Between grading, posting grades, and preparing for the MLA (which, mercifully, will be moving into January to ease the alienation), the whole holiday season gets short shrift. I can't even imagine how it is for friends and colleagues who celebrate Hanukkah, who must juggle holiday and final examinations. So I've decided that English faculty members round the world need to embrace Twelfth Night as their anchor point for the holiday season. Besides the clear Shakespearean references that can be exploited, Twelfth Night offers at least 14 days of free and clear holiday preparation after final grades are submitted. Moreover, academics (always in a state of genteel poverty--as one favorite graduate school professor described) could exploit "day after Christmas" sales to stretch their dollars. Integrate king's cake and wassail into the mix and we could have quite a festive holiday.
So friends, expect not Christmas cards from me. Oh no! If you get a card, it shall be a Twelfth Night card, mailed on January 2.
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