Seasonal Pleasures.
At about this time of the year, I love to stop and reflect on the wonderful seasonal pleasures of life. Not quite yet Christmas, not quite winter in the northernm hemisphere, and here, 'down under', summer is almost in the air.
During the agrarian and hunter-gatherer period of our history, it was very easy to align our lives with the rhythms of the Earth. Many of our oldest festivals are tied to the seasons, including harvest festivals and pagan festivals of spring renewal and winter solstice. I find it fascinating that human societies have always celebrated at the same times of year, festivals such as Easter/Passover (spring renewal) and Christmas/Hanukkah (winter solstice).
Our modern world and quickening pace of life seem to have eroded our feelings of close connections with the seasons and rituals of the year. Since we?re now separated from the seasons by daily work in air-conditioned offices instead of fields, and foods come from everywhere and are available year-round, it?s harder and harder to stay in touch. I think the isolation is more of a factor than the pace in the loss of the rituals, the pace is what makes them increasingly important to find them again.
Like me, you may have fond childhood memories of seasonal rituals and customs that took place with comforting predictability, giving us a sense of security and belonging in our world, we seemed to be in tune with the ?markers? of time, their crafts, and associated activities. Recall the scent and feel of Autumn - leaves raked in colorful piles, walking on or playing in those crackling leaves, followed by the anticipation of Halloween night, and the Harvest festival tables, groaning under the weight of treasures of a gathered feast. The season of Winter is synonymous with Christmas, cold nights, frosty mornings and other winter rituals. The aroma of a steamy cup of hot cocoa. Spring brings forth new life with the delicate greeny-golds of the first spring buds, and preparation for the coming festivals of the season. Summer is warm and sunny filled with heady smells of ripe, red, juicy tomatoes and watermelons. Each season the house decor was changed to match the mood and festival. And so the wheel of seasons continued to turn with predictable alacrity which human lives were tied to, and reminded of the turning. At some point though, we began to lose touch. The thread of our predictable tapestry unraveled and the loose threads became just that.
Whatever happened to bonfire night on November 5th (in the UK)? Has our safe, sanitised world spawned a modern version of the original event? Has the ?organised? bonfire event successfully replaced those rain soaked amateur back yard affairs? I do agree that safety and commonsense are paramount, but like other historical reminders, it too has become another casualty of modern times striving quest for improvement. Maybe interest too, as intervention has eroded yet another ritual, blurring it into obsolescence.
Redundant and no longer relevant, we have pushed the important passages and markers of the year into history book, or they cling to survive in our childhood memories and photograph albums.
Now more than ever we demand these ties to the seasons. One possible reason, being futurists and trend watchers warned in the mid 1990s that the world hurtled toward an uncertain future at the start of the millennium, people would turn more and more to the familiar comfort and reassurance of traditional styles. A second possible reason, might be a kind of rebellion against the 24/7 pace of modern life, you use rituals that tie yourself to something that moves on a much slower and more predictable yearly cycle.
For those of us who live in a part of the world that has even less of a seasonal distinction, the effect is even more pronounced. Not only do we have the physical reminder in our environment of the changing seasons, but for many of us, our ceremonies or rituals have often been abandoned due to lack of interest. Recently I have found myself drawn to rediscovering these rituals, and revisiting them has sparked some deep down need in myself to mark the passage of each passing year, and wondering if others are also rediscovering these simple joys.
So if you have any craft ideas, seasonal pleasures, or additional information, please email them to me, as I would like to know how others celebrate the passage of the seasons of the year. If enough interest is shown, maybe I will be able to compile them into a future article. You can send me email at: twnkrissie@mail.com
