{"id":91204,"date":"2009-12-16T13:36:49","date_gmt":"2009-12-16T18:36:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2009\/12\/16\/sustainability-putting-the-community-back-in-the-holidays\/"},"modified":"2009-12-16T13:36:49","modified_gmt":"2009-12-16T18:36:49","slug":"sustainability-putting-the-community-back-in-the-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/91204","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability:  Putting the Community back in the Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/files\/2009\/12\/swedishsing_4737.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1722\" src=\"http:\/\/go635254.s3.amazonaws.com\/inspiredeconomist\/files\/2009\/12\/swedishsing_4737.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"221\" \/><\/a>We arrived just as the sun was setting over the rolling, snow-covered hills of southwestern Wisconsin, an auburn glow fading as the sun became masked by clouds rolling in from the west.<span> <\/span>My family, including my mom, passed through the doors of the red, 5,500 square foot, barn-like Farwell Hall of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.folklorevillage.org\">Folklore Village<\/a>, located just outside Dodgeville.<span> <\/span>We were here to usher in the holidays by celebrating Saint Lucia\u2019s Day one day early (in Sweden, it\u2019s held on December 13).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Greeted by Melissa Leef, our convivial host and guide for the afternoon\u2019s Swedish Sankta Lucia program, my family planned on staying for their community potluck, a St. Lucia candlelight ceremony with a singing performance by costumed children, and an evening of dance (with the guidance of a dance instructor-caller) later that evening.<span> <\/span>The evening program turned out to be a blend of the traditional rural Wisconsin \u201chouse party\u201d \u2013 for which we host at least once a year at our <a href=\"http:\/\/www.innserendipity.com\">Inn Serendipity <\/a>\u2013 and small town community gatherings common among church or other social groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">With all the talk of sales, black Friday, Cyber Monday, and such, the program offered by the Folklore Village harkened to a time where the holidays we\u2019re less about stuff and more about love, sharing, and <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.sustainablog.org\/book-review-pat-murphys-plan-c-means-community-and-curtailment\/\">community<\/a>.<span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/inspiredeconomist.com\/2009\/12\/16\/sustainability-putting-the-community-back-in-the-holidays\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read more of this story &#187;<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/inspiredeconomist\/com\/~4\/SfkRh7jn6e0\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We arrived just as the sun was setting over the rolling, snow-covered hills of southwestern Wisconsin, an auburn glow fading as the sun became masked by clouds rolling in from the west. My family, including my mom, passed through the doors of the red, 5,500 square foot, barn-like Farwell Hall of the Folklore Village, located [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91204\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}