Happy November

This year will be my third November participating in a writing challenge. I’ll be writing every day from now through November 30th. That’s a lot of writing for me, and a lot of reading for you, and I’ll do my best to keep it interesting and entertaining.  In the past I wrote getting ready for Thanksgiving posts each Thursday, and I’ll be doing that again this year. If you are on any social media sites (and who isn’t?) you’ve noticed that there is a national day for almost everything, including some questionably worthy things such as Gunpowder Day, Men Make Dinner Day et al, so get ready to celebrate some of those as well.

Today is All Saints’ Day, a day to honor all saints, but particularly the saints for whom there is no dedicated feast day, and a bit of a spiritual palate cleanser following Halloween. I have been fascinated with saints and their attributes since my college days. As an art history major I learned more about Christianity including saints, feast days, and the history surrounding Christianity than most of my Christian friends had in Sunday school. There are saints for almost anything you can think of, including numerous saints of food and the kitchen. There is even an unofficial saint of vegans and vegetarians, St. Nicholas of Tolentino.

Yesterday we decided to look into the origins of Halloween, and though I knew it began as a Pagan holiday; many of the holidays we celebrate, and their accompanying symbols are remnants of Pagan celebrations I didn’t know the particulars. Halloween started as a holiday called Samhain (pronounced saah-ween). Samhain was a celebration and a preparation for the coming winter.

I can imagine the dread people had of the oncoming cold and dark winter, in times where night-time light and warmth were scarce. As we change the clocks, and dark falls earlier and earlier, I too dread the short days and cold nights. I pile extra blankets on my bed, put cozy throws on the couch, try to find the right balance between my thermostat and bank account, and start baking and braising and making meals to warm my belly, soul and house.

November is a month of preparation. We swap out our winter and summer clothes, clean our closets, and dig out our scarves, hats and gloves that I put in the perfect place last year, but now can’t recall what that is. I’ll make sure I have salt for my sidewalks, go to the attic for our extra blankets, and clean off my deck so my planters will make it through another winter. Goodbye stone fruit, hello apples and root vegetables. Thanksgiving is a few weeks away and you may be planning either the menu or your travel schedule. November is hectic, and only the start of the craziest and busiest time of the year, all planned over hundreds of years, to distract us from the darkest days of the year.

It never feels like it, but on December 22nd, the day after the winter solstice, the days will start getting longer, by two minutes each day. The sun will rise a minute earlier, and set a minute later every day until June 21st, when the cycle reverses. When I woke today, the first day of daylight savings time, I was happy it was already light, but that won’t last long. There is a calendar where you can input your city and see that by November 30th, the sunrise will be at 7:00 am (at least in Philadelphia). There are people who will only see sunlight on the weekends, be nice to them, that is soul crushing.

My hope is that I can add some light to your November, and that you don’t start to dread your daily email from me. Are you taking on any challenges this month?

A little literary/holiday humor!