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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'> extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org] <b>On Behalf Of </b>Anders<br><b>…</b></span><br><br><span style='color:windowtext'>>…</span>Also, equinoxes are beautiful: everything aligns. I think they make the proper holidays, not set by human standards. We should be celebrating equinoxes, perihelions and apehelions. -- <span style='color:windowtext'> </span>Dr Anders Sandberg<span style='color:windowtext'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>Pagan heresy!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>I agree. We almost do the solstices here in the states with our Christmas buying season and our patriotic 4<sup>th</sup> of July celebrating independence from England, but on the latter, I would think the celebration would be after the war was won, rather than the signing of the document that started it. Then we would be celebrating 19 October 1781 as the birth of the nation. I would prefer a different date however: 21 June 1788, when the US constitution was ratified. This would align a patriotic holiday with a celestial event and would call attention of America to the really important event of agreeing on a structure of law, rather than kicking off a war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>We can likewise find reasons to move Christmas to 21 December, or better yet, move New Year’s Day there and leave Christmas where it is for historic purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>We can likewise find good reasons to celebrate at the Autumnal equinox: Magellan set out to circumnavigate the globe in 1519, East and West Germany ratified reunification signaling the end of the cold war in 1990, both of which are good reasons for celebration.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>For the Spring Equinox, we can celebrate Spring Break and the legendary revelry by college students all across the land, the drunken nekkidness for which so many are fondly repentant, the youthful abandonment of propriety to which so many owe their lives. (Anders, do Europeans do wild and crazy Spring Break over there? You should.)<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:windowtext'><o:p> </o:p></span></pre></div></body></html>