This is my 2nd of two reflections for the A to Z 2024 challenge, This will include some thoughts feelings and concerns in no particular order from my foray into all things Holidays. If you would like to see my first reflection which focused on the playlist I amassed from my songs of the day during the challenge click here.
My Theme for the 2023 A to Z challenge was Holidays. The idea behind it started to germinate when I worked at Chase in their Business Fraud department. Each day we my manager would start a chat for all of us working on that day. Each day she would title the chat with a different holiday that was taking place that day. She would choose the Holiday from a list she would find on the internet for that day. I don't remember exactly which one she queued them from, but it was similar to what you would find on National Day Calendar.
Instead of making an alphabetized list of such holidays, I wanted to actually choose holidays occurring on the day the letter was posting. From the start this proved to be problematic. National Autism Awareness Day is April 2nd and autism starts with an A. but April 2nd we featured the 2nd letter of the Alphabet, which is a B. Some worked out just fine, like April 4th was the first day of the United Kingdom's Discover National Parks Fortnight. May need just a little tweaking. Wednesday, April 3rd which is National Film Score Day matched with the letter C, by being described as Cinematic Compositions.
When I get a idea for a theme , I often add to it a few wrinkles. One wrinkle I added was immediately confusing. I decided to not only write about actual made-up holidays, but to also make up 5 of my own. I chose 5 because there are that many vowels in my native tongue. I say immediately confusing because A, the first letter of the alphabet is a vowel, so I made up a holiday, Adult Children Appreciation Day, on the first day of the challenge. It wasn't until the next day that I started chronicling actual holidays like Children's Picture Book Day which I introduced as B is for Books for Children.
Even though I explained the entire concept each day with the same exact disclaimer:
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge.
I still think that doing something different with the vowels was confusing and I don't think I'll attempt that again. I did, however like making up holidays. For Adult Children Appreciation Day I wrote each of my 3 children aged 18 to 24, a letter appreciating, encouraging, and advising them. I plan to do the same the next time Adult Children Appreciation Day Rolls around which will be on April 21st , 2025 (As you know, Adult Children Appreciation Day is always the Monday after Easter). Besides Adult Children Appreciation Day, I also created 4 other Holidays
E was for Wedding Planner Black Friday
I was for Indicted Illinois Governors Day
O was for One More Time and You get a Parade Day
U was for Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day
Speaking of Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day, I tried to mix up my presentations here and there this challenge. This blog used to be 4 different blogs, 2 general interest blogs, 1 vlog, and 1 sports blog. During the challenge I tried to bring in features from some of these blogs to my daily posts. The U post was presented in vlog fashion as a You Tube video of me presenting the day in question. On my M day I posted about National Micro-volunteering Day, but I did so in Frequently Asked Question Format which is a format I have used multiple times before in my blogs. I even had two holidays regarding sports for S and T.
I completed the challenge this year. What I try to do is predate my entry so it drops at the time that reflects that day's date. For example my A post dropped at 4:01 A.M. on April 1st. Some days I had to manually post later that day. On one occasion I posted minutes before midnight. I was never late and I was never early each post dropped on the correct day.
I didn't drop in on every blog but I did visit quite a few, I received 90 comments on my blog in April and I feel like I may have left that may comments myself. Next year I'll try to keep track. I discovered 3 new blogs during the challenge that I have been following, they are Hot Dogs and Marmalade, The Versesmith, and Backsies is What There is not. I am giving them all a try out on one of my blogrolls along with the The Curry Apple Orchard, which was my favorite blog to follow during the challenge. Now that the challenge is over I hope to pore through every reflection and discover some more blogs worth following,
Before I put this reflection to bed, and me with it, I have a couple of final thoughts.
- The end of the school year is fast upon us, and the middle school where I am a building sub, is basing their end of the year countdown with theme days from the holiday of that day. What a fantastic idea, I wish I had done something like that for the challenge. Oh wait, I did!
- In my Theme Reveal this year, I mentioned how my theme for 2024 was supposed to be Chronicles of Narnia related. My plan is to reread all the books this year, as I do most every year but did not do in 2023, and have that be my 2025 A to Z theme.
