5 Ways to Celebrate Jane Austen’s 250th birthday

^{Louise Yearwood, executive director of Alumni Affairs & Advancement at Victoria University and former Toronto chapter president of the Jane Austen Society, at a country ball held to mark Austen’s 250th birthday. (Photo by Neil Gaikwad)}

Jane Austen’s 250th birthday is on Dec. 16, and Louise Yearwood, executive director of Alumni Affairs & Advancement at Victoria University, has a few thoughtful ways for readers to mark the occasion. As a former president of the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Toronto region chapter for 25 years, she knows a thing or two about celebrating Austen in style.

1. Attend (or host) a Regency ball. BYOB (bring your own bonnet).
   
   
2. Binge-watch your favourite Jane Austen movies.

   (Yearwood’s favourite is Clueless, tied with Persuasion, the version with Amanda Root as Anne Elliott and Ciarán Hinds as Capt. Frederick Wentworth).

3. Re-read your favourite Austen novels for the umpteenth time.

   (Her favourite is Persuasion).

4. Fancy a trip to England? Visit Winchester Cathedral, where Austen is buried, and the British Museum in London, which has her writing desk. Go to Steventon, where she spent her childhood and early adulthood, and Chawton Cottage where she spent her most prolific period of creativity.
   
   
5. Try to be as observant of the human condition as was Jane Austen herself. Who do you know who reminds you of Lady Catherine de Bourgh?