Instead, they rose as one body and solemnly sang, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” I wonder if they still do that.

Not to my knowledge. My wife thinks her very pious grandmother might have done so at some point. There is a tradition of melting some tin and dropping it in water and seeing what shape forms, creating a prediction for the coming year, but I’ve never done it.

We have sauna, of course, eat little sausages and watch the fireworks around the neighborhood.

We did start a new tradition this year, which I am calling The Desecration. The men of the family devour whatever sections of the gingerbread house are deemed edible until they can eat no more.

Note, by the way, that Kipling doesn’t use the phrase “Heathen nations” in the poem. He does refer to “heathen heart” in the last verse, but that clearly refers to his own countrymen who “put [their] trust in reeking tube and iron shard”, i.e., modern weaponry, rather than in God. Still a prescient poem today (cf. Pres. Kimball’s 1976 talk, “The False Gods We Worship”). ..bruce..

We are heathens, all!

Molly–I’ll have to look up the other verses. I always figured there was just that one. Thanks for the heads up.