I'm being a calendar geek. I spent an absurd amount of time tonight putting the HTAZP calendar into a document set up with tables for each Greek month but with a Sunday-Saturday week, because I need at least that familiar framework to hang it all on. This is why the Hellenic Month Established per Athens site, while incredibly helpful, has never entirely worked for me, though I refer to it fairly often and have had it open in a tab all night while working on this project. My brain can't cope with 10-day "weeks," though, even if they're likely more traditional. That and HTAZP uses a slightly different naming system for the months based on the concept that Hellenic city-states would arrange and name their calendar based on their biggest holidays.

The biggest headache-inducer is actually when the day starts (sundown). This is hardly unique, but it's also not the way I've always thought about days and what falls where. So, for example, does it make more sense to map the next Deipnon (sundown Sept 15 through sundown Sept 16) onto Saturday or Sunday? I defaulted to placing the days based on which part we see daylight for. Considering most festivals are daytime deals, not a big issue. But Deipnon and Noumenia are very much nighttime observances, given that they are all about the dark/new moon. So despite the fact I have the next Deipnon planted on a Sunday, I'd really be observing it the night before, and then doing Noumenia that night.

Ah well. If that gives me too much of a headache, I can redo it next year, I guess.

Meanwhile, the next step is going to be to map the Chinese calendar onto it to incorporate Kwan Yin's festivals. Thankfully both are lunisolar and so the months, at least, should map fine. I hope. Famous last words, probably. Not to mention differing ideas of when intercalary months come into play. Project for another day, though. I'm wiped.

So at least one of the topics sahiya gave me got me thinking even after posting my babble. Always a dangerous thing.

Ever since we moved to Connecticut, we've cut way, way back on decorating for any holidays. There's a disgusting mask on the front door that Patsfan put up one Halloween that never came down, and for a few years we had a potted tree that came in the house (or eventually just the front porch) for December, but that's about it.

A lot of that is a combination of space and work, too little and too much respectively. With regard to holidays like Christmas and Easter, there's also Patsfan's cynicism about them and my total shift to not particularly wanting to celebrate them as they're no longer "mine."

But right now, I'm thinking ... why don't I have at least a couple of dolphiny-things to hang up for tomorrow? Granted, there are a couple of dolphin decorations around the place anyway, but it'd be kind of nice to have something that comes out just for Delphinia, for one example.

Maybe I'll collect some of the random dolphins from around the place onto Apollo's shrine for now, and think about what I'd like to create for next year. Maybe a garland of some kind. White with blue dolphins. Could theoretically be made to look like dolphins in surf, if I could work out how, and figure out what sort of material. *ponders*

It's funny, really, the way I make more of Delphinia (celebrating Apollo of the Dolphins) than I do of Thargelia (Apollo's birthday), which by all sanity should be the bigger holiday. Part of that may be the dolphin aspect, and the other part might be that Thargelia is also Artemis' birthday, and I feel no connection whatsoever to Her. In fact, on the odd occasion that I've approached Her, the response has been something along the lines of, "Oh, you. You hang out with my brother, right?" So, um, the lack of much connection (or interest in any connection) seems entirely mutual, at least through my admittedly totally subjective filter.

So, yeah. Thinking about doing more with actually decorating my home for at least the more important (to me anyway) holidays.

So, bluedolfyn just reminded me that I never posted a follow-up on how that ritual went. Thus, here it is. Nutshell version: nervous firefly was nervous, but it all went pretty well anyway.

( TL;DR version )

In other news, I've also started teaching interested temple regulars a very basic bellydance choreo, which we're planning to do for Philokhoria (our Summer Festival). I did warn them I would literally kick their asses, as I included the Suhaila Squats as part of the warm-up. Of course, rusty as I am, I also kicked my own. Ow.

I've been seriously resisting any and all suggestions that I ought to be pursuing clergy work as a thing. I mean, technically, I'm a minister of the Universal Life Church, which has so far led to presiding over one very nonstandard baptism in the past 12 years or whatever it's been, but that's about it. ( Cut for lengthy babble. ) Because part of all this is figuring out Who among my Patrons wants what from me, and what I'm willing and able to commit to. So, um, yeah. That's clearly going to be a major theme this year. Whee!