Just over 25 years ago I began attending Passover seders at my friends J and E's home. Their sons were just young teens then, and now they are both PhDs with smart and capable wives. One couple has had two children. I have moved away from NYC, but I will drive down to the city so that I can help with the preparations for seder starting Thursday and into Friday. I will be peeling veggies and laughing and basking in the immense joy of my extended family. With the exception of one 85 year old (Catholic) cousin, my entire blood family is dead. So my extended family is my family in every way.

This is a weekend for Holy Days in more than one tradition. The calendars of a variety of religious traditions mark special days on this weekend. As I researched this weekend I discovered that it is a once-in-a-millennium convergence of holidays across all major religious traditions.

Not once-in-a-lifetime, but once-in-a-millennium.

I spent a little time today searching the Net for New Year's traditions, both old and new. My little family needs the aura of stability created by tradition. If I had had more time, I would've celebrated Kwanzaa this year, a celebration with family-grounding traditions, but my life was a little too chaotic this December, which was par for the course in 2007 and previous years.

People all over the world have special traditions for celebrating the arrival of the new year, and often celebrations include the idea of eating lucky foods, thought to bring happiness and prosperity in the year to come. Just which foods are lucky depends on where you are, but there are some traditions that are pretty widespread. Here are suggestions for lucky foods from around the world, but if you have a New Year's Food tradition that brings you luck, please share your link or recipe in the comments.

Last month Lainad introduced the concepts of Kwanzaa which begins Wednesday.  While gifts were not initially part of the Kwanzaa celebration, some people do give zawadi, or gifts, on the final day. Others treat Kwanzaa more like Hannukah, giving a small meaningful gift each day of the celebration; with such gifts representing the principle of the day.

I can vividly remember the first time I tasted Glögg, the delightful Swedish Christmas drink made of heated wine and other spirits, and often served with raisins and almonds sprinkled on top. When I had my first taste of this dangerously delicious hot drink, I was spending Thanksgiving on a houseboat at Utah's Lake Powell and a friend named Jane had brought along a big jug of Glögg, which we heated on the houseboat stove and sipped from coffee mugs. As soon as I tasted it, I asked her for the recipe, and it's something I've been making for holiday parties ever since. Keep reading for Jane's fabulous Glögg recipe, plus a few more versions of Glögg I found.