HAPPY AGNOSTICA!

What, pray tell, is Agnostica?

Agnostica is the only truly secular winter celebration. It is a celebration for the scientist in all of us, celebrating not some contrived story written thousands of years ago and translated seventeen times over until the Hebrew word for "rope" gets turned into "camel," and then inexplicably the whole deal is replaced by consumer-frenzy dictated to us by a fat child-labor mogul in a fur-lined red suit, but rather of ourselves, the perfect self-defining nature of the universe, and of being proud of the human intellect.

Agnostica starts on December 14 ("QM Day") and has a half life of ten days.

You can read about the Origin of Agnostica by the stately King Luca, or follow King Luca's progress as he explains the Traditions and Decorations associated with Agnostica. Or, you might enjoy a typical Agnostica Party. Finally, you can read a heartwarming Agnostica story, entitled, "Danny's First Annual Agnostica Miracle", which is one of nine stories by some of the internet's most popular cartoonists in the Plan 9 Christmas 2000 Annual (I will likely post that story here in the near future since Plan 9 doesn't seem to list it on their pages anymore despite not having anywhere near sold out as far as I've heard).

Also, Melannen was kind enough to compile all the Agnostica information she could find into one page. It's now a bit out of date, though.

Happy Agnostica 2016! This is the FOURTHIRTWELTH anniversary of the Global Random Bag of Fun!

How do you participate?
Simple. Just send a cool, groovy, hopefully educational unwrapped gift to:

RANDOM BAG OF FUN
(The global R.B.O.F. was discontinued after 2016 due to a drop in participation and therefore the mailing address has been removed).

Do this before December 21 and it will be added to the Bag. You will then in late December or early January receive one random selection from the Bag! Send it in as early as possible, as I will send out two waves of gifts: One for contributions received before December 21 and one after.

What kind of gift, you may ask? It should be:

about $15-$25
non-perishable (no food, drinks, pets, etc.)
something you might like yourself
accompanied by your name and address (see IMPORTANT notice below)
accompanied by an optional $3-$5 if you wish to offset my shipping costs

Optionally, the exceedingly lazy among you can also receive a gift from the Random Bag with a $25 donation via PAYPAL to:

(Paypal address also removed)

Paypal cash (or from your bank account) is preferred over credit card donations, so that all of your donation will go towards better gifts for the bag and not to Paypal fees.

I'll go shopping for you and find nifty gifts myself to add to the bag. All money received will go towards buying items for the bag. None ends up in my pocket.

IMPORTANT: If you send me something directly from an online company like Amazon.com, BE SURE YOUR ADDRESS IS INCLUDED IN THE SHIPMENT!!! Amazon.com does not include your return address in its shipments. I cannot stress this enough. You can add your name/address to a "Gift message" at places like Amazon.

In years past, people have sent presents for the bag directly from Amazon and other places and I've not known who to send a return gift to. DO NOT EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS INSTEAD! It's too complicated to coordinate and never works.

Happy Agnostica 2015! I have no evidence of anything unique about this year whatsoever. The only year like that.

Happy Agnostica 2014! This was the year I officially lost track of how many global random bags we've done. I called it eleven, but somehow the math didn't quite work right.

Happy Agnostica 2013! Thanks to a very generous donation from Jasmine Strong last year, all shipping charges were covered this year!

Happy Agnostica 2011! As usual, I coodinated a Global Random Bag of Fun with a small change over previous years. Because of increased gift-participation (and decreasing cash-participation), I asked everyone who sent in a gift to also include $3-$5 to help pay for shipping costs depending on their personal financial situation (either cash/check with the gift or separately through Paypal).

[WAIVED IN 2013!]

In the past couple years, I've had to pony up about $50-$100 in shipping costs myself. Note that this payment was optional and if it's a bit too much to swing along with the gift, please don't let that stop you from participating. Just send in your gift anyway. Any excess money will be used to make the cash-participants' gifts even cooler. International participants without Paypal shouldn't worry too much about it either. Unless your currency is awesome.

Happy Agnostica 2009!

Still nothing new this year, unless you count the current Nukees storyline. But as always, you can participate in the RANDOM BAG OF FUN, now in its SIXTH YEAR!! That's right, I've been doing it longer than most webcomics have even lasted.

Participation is the same as years past, with a few differences:
[Instructions moved up to current year's update]

Happy Agnostica 2008!

There was absolutely nothing new added in 2008. But we celebrated all the old traditions as normal. Otherwise, they wouldn't be very good traditions, would they?

Happy Agnostica 2007!

In 2007, I added this animation (based on the Nukees comic from this year's QM Day) detailing schematically how you can make your own construction-paper atomic orbitals. I hope in the future to create a more organized list of Agnostica decorations.

Of course, these are stylized orbitals. To make real orbitals, you would probably be better off just crumpling up the paper, setting fire to it, then not observing it.

Happy Agnostica 2007! In 2005, there were no new changes to the Agnostica website. We continued that trend in 2006, which I suppose made it officially a tradition. The establishment of an Agnostica tradition, then, was a signficant change. Chew on that paradox for a while.

Agnostica news (2004)

In 2004, we also presented:

The Random Bag of Fun!

How can you be a part of the Random Bag?

[Instructions revised and moved to the top of the page]

In 2003, we saw the Nukees gang throw an AGNOSTICA PARTY with King Luca as host
Send me photos of your Agnostica Party and I'll post them here!
(And I'll link to the website of your choice here and on the Nukees homepage).
What do you need to throw an Agnostica Party?


It's up to you, of course, but the following help:
  • A theme of dressing as your favorite scientist of yore
  • Glögi
  • A Schrödinger Box
  • Mobius Chains
  • Mystery Punch
  • A Random Bag of Fun
  • Tell me: What made your Agnostica Party special?


In 2002, a holiday tradition was stolen from the Finnish.
It's Glögi!

Actually, "mulled wine" of many varieties is a
common tradition in many countries and is growing
in popularity in this one as well. But for Agnostica,
we still called it "Glögi," because it's fun!

More Info Coming Soon...

Or not...

Ask Heisenberg.




Expected additions to this site some day:



Visit the place where it all started at the atomic comic, Nukees!