Happy Holidays to all and a Happy New Year!

December and January are when we hold our Winter celebrations – whichever you prefer to celebrate. We shut out the cold and turn to the warmth of friends and family. We eat special foods and light up the darkness and forget the weather for a few days.

Personally, I think we need another celebration between February and April, when we celebrate the sun’s return for another Summer, but maybe that’s just me. I’d like Winter a lot more if it wasn’t dark for so much of it.

At any rate, I hope you remain healthy and happy, and that your New Year will be a good one.

In the year 325, the council of Nicea decreed that Easter should be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring equinox (March 21). This means that Easter can be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. It’s a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, but as with most Christian traditions, has plenty of pagan tradition mixed in.

In America, the vast “melting pot,” Old West characters would have come into contact with traditions from all over the world. They’d have heard of the Easter Bunny from their German acquaintances, and learned to dye eggs from many sources. Some countries dye their eggs red to represent Christ’s blood, others use wax or beads to create elaborate patterns.

In the UK, children roll eggs down a hill to see whose can travel further. In Sweden, the eggs are rolled down roofing tiles. In Germany, eggs are hung from trees (like decorating a Christmas tree). And in many countries, folks tap the pointed ends of their decorated eggs against another’s egg to see which egg breaks first.

One thing the Old West didn’t have was chocolate bunnies. These bunnies were made in large quantities in Germany before 1900, but didn’t become popular in America until after the turn of the century.

This is my favorite time of the year! I love the weather – not too hot, not too cold – and I love that feeling in the air, the one that makes the wild geese take to the skies in search of new landings. The world is gearing down for the long sleep of winter, tucking itself in with blankets of fallen leaves.

 

I love the colors of Fall: reds and oranges and yellows and rich browns. If you see me in person, I’m likely to be wearing some variation of those colors at any given moment.

I love dressing up at Halloween parties, too. Like writing, costumes are a way to get out of “the real world” and play around in an imaginary one for awhile. Go as your favorite literary character, or just be as spooky as you want to.

Halloween is a rip-roaring farewell party for summer, and a welcome back party for Fall. Hot cider and pumpkin pie, leaf piles and trees lacing the bright blue sky with bare branches …

What’s your favorite Fall memory – or your favorite Halloween character?