Authors Electric

 Happy Star Wars Day everyone. How are you planning to celebrate this momentous day? Don’t scoff and declare this a made-up event like National Trivia Day, National Doughnut Day, World Animal Day and National Cookie Day – which happen on the 4 th of January, June, October and December respectively. (I may have inadvertently stumbled on some other topics for blog posts in the future.) Star Wars Day is a very serious affair even celebrated on the International Space Station in 2015. "Just watching @starwars. In space. No big deal." Tweet from NASA In the same year in Ottawa, Canada, the carillon bells inside the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill played "The Imperial March" theme, along with other space related music. The story may take place in a galaxy far, far away but for those who don’t wish to travel you could easily celebrate from the comfort of your own sofa by hosting a watch party with friends far and near. Disney acquired the franchise in 2012 an...

Only the super-organised, the serious prevaricator, or those spending the festivities alone will have time to read much today. And so I'm offering nothing more than a passing thought for anyone who might drop by here. For none of us can escape the reality that the western world is shutting down for a few days. The razzmatazz of shopping and visits to Santa will die down and we have time to eat and drink and play with those we love. Sometimes, as we settle to our feasting, we can almost believe that this is the most important festival in the world. But hold on a minute. What about Diwali? What about Ramadan and Eid? What about Hanukkah? All over the world, we celebrate by eating together. We tell different stories, have different gods, but we all find reasons, regularly, to spend festive time with those we love, and to share food. Those stories, those gods - they help us to make sense of ourselves and why we are here, and why we need each other. They seek to explain the crea...