JULY MONTHLY CHALLENGE
Celebrations Around the World — the Finale
The editors announce their favorite stories about festivities
What a month it has been and I can barely believe July is gone already. It’s been a hot summer so far not only in Germany but most of Europe. While festivals and gatherings are finally back up on the stage, we were indulging in stories of celebrations in the past.
From celebrating the teething of a child, over countless celebrations of the National Day up to the final honoring of a long passed person, we had them all. All parts of life were covered in this month’s story responses to the writing challenge.
I would like to celebrate the writers who made an effort of writing down their memories of celebrations around the world together with authentic pictures and photographs documenting the experiences.
We appreciate you and every single submission we received toward the challenge.
The one thing that might have been missed in a long list of celebrations was a birthday party which is why I chose the above picture. This is how skydivers celebrate their own or a friend’s birthday. By getting together and holding hands in the sky.
The above picture was indeed the celebration of a friend’s birthday back in 2021.
But enough talking, let’s get to the point. Who impressed the editors the most?
Anne Bonfert
Once again, our writers didn’t make the prize-giving easy. We received such a variety of stories on celebrations from all around the world. I must admit, I loved them all.
Jillian Amatt‘s piece of celebrating the Millenium in Fiji made me think back to when and where I was in life when we turned from 1999 to 2000. And I do remember, I was in the mountains, in the snow.
Kade "Kuma" Maijala made me laugh and cry at the same time when he told his story of experiencing a Chinese wedding from the inside. He was the best man in a celebration in a foreign culture.
But in the end, it was one of the last stories coming in that made me think “this is the one”. My favorite one made me think back at not one specific day but several Christmas days spent together with my parents and grandparents.
While I didn’t grow up in a communist country as Janin Lyndovsky did, my parents did and that might be the reason why many of her described traditions were the same in my home.
Also, Janin speaks about the joy of appreciating the small things in life and how stressful Christmas celebrations are these days in the world. Since the old way and reason for celebrating this day has changed, I stopped celebrating it. I do not feel connected to the consumerism of this holiday and rather cherish my childhood memories.
Thank you, Janin, for reliving my memories and sharing your wonderful experiences of a white Christmas in Poland. It was a joy reading your lines.
“The best Christmas gift is to realize how much you already have.” — Unknown
Adrienne Beaumont 🇦🇺
Well, I’ve read them all and loved them all! Some of them I hadn’t even considered as celebrations as they’re such an ordinary part of life for me — Christmas, Easter, marriages — I’ve had a couple of these; funerals — not one of these yet; so I immediately thought of festivals and celebrations with fireworks — Independence Day in the USA, Australia Day here, Songkran in Thailand, Holi in India and Eid in Pakistan. But you gave us so many more weird and wonderful stories.
My top pick goes to Ryan Frawley with his story We’re All the Same When the Lights Go Out.
“Up and down the pavement, the people of the town stroll. Taking in the music and the ever-shifting light, watching the sky change from bright ceramic baby blue through what my Midlands upbringing would call Wedgwood to an oceanic evening shade that lets the stars burn through it.”
Makes you want to read more, no? Well, for me, it did. Congratulations, Ryan. You may be a professional writer but in my opinion, you’re a damn good one.
And my runner-up prize goes to Kim Baker for her story of the Turkish Teething Ceremony. What a fun read!
“After an appropriate amount of time was given to eat and be merry, the ceremony began. The baby was covered with a veil, kind of like the one that covers the bride’s face in a traditional wedding, wheat was sprinkled on top of his head for good fortune, and he was put in front of various objects. His part in the ceremony was to pick up one of the objects and that would be an indication of what he is going to be when he grows up.”
Wouldn’t that be a good thing to know? I think I’d be encouraging my babies to be physiotherapists or solicitors! 😊
Thank you to both Anne Bonfert And JoAnn Ryan for their wonderful celebration stories. You prompted some others to write about their experiences too.
So, congratulations to everyone who participated in the challenge. I hope you enjoyed writing them as much as we enjoyed reading them.
JoAnn Ryan
Don’t know about you, but I enjoyed reading about all the different celebrations our writers chose to illustrate through words for us. In total, we received 26 submissions. All were quite fabulous in their own way and every single one had something new to present and teach.
Reading Darren Weir’s celebration stories are a true treat as well as those by Jillian Amatt — Artistic Voyages. What fantastic travel storytellers! Osan Fernando has a knack of writing about some of my very favorite places on Earth, like Las Vegas and New York City, so those stories were fun to read as well.
