epulation, n. ‘A feasting or feast’ (Webster 1828) (pronounced ep-ye-LAY-shen).
Something awesome that my mom does is prepare a Thanksgiving meal. In the Spring. What?!
She goes all out–turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, ribbon salad, all of our favorites–she doesn’t leave any behind. Sometimes she invites family to make it a feast to remember; sometimes it’s just us. This year, she cooked it especially for Charity and me when we returned from our epic trek around the globe, figuring we’d be missing good old American food (we were!).
But why in the spring? Well, since we eat all that stuff in the winter, often back-to-back with all the family dinners and such, we’re having all those awesome once-a-year goodies in a condensed period of time, so basically only for a month of the year.
It’s not like it’s bad for you either. I mean, turkey is a lean meat those health nerds are always saying you should have more of (okay, maybe not with the gravy and butter and stuff, but still…)! So why not enjoy it year-round? Not enough to get sick of it, of course, just one other time about halfway in between. Besides, by the time warm weather shows up, that food starts to sound mighty good all over again.
And, if those arguments weren’t enough, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with having two days of gratitude instead of one!
Anyhow, there is a point to this rambling (believe it or not!): we may not have viking celebrations or medieval feasts in the archaic sense of the word anymore, but there is still ample opportunity to make use of “epulation”!
Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, open houses, weddings, family dinners, birthdays of course, and spring Thanksgivings.
I was going to say that my favorite epulations are the ones where there is cake. But then I realized that all of the above are pretty awesome.
What’s your favorite? Do you have any special traditions revolving around feasts in your family? Leave us a comment with your most loved epulation!
Photo creds: cbaquiran from Pixabay.
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