How I Spent My Holiday In 200 Words

[Maribeth Seagers]

Thelongest night is left behind, and even though many of the beautiful places in the world are covered in snow (hopefully not overheated because of climate change), we have only a couple of months until the first days of spring. So why not dream a little bit of sunny days on the beach?

Juilletistes is a special French word expressing the French who prefer July as their vacation time instead of August. Weird enough, there is also a French word for people who go on vacation in August, aotiens.

Having enough time to rest is important, especially for relatively southern European countries. You can observe it obviously when you visit Italy or Spain, since after 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. you can hardly find a restaurant or even a cafe to have a meal. They close earlier and mostly enjoy their siesta hours, which can never be sacrificed, even at the cost of disappointing their customers.

In 1973, Aotien became the first word to appear in the official Larousse dictionary, followed by juilletiste in 1990. Aotiens have historically been miners and factory workers because August is typically associated with workplace closures. Juilletistes, on the other hand, were largely white-collar workers who had more control over their vacation schedule.

I just wanted to resemble the warmest days to warm your hearts with the help of French culture. How nice for a society to keep some special words for the time of the holidays. How light and sensitive.

But I still believe such delicacy is quite necessary to keep humanity durable against any circumstances, just like the effect of art, which gives us the spiritual endurance to protect our soul and heart even in the most cruel times.

Juilletistes is a special French word expressing the French who prefer July as their vacation time instead of August. Weird enough, there is also a French word for people who go on vacation in August, ao\u00FBtiens.

My husband is in a small town in North Italy now for a business trip, and he\u2019s quite surprised at the over-calm lives of the local people, who even state that they close their restaurants during most of the summer. It\u2019s surprising for us since this is not the case in Turkey, as well as many other places around the world.

In 1973, Ao\u00FBtien became the first word to appear in the official Larousse dictionary, followed by juilletiste in 1990. Ao\u00FBtiens have historically been miners and factory workers because August is typically associated with workplace closures. Juilletistes, on the other hand, were largely white-collar workers who had more control over their vacation schedule.

Of course, sometimes it makes me think that some people can have the time and mood to think of such \u201Cseemingly luxurious\u201D things, which would only be a faraway fairy tale for many people struggling under the conditions of war or poverty in other areas of the world.

Thank you for taking the time to accompany me in the story of a new word. Every word of the world\u2019s languages is also ours, belonging to humanity while giving us an essence of the culture in which it was rooted.

On the 28 of December 2022, My family and I went for a vacation in the village, we traveled by sea, it was such an amazing journey, but I was a little terrified, because when another boat passes a little close to ours, it will generate a lot of waves that made our boat to bounce on the water. Whenever that happened, I always freaked out. The journey, though, was fun; I saw lot of fishes swimming in the water.

Our trip to the village was a short one, it was a 30 minutes trip from our take off point, Coconut Estate, to my village; the name is lbimieari (Land where good happens in my native Ibani language). Finally, we arrived at our village and some people came and assisted us carry our luggages out from the boat to the shore.

We were warmly welcomed by the villagers and some friends. They were all surprised to see me, and welcomed me specially. Probably because it has been a long while I visited the village. Our house in the village is a duplex. One crazy experience I had in the village was to light firewood; this was what we used in cooking our meals in the village. To be honest, it is one thing I will never forget because it was new to me.

But one bad thing was that there was no transportation except trekking. It was fun, though, because it was my first time to experience such life, and by the both sides of the road were much bushes and trees. We took lot of pictures and made so many videos on our way, my friend was telling us stories on how snakes and other animals do come out from the bush.

The first day of January 2023 was such a remarkable one, and at the same time it was stressful because I spent all day in the kitchen with my mother. My father bought a live goat and paid some villagers to kill it. We prepared lots of food that day; we prepared rice and stew, pepper soup, and a special goat head pepper for the elders, cassava leaf soup. It was actually my first time to eat cassava soup, and it was so nice.

We had so many visitors, they all ate and drank, then one of our uncle that leaves in front of our house turned on his music, making everywhere lively and enjoyable for everyone, they all danced and had fun that day. And another interesting and equally scary part was when a masquerade came into our house in the village. I was so scared. And then, another one that I enjoyed was the fruit I leaked; udara and coconut I ate.

I really enjoyed my stay in the village, finally on the 6th of January marked the end of our stay in the village, we left the village by 3:30pm, and we arrived Bonny by 4pm. Everybody in our compound was so happy to have us back, we were welcomed and some helped us to carry our bags inside. That was how I spent my Christmas holiday.

Ann Hart, student of Mass Communication of Captain Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt and indigene of Ibimieari Community in Bonny LGA, wrote in from Bonny Island, Rivers State.

And after all that time spent on holiday presents decor, it's no wonder your camera roll is filled with cute shots of your family in coordinating outfits (and pictures of all those presents you spent hours wrapping). Don't let those pics get lost in your phone, print them in a holiday-inspired photo book, or hang them on your wall with Canvas Wall Tiles. And if you love saving your favorite memories from every month, print 30 pictures each month with a Monthbooks subscription.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- Gallup's November update of Americans' 2015 holiday spending intentions finds U.S. adults planning to spend $830 on Christmas gifts this year, on average. That is up sharply from the $720 recorded a year ago, and is significantly higher than what consumers have indicated in any November since 2007.

Although the average amount all Americans expect to spend is $830, the figure rises to $908 when excluding those who won't spend anything -- or, in other words, when limited to U.S. Christmas shoppers.

Gallup's initial measure of 2015 holiday spending plans, conducted in October, also showed consumers poised to splurge this Christmas, as that month's $812 average spending figure was the highest Gallup had seen in any October since 2007. The consistency between the two months is a bit unusual, as Gallup typically finds Americans scaling back their spending plans between October and November.

According to Gallup's modeling of how prior years' spending forecasts compare with the final November-December retail sales figures for each year, Americans' latest Christmas spending data point to an estimated increase of between 5.1% and 5.8% in U.S. holiday retail sales. This forecast is based on historical comparisons of Gallup November spending estimates to the U.S. Census Bureau's GAFO (General Merchandise, Apparel and Accessories, Furniture and Other Sales) retail sales estimates.

Even at the low end, the predicted range of increased holiday spending would be a considerable improvement over the past decade, when retail sales increases have had a hard time exceeding 3%, and even decreased during the worst of the 2007-2009 economic slump.

Regardless of whether Americans follow through with their higher spending intentions, the fact that they are in the mood to do so is a positive sign for the nation's retailers at the end of a slow year. Until now, overall consumer spending has been rather anemic according to U.S. Commerce Department data, typically rising by not much more than 1% in any month this year. However, the latest available GAFO data from September -- which are more indicative of the types of purchases Americans make at Christmas -- showed an increase of 2.4%. If that holds in the October report, an increase of 5% or more by November and December may not be unreasonable, particularly in light of continued lower gas prices.

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