I started marking the seasonal changes a few years ago. It started out just as a mark in my diary, my own thoughts to keep me company on these little-remembered dates. I’d wash the windows for the Spring Equinox, to remind myself to clean back the cobwebs in my own life that were preventing the…
I had fifteen minutes to spare, so I bought a flaky almond pastry-pretzel from the bakery and then walked 100m up the small street so that I could stand in the sunshine. The pavements were all white from the salt the city has been throwing down each night to stop us from sliding to and…
I’m a huge lover of traditions, of all shapes and sizes. I read church liturgy and thumb through books on the lives of saints with interest. I am inspired by stories of friends celebrating the solstices and equinox days, marking the changing seasons. I eagerly learn about Buddhist prayer flags, and how Jews celebrate the…
Yesterday was Winter Solstice, a fact I only remembered late in the day, over dinner, when my mother-in-law mentioned it to someone and my intermediate Danish caught the comment. I had half-thought I would “celebrate” the Solstice this year, in my own way. So my intitial feeling was one of disappointment. I’d missed it. It…
Photo source: Under the Canopy by Roman Johnston on Earthshots.org This coming Saturday, 22nd September, is the autumnal equinox (in the northern hemisphere). It’s the second day of the year in which the light and the darkness are equal to each other (the first is the Spring Equinox), balancing each other perfectly before the next…
I don’t come from a family or even a country that typically celebrates the summer solstice. My guess is it might have been viewed as a slightly dodgy hippy pagan festival (the hippy part being ok, the pagan not so much). My summers as a child are a beautiful memory, tinged slightly pink-orange, which I…
