From Merriam-Webster's Word O' the Day...
Jan. 5th, 2004 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
senoritafishwww.m-w.com
This sounds like a good tradition to start just before school starts up again....
...except, of course, it occurs to me to start it at midnight the night before the first Monday of the year, typical of me....
(goes off to scrounge for something that might be suitable)
edit - I finally jut got them each a bookmark, but it was Wednesday before I got them to them. We have several large story books for bedtime, and now we can find the next story easily.
This sounds like a good tradition to start just before school starts up again....
handsel \HAN-sul\ noun
*1 : a gift made as a token of good wishes or luck especially at the beginning of a new year
2 : something received first (as in a day of trading) and taken to be a token of good luck
3 a : a first installment : earnest money b : earnest, foretaste
[http://www.merriam-webster.com/sound/h/handse01.wav]
Example sentence:
Aunt Mary gave New Year's handsels to all the children in the family.
Did you know?
According to an old custom in the British Isles, the first Monday of the new year is Handsel Monday, a day to give a small gift or good luck charm to children or to those who have served you well. As long ago as the year 1200, English speakers were using the ancestor of "handsel" for any good luck charm, especially one given at the start of some new situation or condition. By the 1500s, traders were using "handsel" for the first cash they earned in the morning — to them, an omen of good things to follow. Nowadays, it's likely to be used for the first use or experience of something, especially when such a use gives a taste of things to come.
*Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence.
...except, of course, it occurs to me to start it at midnight the night before the first Monday of the year, typical of me....
(goes off to scrounge for something that might be suitable)
edit - I finally jut got them each a bookmark, but it was Wednesday before I got them to them. We have several large story books for bedtime, and now we can find the next story easily.
