Oxford has an awful lot going for it, literarily speaking (we wrote a post mentioning some Oxford tours that focus on famous books written here). But our favourite (at least today) is Alice in Wonderland. For us, anywhere and any time is an opportunity to eat and drink weird stuff. But the first Saturday in July is a special day here, Alice’s Day, commemorating the boat trip Charles Dodgson took on July 4, 1862 from the Folly Bridge up the River Thames with the three Liddell girls. (Classics connection: they are the daughters of the Liddell of Liddell and Scott, then and now the standard Greek dictionary!) Dodgson, a mathematician at Christ Church, made up a story to tell them, as he often did. But this time Alice, the middle daughter, asked him to write it down, which he did (two years later) and published it under the name Lewis Carroll. And the rest, as they say, is (weird, Victorian) history.
We’re not experts on Alice in Wonderland, but we do know what we like. (And we’ve got a Cheshire Cat tea cosy to prove it). If you happen to be in Oxford, this year or any other, there’s a lot scheduled. Much of it is for kids, at least nominally: the Red Queen trail in the Covered Market, a Mad Tea Party on the Broad, special exhibits at several museums, lectures, puppets, Alice-inspired fashion, and more.
You Too Can Celebrate!
There is a lot to like about Alice in Wonderland, and, like many classics, it continues to be relevant. Time-poor rabbits, games gone wrong, rapid and uncontrollable growth, interminable parties, mindless autocrats, and drugged hats are the stuff of everyday life for most of us, are they not? We encourage you to embrace the crazy and celebrate this frabjous day, even in a small way, in order to bring a bit of joy and wackiness into your life. Here are a baker’s dozen of our suggestions: try one or all!
- Have a tea party, with zany food containing instructions
- Play chess or croquet or cards, especially if you don’t know how
- Hold a trial for food-related thievery
- Talk to the flowers; expect them to talk back
- Listen to Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit or watch an Alice movie
- Smoke a hookah
- Yell, ‘Off with his head!’ whenever someone annoys you
- Put too much pepper in the soup
- Wear a preposterous hat
- Put on a waistcoat and fret about time
- Bust out through the chimney
- Recite poetry or sing songs you don’t know very well
- Invoke Rule 42, especially if you are around tall persons
How will you celebrate?
I will celebrate by vanishing quite slowly, beginning with the end of my tail and ending with my grin.
See now that’s cool. If we could do that we would too. Maybe all day long, to the exclusion of everything else. Thanks Debbie!