Currently Reading
Find me elsewhere:
24 Festive Tasks: Door 5 - Veterans' / Armistice Day
Armistice Day is commemorated every year on November 11 to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of WW I, which took effect at 11:00 AM – the "eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. The date was declared a national holiday in many allied nations, and coincides with Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth and Veterans’ Day in the U.S., both public holidays. The poppy became the international symbol of the day as a result of its being mentioned in the poem In Flanders Fields by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, which commemorates the fallen soldiers buried under the Flanders poppy fields.
Tasks and Book
Task 1: Using book covers (real or virtual), create a close approximation of your country’s flag (either of residence or birth), OR a close approximation of a poppy. Take a pic of your efforts and post.
Task 2: Make an offer of peace (letter, gift, whatever) to a book character who has particularly annoyed you this year.
Task 3: Tell us: What author’s books would you consider yourself a veteran of (i.e., by which author have you read particularly many books – or maybe even all of them)?
Task 4: Treat yourself to a slice of poppy seedcake and post a photo. If you want to make it yourself, try out this recipe: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/poppy-seed-cake/ … or this one: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1629633/lemon-and-poppy-seed-cake
Book: Read any book involving wars, battles, where characters are active military or veterans, or with poppies on the cover.
(Click "Read More" for the previous days' tasks and books.)
Previous Doors' Tasks and Books
Door 4: Diwali
Task 1: Share a picture of your favorite light display.
Task 2: Cleaning is a big part of this holiday; choose one of your shelves, real or virtual, and tidy / organise it. Give us the before and after photos. OR Tidy up 5 of the books on your BookLikes shelves by adding the CORRECT cover, and/or any other missing information. (If in doubt, see here: http://jenn.booklikes.com/post/1782687/state-of-the-database-booklikes-database-halloween-bingo-and-a-mini-rant-with-pictures).
Task 3: Eating sweets is also a big part of Diwali. Either select a recipe for a traditional sweet, or make a family favorite and share a picture with us.
Task 4: During Diwali, people pray to the goddess Lakhshmi, who is typically depicted as a beautiful young woman holding a lotus flower. Find 5 books on your shelves (either physical or virtual) whose covers show a young woman holding a flower and share their cover images.
Book: Read a book with candles on the cover or the word “candle” or “light” in the title; OR a book that is the latest in a series; OR set in India; OR any non-fiction book that is ‘illuminating’ (Diwali is Sanskrit for light/knowledge and row, line or series)
Door 3: Melbourne Cup Day
Task 1: Pick your ponies! MbD has posted the horses scheduled to race; everyone picks the three they think will finish (in any order).
Task 2: Cup day is all about the hats. Post a picture of your favorite hat, whether it’s one you own or not.
Task 3: The coloring of the “horse of a different color” in the movie version of The Wizard of Oz was created by rubbing the horse’s fur with jello. What’s the weirdest use of jello you’ve ever come across?
Task 4: Have you ever been to or participated in a competition involving horses (racing, jumping, dressage, whatever)? Tell us about it. Photos welcome, too!
Book: About horses or a horse on the cover. Books with roses on the cover or about gardening; anything set in Australia.
Door 2: Guy Fawkes Night
Task 1: Burn a book in effigy. Not that anyone of us would do such a thing, but if you HAD to, which book would be the one you’d sacrifice to the flames (gleefully or not)?
Task 2: List your top 3 treasonous crimes against books. Not ones you’ve committed, but the ones you think are the worst.
Task 3: Share your favorite / most memorable BBQ recollections or recipe, or your favorite recipe of food “flambé” (i.e., doused with alcohol which is then set aflame and allowed to burn off).
Task 4: Find 5 uses of the word “gunpowder” in book titles in contexts other than for blowing up things or shooting people (e.g., Gunpowder Green by Laura Childs = tea).
Book: Set in the UK, political thrillers, involving any monarchy or revolution; books about arson or related to burning.
Door 1: Día de Los Muertos
Task 1: Write a silly poem or limerick poking fun at the fiction character of your choice.
Task 2: Share your favorite gravestone epitaph (you know you have one).
Task 3: Create an altar (either digital or physical) for your favorite book, series, or book character, and post a picture of it. Inclusion of book cover encouraged.
Task 4: If you like Mexican food, treat yourself to your favorite dish and share a photo of it.
Book: Re-read an old favorite from a now-deceased author, a book from a finished (dead) series, or a book set in Mexico.
9 
19 