December Events For Myth Lovers
Samuel Ehrhart’s Santa Claus in Wall Street (1913) is in the public domain.
Virtual Events
Were you missing Broadway shows? You can watch Estella Scrooge online, a modern retelling of A Christmas Carol with additional characters and plot lines from Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, Bleak House and other great Dickens’ novels. The trailer is here.
Or you can watch drag queens spoof Christmas with the Jinkx and Dela Holiday Special.
On December 1, you can watch an online presentation about pre-Colombian society in New Mexico, especially the destinations of roads and ritual practices carried out on them, with particular attention to their role in perpetuating inequality.
On December 2, watch an online discussion about the results of excavations from 1995-2015 at the Etruscan site of Poggio Colla, a sanctuary to the goddess Uni, the Etruscan equivalent of Hera who represents marriage, fertility, family, and women.
On December 2, you can participate in an online discussion of Hamlet. What happens when the Prince of Denmark encounters his father’s ghost and learns the secrets of his father’s murder? Does Hamlet have a duty of revenge?
On December 7, Renee Ahdieh will give a presentation with Sabaa Tahir about Ahdieh’s newest book, The Righteous, which is the third in her series about vampires in 19th century New Orleans.
On December 9, join an online discussion about James Joyce’s Ulysses.
On December 11, learn about a new discovery of a Roman legionary base at Legio, Israel.
On Decebmer 13, participate in an online discussion of death at the Death Cafe, which aims "to increase awareness of death with a view to helping people make the most of their (finite) lives."
On December 15, participate in an online discussion of Erin Morgenstern’s book The Starless Sea, which is about a graduate student in Vermont who discovers a mysterious book that leads him lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth.
On December 22, participate in an online discussion of comics.
St. George and The Dragon (17th Century) is in the public domain.
New York City Events
On different days from November 24 - Jan 22, go on a 1.5 mile walk through the New York Botanical Garden that will be lit with “whimsical” installations, including a Cathedral of Light tunnel, a Fire Garden on Lily Pool Terrace, and a Field of Light. Then watch carvers transform ice into sculptures.
Every night in December other than the 24th and 25th, you can take a bus tour from Union Square to see the Christmas light installations in Dyker Heights. You will see Santa.
On most days in December, go to the Greek revival parlor room of the Merchant’s House Museum to see how people celebrated Christmas in the 19th century. Drink a cup of “Smoking Bishop” (mulled wine) and enjoy a performance of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by an actor dressed up as Charles Dickens.
On most days in December, you can see the Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet, including a tree that expands from 12 to 41 feet, a gargantuan Mother Ginger, and of course the sinister and deranged Sugarplum fairy.
On Thursday December 2, meet Santa, sing carols, watch ice carving and see lighted trees floating down a river. What will you be drinking to see such sights? Hot cocoa!
On December 2, watch a staged reading of WASTE LAND, which tells the story of Jesolo and Adrian, the last humans alive amid climate change, trying to survive on an artificial island where all the waste from the Maldives is dumped.
On December 3, watch HYPERFANTASIA, a transdisciplinary sci-fi fantasy drag cabaret that begins at the Big Bang and culminates in a vision of queer utopia.
On December 4, you can attend Know Thyself, “an interactive museum tour of the Museum of Philosophy. Each exhibit in the museum takes the form of a social, multiplayer, party game exploring a particular philosophical approach to life (e.g. Aristotle, Siddhārtha Gautama, Hannah Arendt, or Erwin Schrödinger.)
On December 4, take a walking tour of Washington Square and hear some Christmas-themed ghost stories about the place.
On December 5, watch a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream tat juxtaposes the classic comedy with deeper considerations on how we view and interact with the environment.
From December 9-27, Cirque du Soleil will have a performance at Madison Square Garden about “curious girl, jaded by the craze surrounding Christmas, as she is whisked away to an upside-down, inside-out world of the poem” ‘Twas the night before Christmas."
On December 9, 10 or 11, watch the Cauldron of the Secret Self, a multimedia ritualistic performance influenced by Black folk magic traditions such as Hoodoo. These traditions often involve the "calling in" of ancestors as spirit guides.
On December 9, you can watch a one-act monologue and integrated media project, “Superheroes & Other Men,” which explores the male quest for heroes from boyhood to adulthood.
On December 16, some men “will pay homage to the spirit of Saturn and celebrate the winter solstice by shedding clothing, moving, breathing, and raising sexual energy.”
On December 19, watch an outdoor holiday reading of O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi at the Queens County Farm.
