbank; riparian.
• spang: /spaNG/ adj., directly; completely.
• yakker: /YACK-uhr/ v., AUSTRALIAN, to work hard; to labor strenuously.

December 25, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Christmas Words
Merry Christmas from Word-Wednesday headquarters, where today we celebrate with some words that may come in handy before, during, or after your holiday festivities. Be of good cheer, and be safe this holiday season.

• belly-cheer: /BEL-ee-cheer/ n., a meal that’s guaranteed to raise a smile, full of rich and unhealthy foods.
• crump: /krəmp/ n., the sound made when walking over semi-frozen snow.
• doniferous: /doh-NIF-er-uhs/ adj., gift-bearing.
• emacity: /ee-MĀ-suh-tee/ n., a fondness for buying things, especially things that aren’t vital or you don’t really need.
• fog-dram: /fôɡ-dram/ n., a drink to clear your head; a shot of whiskey or grain spirit thought to wake you up and add a little pep to your step when the weather is chilly or if you’re recovering from an illness.
• fyole: /FY-ohl/ n., a light covering of snow.
• hogamadog: /HAW-guh-muh-dawg/ n.,  huge ball of snow built up by rolling a small ball of snow around a snowfield.
• kedge-gutted: /KEJ-guh-tid/ adj., made to feel sick through over-indulgence in food
• peck-of-apples: /pek-əv-AP-(ə)lz/ n., a heavy fall on icy ground, literally to ‘drop your apples’, from a nineteenth-century Lincolnshire dialect. A peck is an archaic unit of measurement used to weigh out large quantities of produce equal to around two gallons.
• quaaltagh: /KWAWL-tah/ n., the first person encountered after leaving home, particularly on a special occasion.
• scurryfunge: /SKUH-ree-fuhnj/ v., to quickly tidy up, especially when guests are expected or have arrived unexpectedly
• toe-cover: /tō-KəV-ər/ n., 1940s slang for a cheap or useless present; a reference to the habit of gifting socks.
• whullup: /Po͝o-lup/ v., to bestow gifts upon them in an attempt to curry favor with them, or receive goods in kind that might benefit you or your station, i.e, butter up.
• Yule: /yo͞ol/ n., a winter festival that can refer to the celebration of the winter solstice or to the Christmas season, from an Old Norse word "jol", one of the names given to a twelve-day festival celebrated by the Scandinavian and Teutonic peoples of Northern Europe. It's believed to have its etymology in the word "Jolnir"; one of the names and epithets of the Norse god Odin.
• Yule-hole: /yo͞ol-hōl/ n., the extra hole one makes on one's belt after indulging at Christmas dinner, or over the festive period in general.

From A Year with Rilke, December 25 Entry
Be Comforted and Glad, from Letters to a Young Poet, Rome, December 23, 1903

Is there anything that can take from you the hope of being someday in the God you are helping to create in each attentive act of love?

Please celebrate this Christmas with the earnest faith that He may need this very anguish of yours in order to begin. These very days that are such a trial for you may well be the time when everything in you is working at Him, as once you so urgently did as a child. Be patient and without resentment, and know that the least we can do is to make His Becoming no more difficult than Earth makes it for spring when it wants to arrive. Be comforted and glad.

Be better than yesterday,
learn a new word today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.







*jingle smells.