Dear LPG,

I am thinking about all the holidays and celebrations we have missed over the past year.  2020 has proved that although we take many of them with varied sized pinches of salt, they have always given us an excuse to have something relatively positive to look forward to and focus on.  It is so easy to dismiss them and during the past year, even some of the bigger ones have passed us by.   I have to admit the events of last spring resulted in my not even realising that last Easter happened until Good Friday was well and truly over and our recent celebrations were subdued in spite of the lifting of government restrictions over the Christmas holiday. We elders were reminded of the dangers of meeting up and, if nothing else could persuade us, the daily news of the growing numbers of infected people forced us to invoke our own personal restrictions. There is no doubt that this year the cherry on the cake for many was the Christmas that we have just ‘un-experienced’.

I think that this year has taught us that, even though you might be one of those people that rolls your eyes when some of the lesser and more bizarre annual national days roll around each year, in the days when you were able to meet someone in the street and start a bit of a chat, they were often a subject to move on from after having discussed the weather.

Whether you love them or hate them, the missing social aspect of celebrating or even talking about them, often builds up awareness and offers us reasons to discuss some relatively obscure, but also some seriously important subjects. 

All through last year the many people who sent messages to be posted on LPG have helped us to acknowledge some of the most obscure ones; those many celebrations that we roll our eyes at.

So, I ask that contributors keep sending them so that LPG can keep posting those messages about celebration days with the result that readers continue to be provoked to keep discussing them.

There continues to be little idea of when this pandemic will finally pass us by, and any excuse to keep talking should be a welcome distraction if not something to focus on, positively or negatively.  So, even if we have to do it over the phone, let’s get together and celebrate…

OC, Merton.