28/01/2022
Validation Day @ Ängsbacka Café, Sat Feb 12th, 19-23:00--- Validation Card Collage-ing and -writing starting on Sat 29th of January, in the Café's Art Corner! For program, scroll down!
Dearest Extended and Ängsbacka Communities,
as I enjoy building bridges for the better part of US counterculture to Europe, from my years spent in California and at www.TwinOaks.org Community, here's a particular juicy mango from the East Coast:
The Validation Day, an alternative version of Valentine's Day, which also happens to be my birthday😊 . Our particular ceremony and content program for Feb 12th below- contributions welcome- DJ(ane)s sought!
I'll shut up now and let my brother-out-law Raj describe what makes it special, and- for a more in-depth view-, a link from my wizard friend Pax, below...:
"I lived for a year on an island (Twin Oaks Community, Ed.) that had ditched Valentine's Day, and replaced it with Validation Day.
As I read it, the original V-Day is a day where romantic partners are to spend money on each other in certain socially programmed ways, to show their love is proceeding as our culture dictates.
I'm okay with marking a day to celebrate love and I sometimes participate, but I've never been crazy about Valentine's Day. Its commodification of emotion into fuel for consumption, its message that people without romantic partners are unimportant, and its reduction of love to a cookie-cutter script are three of my reservations.
But: "Validation Day starts with a different assumption. It works on the principle that we all have important, positive feelings to express to our friends and community members - not just our romantic partners - and that a holiday can provide vehicles and opportunities to express them, deepen our connections, and build community.
"Like with Valentines Day, cards play an important role. But cards are made in advance and then instead of a card coming from one person, everyone who wants to - typically dozens of people - writes various funny, validating, or appreciative comments about that person on the card. Receiving your card is like getting love letters from 30 to 40 people at once."
Read more at Paxus's blog, https://funologist.org/2011/02/14/recrafting-holidays/
Validation Day @ Ängsbacka Café: Preparation and Program of Feb 12th
Validation Card Making Days: Jan 29th, Feb 2nd, 5th & 9th:
-These are the Café days where you can join others in making collage Validation Day Cards for friends and sweethearts- just don't look at your own card! Surprise! Bring old magazines!
Feb 12th: You will be welcome to arrive quite early for Irma's "Journey Home" concert at 17:30, which lasts til 19:00.
19:00-20:00: Meet, Greet and Nibble!
"Dinner" will be up to all of us as a potluck with everybody please bringing an exquisite little dish of fingerfood- as we want to dance later, we'll travel light but high.
20:00 Validation Day Card Reading and Angel Walk
-this will be the tricky challenge: at www.TwinOaks.org , we'd have a average number of 60-70 cards made and signed weeks in advance from a residential community of 120 people who've known each other for years, and celebrating together since 1967. So when during dessert after a sumptious dinner, a selection of cards where read out loud, people could guess whose it is, and then they would be handed out. Therefore this will be the challenge: How well do we know each other as Extended plus Ängsbacka communities to guess good enough- and will there be enough cards made for at least a bunch of people-ideally for all who'd like to receive one?
So remember, it'll be the first ever Validation Day here in Europe, so we'll catch all of us in the cradle of an Angel Walk, aka Love Tunnel, after the Card Reading and leading into the...
21:00 Dance Party and Puppy Pile
We'll provide soundsystem and playlist compiled by Irma- inspired DJs please reply! Between dances you may feel inclined to rest on the sofa- and- mattress-landscape with other revellers by the chimneyplace, to coax all the coziness out that wintertide can bring- like a bunch of puppies and kittens.
23:00 Clean-Up with music
Please help turn the Café back into it's best order after the dance! Dedicated volunteers please kindly reply, also for set-up at 19:00.
Big hands for all those with the patience to help make this experiment into a success by reading this instruction manual to the end! You are a true Hero of the digital age!
See you there! Do not fear heartfelt Validation! Reply if you choose to join!
Enjoy the growing days, yours, Tobias the Aquarian
................... community is what we make it be..................................................................................
--
Tobias Kempf-Neuhaus
funologist, chairman of ecotopia emerging e.V.
Borserudsvägen 326, 65597 Molkom, Sweden
P.S: Please stay home if you feel unwell, and know we love you anyways! Come next time!
Twin Oaks Intentional Community, in central Virginia, since 1967.