Any day you want you can go to Beetle House, a restaurant that takes inspiration from Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe and many more. The menu includes, Blood Bags, Hautned Lemonade, Bio-Exorcism’s, among other things. Dining in only, which adds a new COVID element to the scare show.
Check out the dragons, kings, pirate ships, Merlin’s flying machines and other spectacles at the new Legoland in Goshen, New York.
Get Butter Beer at the new Harry Potter-themed store and bar at 935 Broadway near the Flatiron Building.
Miss going to the movies? Watch a socially distanced one outside with your friends at Sidewalk Cinema on Thames Street in Brooklyn.
Watch a string quartet perform the soundtracks from movies such as Aladdin, the Little Mermaid, Cinderella, and more in candlelight at the Mondrian Hotel Terrace. Tickets available on different days.
Check out the images of buddhas, bodhisattvas, tantric deities, protectors and more at the Rubin Museum’s Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room.
U.S. Events
"Myth.Slide1.16" by c.a.francese is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
From December 3 to the 5, you can attend the Midwest FurFest 2021 in Rosemont, Illinois. The convention celebrates art, literature and performances based around anthropomorphic animals. Programming includes “furry lawyers’ horror stories” and “how to make a terrible furry business.”
DisCon III, the 79th World Science Fiction Convention will be held at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC on December 15-19, 2021, with both virtual and in person components.
The conference Anime Los Angeles 17 has been postponed for a year. Instead of this month, it will take place from January 6-9, 2022, in Long Beach California.
World Events
From December 4-5, the Geek Days conference will take place in Lille, France to celebrate anime, sci-fi and video games. You can take a picture of yourself next to the car that Harry Potter and Ron borrowed from Mr. Weasley, attend an exhibition about the history of the Power Rangers, and build Star Wars droids, among other things.
Recurring Virtual Events
Every year in the secret realm of Bunnyville, magical creatures from around the world gather for their annual summit. This is supposed to be a time to reconnect with old and new friends, but this year someone (or some creature!) has stolen the Easter Bunny’s magical golden egg! Kids and adults can both enjoy this enchanted game featuring creatures like fairies, dragons, mermaids, and of course the Easter Bunny!
If you would rather be in France right now, view a selection of thematically-themed works from the Louvre online, including the ones in the Sully Wing, which includes major works of Greek and Egyptian art such as the Venus de Milo.
Take an online course with Stanford research scholar Adrienne Mayor in which you will “uncover the natural origins of stories about dragons. . .; ponder whether the Amazon horsewomen-archers of myth existed; consider the dilemmas of using poison weapons in myth and ancient historical times; and marvel at robots and other science fiction tales from the time of Homer.” $120.
Take an online mini-course about Rome, seeing how it exists not only in brick and mortar, but also in the realm of ideas, and through the eyes of locals and visitors. Topics will include Rome’s urban and architectural development, as well as its representation in maps and artworks from across the city’s exceptionally long lifetime. $99.
The NY Mythology Group, which is associated with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, holds presentations and discussions about mythology related topics ranging from the Greek goddess Hecate to Carl Jung. Their events usually take place on Tuesday evenings at 8 pm EDT, and have been online since the pandemic started.
BSFW, or Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers, meetings take place mostly online currently, but pre-pandemic were in the homes of writers mostly in Brooklyn but also on occasion Manhattan or Queens. Check out their calendar on meetup to attend their numerous writing workshops, social gatherings, meetings with editors/agents/authors, book clubs, and more. The group includes many published writers and has its own audio fiction magazine, Kaleidocast. If you post about your fetish for Olympian gods on their Facebook group feed, they (probably) won’t judge.
EREWHON BOOKS, a publisher focusing on novel-length works of speculative fiction: science fiction, fantasy, and related genres, holds readings usually on the second Thursday each month virtually for now and in a pre-apocalypse world at its high ceilinged office of many windows in Manhattan.
Fantastic Fiction at KGB is a monthly speculative-fiction reading series held on the third Wednesday of every month virtually for now, and in a pre-apocalypse world at KGB Bar in Manhattan. Ellen Datlow and Matthew Kressel host the event. As one might expect from a communism-themed bar, admission is free.
The NYC Greek Myth & Classical Lit Meetup meets every third Thursday of the month at the Cloister Cafe in the East Village to discuss the work of mostly long dead authors (e.g. Aristophanes, Dante.) The group has existed for more than a decade, so the long-term participants have already earned their unofficial classics PhD’s, and we already know that anybody who would do this for fun is as hip as a person can get.
Marcantonio Raimondi’s “A Bacchanal”. CC01.0 Public domain.
