Spent a few hours with family and friends today celebrating what we call Festus (an annual family gathering with games, good food etc). Always good fun. Looking forward to Festus 2023.
(My shots from said gathering – for more details on all this, check out the Festus tag)
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We had the Festus family gathering yesterday, about 20 people braving the sun with various activities. We started this thing back in 2006 and we have managed to get together once a year for most of that time, so a lot of the kids have grown up with this. I missed the tail end of it yesterday (I was there for about six hours) and I went to bed early knackered when I came home. I guess I am at that age now. Good tradition though.
(My shot from the baseball game, the travelling prize inserted)
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Good day today as our family had our annual Festus meeting and we actually celebrated this for the 11th time this year. I managed to secure a pretty darned good spot for it too (thank you for the idea Seth), a cottage at the edge of a civilian airfield that belongs to a local Aviation Society (Östersunds Flygklubb). We had our fun in good weather with plenty of action going on over the field.
The winning team of the games had to guess how many bits of candy that was in the Festus Trophy. The right answer was 220, the individual that had the best guess will now bring home the Award and organize the 2017 meeting. This is a pretty cool idea, it is something that everybody can enjoy.
For the kids it was an exciting day. We had planes taking off all the time, we had a helicopter coming in and we had a team of parashooters doing their thing. Not a bad view. And on top of this there are military aircraft to check out in the vicinity. I think it is fair to say that Festus 2016 was a success. Glad we have this, it is a good idea that works.
I would like to say thank you to Östersunds Flygklubb for allowing us to be there today.
(My images)
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We had our annual Festus gathering today and I guess we had to be quite brave to endure the cold winds. We have never had Festus this late in the year before but circumstances kind of dictated things – let us hope for a nice summers day in July or August next year…
This was the 10th anniversary and it is always good to meet friends and family. Most of the kids have been kind of born into it, so for them Festus is a natural thing, like Christmas. As for the Festus Trophy, I won it (again) and that means that I have to arrange Festus next year. Hopefully, I will have a place of my own in the countryside by then…
(My images)
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We had our annual Festus thing today and 22 people spent a few hours together with good food and some games. The weather was a bit risky, but we braved the rain and carried on. I actually won the Festus Trophy this year so it will be my job to arrange Festus 2015. That will be the 10th anniversary.
Good fun.
(My images)
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My family celebrated Festus (our own thing, read on…) for the eighth time this afternoon, an annual excuse of ours to get together and have some fun. It all started back in 2005 when I read an article about how people view things they have done three times as “tradition”, so I thought “Why not create our own?”. I presented the idea during a Christmas dinner that year and we decided to make it a summer gathering, with some easy games, good food and a fine excuse to just meet each other. So we had our own Festus (I just made up the name, it sounds OK) for the first time in July 2006 and it was a success for sure.
To make it more fun I purchased a Golden Trophy (see inserted picture) and inscripted the name Festus on it. When the games are over, the winner gets to keep the trophy for a year. We fill it with candy and it is always a big thing for the children when we bring it out. Good fun actually. Good fun for the winner to hold it for a year as well. I think the trophy kind of nailed it.
I am really glad that we thought of this. The winner gets to pick next years location and we have been in some really beautiful places around Lake Storsjön (The Great Lake) over the years. This year, we had a location (in Östersund) fairly close but not right at the shore this time (usually, we have been outside of town). Still, beautiful view. I took a walk down to the lake with one of the kids after the festivities were over and took some snapshots at the lake. The wind made good looking waves that I wanted to catch.
I did send a letter about this idea to a major magazine called På Landet that was published in issue 8 2007, so I guess others may have picked up on it and created their own variations. It makes sense, why not have some fun once a year in the summer, catching up?
For the children, growing up with this, it will be a natural thing that just happens. I like that – this is here to stay in this family. We all enjoy it and yet it is no big deal. Some people are travelling quite far to be part of it though, which is amazing. We can also invite friends if we want to. If one of them should win the trophy, the person that invited said friend gets to keep the trophy. You need little rules like that, but it is not rocket science.
I can recommend that you create your own thing and have a go. Call it Festus, call it whatever you like. Just have some fun and enjoy your own thing, your own tradition.
At least, this is a tradition worthy of your time.
(My images)
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