{"id":13527,"date":"2017-12-29T17:34:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-29T23:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=13527"},"modified":"2017-12-29T17:34:31","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T23:34:31","slug":"a-special-holiday-tradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/12\/29\/a-special-holiday-tradition\/","title":{"rendered":"A Special Holiday Tradition"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a bookworm growing up, who honors his past more in the breach than the practice, I was delighted to run across this LinkedIn<\/strong><\/em> article<\/a> by Glenn Leibowitz:<\/p>\n

The folks in Iceland, by contrast, observe a very different gift-giving tradition. Rather than obsess over exchanging electronic gadgets, DNA testing kits, and Keurig Coffee Makers, they give each other more entertaining, and also more intellectually and emotionally enriching items: Books. …<\/p>\n

Icelanders\u2019 devotion to reading is most evident in a remarkable tradition they observe: Between September and November, publishers launch a book publishing tsunami known as the Jolabokaflod<\/em>, which in English translates roughly into the \u201cChristmas Book Flood.\u201d The annual Flood kicks-off with the printing of the Bokatidindi, <\/em>a catalog of new publications distributed free to every Icelandic home, courtesy of the Iceland Publishers Association (of course).<\/p>\n

On Christmas eve, Icelanders exchange books as gifts and then spend the night reading them, often while drinking hot chocolate or alcohol-free Christmas ale called j\u00f3labland<\/em><\/a>. \u201cThe culture of giving books as presents is very deeply rooted in how families perceive Christmas as a holiday,\u201d Kristjan B. Jonasson, president of the Iceland Publishers Association, told NPR<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Totally lovely. A devotion to books, particularly a variety, is a devotion to knowledge, a sign of the importance of wondering, thinking, answering, and coming up with more questions – the marks of nations devoted to tolerance, peace, and wisdom.<\/p>\n

I received a book on how to cook and a book on cities over the holidays, and I’m frantically trying to keep up with all my other reading as well. I hope you are doing as well – or better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a bookworm growing up, who honors his past more in the breach than the practice, I was delighted to run across this LinkedIn article by Glenn Leibowitz: The folks in Iceland, by contrast, observe a very different gift-giving tradition. Rather than obsess over exchanging electronic gadgets, DNA testing kits, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13528,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13527\/revisions\/13528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}