At The Winter Solstice

[poliphilo]

The shortest day used to fall on December 13- St Lucy's Day- hence maidens wearing wreaths of lit candles and Donne's Nocturnal upon St Lucy's Day- the most bone-crackingly icy poem in the English language- but then they reformed the calendar- and now it falls on the 21st- and there hasn't yet been time for folkloric alum to concretize around ithe new date. Had Sandra been here she'd have hoiked us out of the house to go watch the solstice sun rise over the sea but she wasn't and we didn't- which I somewhat regret. What fun to have been at Stonehenge...

And now the days will start to lengthen and Donne's lesser sun (I suppose he means the moon)- will be going into Aries to fetch "new lust". And soon we can start looking out for snowdrops...