Yeah, everything's at the wrong time of year. It all happens in summer when people are just coming out of the stress of exams and planning holidays. All the agricultural-type festivals in the major religions are wrong too. We don't actually harvest in spring.

There is a Maori festival called Matariki (the stars called that are in my icon, but with European trees so it's not too puzzling for a northerner) but that's hard to adapt because it lasts for weeks and different ones at that for different tribes. We basically need a reason to have fun at the gloomiest time of the year (and a national holiday too that's more than a day off work and actually gives us a reason to be happy). Some people hold midwinter dinners, but it's not the same as everyone having a party with a big build-up.