I enjoyed reading about celebrations in Canada, Easter across the oceans, Oktoberfest and little-known celebrations (to me anyway) like Navratri. And speaking of little-known celebrations, I absolutely loved reading Kim Baker’s story of the Turkish Teething Ceremony.
I already wrote a couple of times about how much I enjoyed Janin Lyndovsky’s story “Christmas — The Same Festival Yet So Many Ways to Celebrate”, so glad Anne chose that one or it might just have gone over the top there, lol. So, I decided to choose this awesome story:
The photos alone were awesome enough, but then reading about having to kidnap the bride and bribe the family, and other such things, made this an exceptionally fun read. And so, I thank Kade “Kuma” Maijala for that!
Thank you so much to all of our fantastic celebration storytellers!
Gerald Sturgill
For me, my favorite story this month had to be Kade "Kuma" Maijala and being the best man at a Chinese wedding. I also enjoyed Darren Weir’s story about Holi. Some more honorable mentions for the stories this month go to Michelle Y. Kwak for her one-year anniversary of living in her car. I can definitely personally relate to this one a lot. I also enjoyed Kim Baker’s story about the Turkish teething ceremony and a couple of Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages’s celebration stories including the Fiji story and the Moroccan Ramadan celebration. Jill and Chris were so strong for making it through Ramadan as most Westerners would probably not be able to do that. All of the stories were great this month and I enjoyed each one of the stories but these are the ones that stood out most for me this month. I didn’t write my own celebration post this month because I wrote one back in June in a different publication and I’m not much of a celebration traveler personally.
Your editors have also been busy writing down their own experiences on festivities and tried to inspire you to write your own.
JoAnn Ryan brought a different light onto the topic talking of her own childhood where celebrations weren’t allowed. She’s sharing the advice of “never take your freedom to celebrate for granted.” Only later in life, she was allowed to join the fun and also speaks about her experience of celebrating Christmas in New York.
Adrienne Beaumont says she hates crowds and festivals but still shares of memory of celebrating the 4th of July in Guam, a US territory. The celebration was probably a bit different from most other independence parties but it was an entertaining read for sure.
I (Anne Bonfert) also stepped in sharing a few of my previous experiences on different occasions and started the challenge with a funeral celebration in Ghana. I shared another event I experienced in the West African country when I was able to dance in a church.
I spoke about walking in on an independence celebration in Namibia without knowing it was happening and celebrating the arrival of the Thai New Year, Songkran.
Here we go, once again thank you to all the participating writers who gifted us with their lovely stories. We appreciate your writing and engagement.
If you haven’t read the stories of celebrations around the world just yet, I’m making it easier for you to go through them. Here is the list of each and every article submitted in July toward the challenge.
With this post, the writing challenge is officially closed while we still accept your stories on celebrations as a normal submission in case you missed writing yours.
Stay tuned for the upcoming writing challenge in August!
Michelle Y. Kwak with “Celebrating My One Year Anniversary Of Living In A Car”
Darren Weir with “Holi: An Explosion of Color”
Rachael Bao with “What I Learned Getting Married in an Airforce Hangar with 57 other couples”
Kade "Kuma" Maijala with “I Was the Best Man in a Chinese Wedding”
Sandy Maximus with “Navratri (or Nine Nights) Festival”
Ronald Smit with “Canadian cultural celebrations!”
CatHERine with “The Most Unusual Cultural Celebration I Ever Experienced was at a Cemetery”
Marcia Gage with “Día de Los Muertos: Mexico’s Most Endearing Holiday”
Osan Fernando with “The Longest Lenten Procession In The Philippines”, “Celebrating Thanksgiving Day And Lighting Of The Christmas Trees In New York” and “Celebrating Four Decades of Friendship In Las Vegas And Grand Canyon”
Ryan Frawley with “We’re All the Same When the Lights Go Out”
Jerry Dwyer with “We Celebrate Easter Across the Oceans in the Spring”
Kim Baker with “Turkish Teething Ceremony: Fun, Delicious and Useful!”
Julie van Maanen with “When The Last Thing I Wanted To Hear Was ‘Alegria’(Happiness)”
Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages with “Fiji for the Millenium”, “A Graduation Celebration in Bulgaria” and “Celebrating the Strangest Ramadan In Morocco”
Janin Lyndovsky with “Christmas — The Same Festival Yet So Many Ways to Celebrate”
Sanghita Pal with “The Musical Santhals — Artists Par Excellence by Birth”