HAPPY NEW YEAR ASKHISTORIANS COMMUNITY! Welcome to the first digest of 2021, a year that I have no doubts will be TOTALLY FINE AND GREAT. But there’s one thing we can always count on, and that is the fact that every Sunday will have a truly awesome collection of history threads for you to enjoy!

Don’t forget to upvote all those great answers and thank the brilliant writers who put in so much time.

• Some good book ideas in the Thursday Reading and Rec thread!

• Come tell me about your New Years traditions and have some fun in the Friday Free For All!

• I like META threads, such as What's the point of this sub if literally nothing gets answered?

• Then the BIG ONE! An Historical Overview of 9/11, as the 20 Year Rule Enters 2021

That’s it for today! Have yourselves a great week folks, enjoy the threads and kick off a fantastic New Year!

I want to highlight /u/10thousand_stars incredible answer to my question "Qin Liangyu was a prominent military leader and regional governor of the Late Ming. She was also a woman. Did this excite any comment?"

As always we spend some time to shout out all those interesting yet overlooked questions that still hope for the eyes of an expert. Feel free to post your own, or shout out any others that caught your interest!

• /u/TheHondoGod asked I recently saw a video that said a major step in the evolution of music was the Gregorian chant. What was so special about it?

• /u/jbdyer asked This manuscript from medieval Spain is (according to the Met) "an attempt to calculate the numerical code of the Antichrist", with ANTICHRIST written four times and 666 written four times. What's going on?

• /u/jeff_tweedy asked Why is there a sea-nymph painted on the recently discovered food stall in Pompeii?

Welcome back to another installment of "The Real Questions", where we take a look at the wilder side of /r/AskHistorians! Here, I shout out some of the unique, oddly specific, atypical, amusingly phrased, or otherwise interesting questions of the week, the ones that make me say "Finally, someone is asking the real questions."

Happy New Year to everyone! While it's a new year, it's still the same excellent bunch of questions to shout out, and while it's terrifying to think of 2001 as *history* (I vaguely remember that year!) per the "20-year rule", I'm really excited to see the new interesting questions that can now be asked.

Below are my entries for this week - questions with a ‡ have a link to an older thread. What do you think were the realest questions? And be sure to check out my full list of Real Questions.

Got a month or so to catch up on...

/u/400-rabbits answered "The Aztec pantheon had a "toilet god" that tempted you to sin so it could cleanse you of sin, and had a philosophy of moderation on the "slippery earth". What did they consider a sin?"

/u/aeoleth on "According to Wikipedia, apparently the title of Emperor is considered a higher title than that of King - Is there any evidence to support this claim, and is there considered a definitive order of monarchical titles by power?"

/u/ageitgey with some fascinating research about "I've always heard that the Christmas cards were first sold in 1843 but I've found newspaper archives that I'm sure are selling Christmas cards from earlier, Is 1843 really the correct origin date?"

Hello I'd like to request an answer to my question

Did The Mongolian Invasion of Central Asia Cause Wide Spread Desertification Lasting Up To Today - https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/klsn04/did_the_mongolian_invasion_of_central_asia_cause/