On 18th June 2016, #FolkloreThursday turned a year old! The last twelve months have flown by in a whirl of fabulous folklore and wonderful connections each Thursday, and what better time to take stock and look at just how far we’ve come.
Firstly, we want to say a very big and heartfelt thank you to everyone who has participated on Thursdays and made the hashtag day what it is.
It might sound trite, but in this case it is very, very true: without all you wonderful folk tweeting your folklore tweets each week, #FolkloreThursday would be a very sorry place indeed! We would also be lost without the fantastic contributions of our website writers; since we launched the website back in March we have been able to share a wide-range of high quality, informative and fascinating posts on a variety of folklore-related subjects with you, and that is down to the highly talented writers who have contributed their articles for the site. A very big thank you, and here’s to more great posts in the coming year! Last, but most definitely not least, we are sincerely grateful to our guest hosts who have helped out throughout the year to cover shifts and keep Thursdays running smoothly on the odd occasion where we’ve needed to yell to help. Seline, Sam, Kate and Sharon you have been wonderful, and we have known that #FolkloreThursday has been left in most capable hands!
The hashtag was originally started to act as a central place for people to come to share their folklore related interests, and in the last year we have been utterly overwhelmed by the support of what has grown into the #FolkloreThursday community. It has been wonderful to ‘meet’ so many new friends over the weeks, and we’ve also had the surprising pleasure of being featured both in the Independent newspaper and also on the BBC. Over the coming months we are looking forward to continuing on the journey we have started in the company of such great and like-minded people – #FolkloreThursday has plans afoot to be bigger, bolder and even better!
Competition time!
What would a birthday be without presents? To celebrate #FolkloreThursday reaching a year old, we have a copy of the #FolkloreThursday ‘Bible’, The Reader’s Digest Folklore, Myths and Legends of Great Britain, up for grabs (all thanks to the marvellous @SelineSigil9)!
*Unfortunately only #FolkloreThursday-ers based in the UK can win due to postage costs.
In time for the birthday celebrations, there are now also two ways that you can help support #FolkloreThursday.
After great consideration, we have set up a Patreon page for #FolkloreThursday. The details can be found here, but in essence, the hashtag and website take a great deal of time and increasingly money to run, and in order to take the project to the next level we are needing to look for ways to bring in some funds. Please do visit our Patreon page, read and share – there is no obligation to pledge, but every little helps!
In addition, you might have noticed that each Thursday for the last year, when someone recommends a book with the #FolkloreThursday hashtag, we reply with: ‘Added to the book list.’ So far, this mysterious list of recommended books has been closeted away, hidden from those #FolkloreThursday-ers who wish to browse its wonders. No longer! The book list, in all its glory, is now live on the site and we will continue to add as many of your recommendations as possible each week. The lovely thing about the book list is that each time you click through to Amazon from the #FolkloreThursday website and purchase a book, we get up to 10% of the purchase price from them to help support the running costs of #FolkloreThursday – all at no cost to you! So, if you would like to support #FolkloreThursday – without costing you even an extra penny – then get clicking! Do go and browse the recommended folklore books now – and remember to click through the #FolkloreThursday site next time you’re buying on Amazon.
Without further ado, let’s get on with the serious business of the day – folklore and festivities!
Enjoy a day full of fantastic tweeting, and once again
Happy Birthday, #FolkloreThursday!
(And PS – do sign up for the newsletter for offers, discounts and competitions!)
