Meetup : Secular Solstice Celebration! (And the Inauguration of the LW Leipzig Community)
Discussion article for the meetup : Secular Solstice Celebration! (And the Inauguration of the LW Leipzig Community)
Dear everyone,
Germany needs more LW communities! And Secular Solstice celebrations are fun! So let’s have a secular solstice and get together a bunch of people who really want to start something! :)
The plan is simple. We meet around sunset, casually get to know each other and chat. We prepare and perform together the Ceremonial Part, which involves some things from Raymond Arnold’s ritual book (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2000477/SolsticeEve_2012.pdf), the First Secular Sermon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vIFloLATxo) and a few other artful pieces of atheist ritual performance. Then we party till sunrise and welcome the sun re-emerging after the longest night. If you fall asleep (some crash space is available), we’ll wake you up for that last bit. We’re expecting 20 to 30 people (mostly not current LW users, but people who liked HPMOR and other potential new faces), but the flat we’re using can easily accommodate 60, so bring friends if you want. If there are too many of us to fit into the Ritual Space, we can simply do (parts of) the Ceremonial Part twice.
The event is free (including drinks and some food) but you can bring food if you want to contribute.
Languages at the event will be a mix of German and English. The Ceremonial Part will involve at least one German-language and one English-language performance.
Any questions?
I wish I lived in Leipzig! And probably also spoke German. This sounds awesome!
Well, I’m here. Where is everyone else?
[edit] nvm, resolved
I wonder if LessWrong will ever grow out these cultish attitudes...
Finally, a meetup in affordable train range!
Is your ritual translation online somewhere or are you trying to keep it closed for surprise?
What “translation” do you mean? We’ll probably have at least one translated piece—a German translation of Raemon’s spoken word version of The Gift We Give Tomorrow. That isn’t online yet.
Oh, are you mostly going for english text or original content?
We will have both English and German language performances.
Either can (and should) be translated after a fashion so people entirely unable to understand either language get an idea of what it is about, but if you don’t speak any German, at least some of the performances will look nice but sound somewhat alien, like a Latin Mass. :-)
Poetic language simply doesn’t translate nearly as well as technical or scientific language.
Finally, a meetup in affordable train range!
Is your ritual translation online somewhere or are you trying to keep it closed for surprise?