Botched That One, Lets Do It Again.

"Whatever you do today will set the tone for the rest of your year."This is the text I received from Shelley a few days ago. I thought thatmaybe she had opened a fortune cookie or she had just simply lost it.Not too quick to judge though, I called in for an explanation.Apparently it was some kind of religious holiday in western Ukraine,and because it was a tone setter Shelley's school would not let her doany laborious work. Every day seems to be some kind of a holiday. Thereare name days, national holidays, regional holidays, religiousholidays, etc. Then normally there is the day before and after thatrequires rest and preparation for the holiday. All in all, maybe 2/3rdsof the year is spent celebrating and in some cases, this day being one,no one can really explain why that particular day is what it is, otherthan thats just how its always been. I love holidays. I love history. I love the history of holidays. So, Iwent to a few Ukrainian friends of mine and inquired about this day. Noone knows or understands why its that day. I thought it would make moresense to have this day on New Years Day because thats the first day ofthe year and most people have traditions to set the tone of the year. Iexplained this to my friends and they told me that they ALSO have thesetraditions on New Years Day. There is also a similar day in July thatsets the tone for the rest of the year. So, which one of these holidays supercedes the other? I guess so thatjust in case you botch one of these days you have a fail safe to rescuethe rest of your year.