The New Year is here, and many of us in North America will note the start of the year with resolutions, a legacy of being informed by the European side of the immigrant family tree. The Romans gave us January 1st as the marker for the new year, and Pope Gregory promoted it with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar , something adopted by the Western / Christian world in 1582 and used as a loose business default calendar globally.… Read the rest
[Life Back West] December 2009 – The Darkest Days
In earlier times, people in the northern hemisphere marked the winter solstice – the time of the year when daylight for the hemisphere is at its shortest – with rites and rituals. Even today those traditions live on with things like the California Revels and their event productions held in Oakland.
This time of year was regarded as marking the sun‘s ebbing presence in the sky, and the deepest moment of the cold winter’s dark.… Read the rest