imagoldfish

Nothing like dead batteries to ruin a, um, special moment.

Edit: For those who noticed and are wondering why my birthday changed, a clarification: April 30 is my nameday, imieniny in Polish. You know how there's a Valentine's Day? It's St. Valentine's Day. In fact, every day of the year has the name of a saint ascribed to it (usually the birthday or day of death of that saint). In Poland, when your name comes up, it's your nameday. It used to be that people celebrated their nameday instead of their birthday, or in some cases, the two were combined by virtue of the fact that parents would simply use the name of that day for their child. Anyway, yeah, we celebrate 'em in my family like birthdays, but on a slightly smaller scale. It's nice.

Wondering when your nameday is? Here is a calendar listing 'em! Remember, they're in the possessive form, ie January 1st, Mieczyslawa, means Mieczyslaw's. Also, these are Polish names. Your name may or may not exist in Polish - if there's a saint that shares your name though, s/he ought to be there. Also note that there may be more than one day, because in some cases, there are multiple saints with the same name. For instance, there were apparently several saint different saints named Marian. I think parents pick the nameday based on the saint whose virtues, story, whatever, they most like. My parents actually picked my nameday somewhat randomly amongst available options, reasoning that it wasn't near any major holidays and was almost exactly 6 months from my birthday, making it a good time to get some presents. But the particular saint happens to be known for intelligence and general bad-assness, so it's cool.