In the cramped showroom out front, Ms. Pettiford, a woman "past 40" with a bearing befitting her job as an eighth-grade teacher, was trying to toe the line between festivity and excess.
Book references to "Christmas" have steadily risen over the past 200 years; mentions of "Christianity" itself have fallen, closing the gap between the festivities and the religion that lies behind them.
Madeiras occupy a perfect middle ground between the festivity of a cocktail and the more temperate alcohol of a glass of white wine.
My boyfriend and I wanted to tackle as much of it as we could between the wedding festivities.
In a soaked and bone-chilling day that led inauguration planners to prepare for the possibility of moving Saturday's celebration indoors, Mr. Bush made final preparations for his new job between appearances at festivities marking the transition in government.
Wedged between big holiday festivities and springtime flowering, it is easy to understand why this Leap Year month carries the stigma of " a month we just need to get through".
The fireworks and other festivities draw between 20,000 and 30,000 people to Patriots Point, on the Mount Pleasant side of Charleston Harbor, said Jim McElroy, director of communications there.
In Sweden the holiday is officially observed on a Friday between June 19th and 25th, whereas in Finland it is officially celebrated on a Saturday between June 20th and 26th, though festivities begin the preceding Friday evening.
The dabkah is danced mainly by men and is quite common in festivities in the area between northern Syria and southern Israel; for instance, the Druze (sectarian Arab communities located in Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) are very fond of it.
Between now and the closing-night festivities on Sunday, these include Mr. Almodóvar's "Skin I Live In," with Antonio Banderas as an obsessive plastic surgeon, and "The Descendants," directed by Alexander Payne, with George Clooney as a fumbling father.
