Thanks for Lovely Holidays
In the humble opinion of your Global Reporter, perhaps never has AW shone as it did in the month of December, with well-loved and new holiday celebrations in Rome, Germania, Hellas and Egypt, not to mention an utter blizzard of holiday decorations, antique and high-tech holiday greeting cards, and parties. There's no way to single out those who worked hard to make everyone's online holidays beautiful and festive, but rather - our thanks to all who helped turn the entire month of December into a special time for us here at AW. Greetings of the Season and the happiest of New Years to all.
New Year Events!
If you check the AW
Calendar of Events (which you can find on the CommPanel), you'll realize that it's dead, dark, dull wintertime, and that means that energy is everywhere while people are coming up with ways to help us brighten the cold days. Celtia is famous for its fiery
Imbolc festivities , which AW will celebrate February 1-3. And if you've got a sweet tooth for romance, Germania will celebrate its
Singing Valentine's on February 9, while the actual historical foundation of Valentine's Day, Rome's
Lupercalia, will take place on the Day itself - February 14th. Finally, an annual event since Orient's founding, the long-anticipated Lunar Festival will run from February 21-25 this year, and will feature events in Mongolia, Korea and Vietnam. Keep abreast of events on the
The Orient Festival Planning thread! Every year, Mesopotamia celebrates its late-winter "New Year" or
Akitu Festival, with dates still being discussed but possibly in early March. Finally, Americas is looking at a long-term project, the projected
Long Walk. While snow and ice hold us inside, there will be plenty of AW events to warm you up!
Remember, if you're new to AW or have not yet volunteered to work on projects in your world, you can always volunteer here. A scribe from one of the worlds can find you and see what you're interested in. (If they don't, nagging is perfectly acceptable with a domus message). Those of us who work on events and festivals know that the camaraderie and humor of knocking yourself out to make someone else's time a lot of fun, is usually worth the effort. If you have any questions about volunteering, check with your world scribes. You'll be welcome.
Best Homes of AncientWorlds '08
We're going to press just a tad too early to give you the final dates for the annual Best Homes of AncientWorlds contest, but our Reporter hears from Cornellia Cornelius that she's looking at a date in March or possibly very early April. This is always one of the best-attended contests at AW, as everyone wants to be in the web ring of AW's most beautiful homes. Watch for the contest dates and gussy up your front parlor.
Living in the Ancient World
If you're new to AW (or if you're not), you may not realize that half the fun here is not only studying history over drinks with friends, but learning html coding for your articles, your events, or your home(s) at AW. Almost every world has at least one link with "how tos" for coding online; we're offering just a few. Then there is that grand-daddy of all html coding groups online,
Arachne's Web, which has more information than any one cive could use in a cyber-lifetime. Check them out if you want a "new look" for your spring cleaning! There's also
The AncientWorlds Handbook, in which some of AW's best talents are beginning a "work in progress" for online life, which you may want to check on as time goes by. Here are just some of our AW resources:
Rome is developing 
In the Orient, visit Korea's 
In Mesopotamia, check out 
