Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County NJ

‘Do Tell! Diner’ Marked the End of Our Humanist for the Holidays Celebrations

Last Sunday’s Platform marked the end of our “Humanist For The Holidays” celebrations, a three week series of Sunday meetings beginning with “Winter Festival” on December 15, then the Ethical Sing-A-Long on December 22 and culminating with the “Do Tell! Diner” on December 29.

Do Tell! Diner potluck

At the DoTell! Diner, participants brought a dish to share and told a true story that went with the dish. We heard some wonderful stories about the food people brought. Here is a sampling:

  • Eric talked about the time when his grandma ate the brownies…yeah, those kind of brownies!
  • Susan spoke about her family’s long history of canning spaghetti sauce.
  • Janet reminisced about going hungry in Hungary as a vegetarian until she found the Roumanian cabbage salad that was present everywhere.
  • Beth and Perry shared their story about “dittos”, a family term for steak sandwiches, and the time Perry wanted to surprise Beth by making “dittos”, but couldn’t find the “ditto meat”.
  • Caryl talked about sending trail mix to camp with her son, who was told to put it under his bunk only to wake up to find a skunk enjoying it!
  • Diane spoke about foraging for black walnuts and the effort needed to extract the walnut meat from the shell
Do Tell! Diner

These stories only heightened the taste of the food as we then shared the potluck as a community.

At the Winter Festival celebrating the solstice, our community sang, played music, wrote winter poetry, and wrapped yarn around the Giving Tree. The Giving Tree’s focus this year was a food drive for the Center for Food Action (CFA); our community collected several boxes and bags of food as well as over $400 for the CFA. 

Winter Festival Light Painting

At the Ethical Sing-A-Long, the “Ethical Music Makers” led the morning as the community sang through songs suggested by the audience. We had a diverse selection including traditional holiday songs, songs from the civil rights era and even some pop standards. There was a lot of energy in the room and our community felt uplifted.

That is how our Ethical humanist community came together for the holidays. Please join us next year for the festivities; we look forward to celebrating with you.