Originally Posted by pedrok:
“Agreed. The first half of the year, other than Easter, is just a slow build up. At the end of June there are summer holidays to look forward too, by the end of August the nights are noticeably getting darker, then there is Halloween and Bonfire night, and by that time the Christmas adverts are on the telly, the music channels have started the Christmas songs and Christmas is almost here!!!”
I have several counters during the year that make up my yearly countdown. I detest January, God knows why we spend so much time giving up energy and wasting booze to celebrate the start of a New Year which could end up worse than the one just gone! My saying about New Year is "same shit, different date!" I'm always happiest when Easter has arrived because I like Easter. It's a nice time of the year because the grimmest part of the year is over and the best is yet to come! So my first counter is Easter.
Then it's the Eurovision Song Contest. I'm always amazed at how quickly it seems to come around, and even now, this year's has been and gone. My third counter is the May Bank Holiday at the end of the month because it is marking the end of public holidays until August. Then it's the end of the school year. I always think "The kids only went back a couple of weeks ago!" and yet, before you know it, they're breaking up for the long summer holiday. Then it's the August Bank Holiday. Whether it's at the beginning of the month like it is in Scotland, or at the end, it symbolises the start of the new academic year and the arrival of Autumn.
My next main counter is "The Last Night of the Proms" because this really is like a last hurrah to all that came before and the beginning of darker nights and all the anticipation of the oncoming end of year events.
Following that, it's just a matter of five minutes between September ending and Halloween, but my next counter point is The Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall. This is such a poignant and memorable part of the year that even if it's different by way of acts and performances, it remains the same. But of course, before the festival of remembrance and to take us nearly into December, is claires_dad's guess the cover competition.
Then it's December before we know it and dare I say it, the anti-climactic reveal of the RT cover and it's predictable listings of the predictable schedules and Christmas is here, with the next years Countdown Thread already in full bloom!