![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Reverie on December
December sounds cold and bright, like candy canes and snowflakes. Those aren't just connotations--the word itself sounds clear, crisp, dark. De-ssssssem-brrr. And of course it's the season of light for so many religions, all in an attempt to banish the cold darkness, when the nights are longest. The light fades after December and then we're stuck with January, with no light, only oppressive cold.
I associate darkness with mystery as well (being the literary Romantic that I am). December is a season of mystery, expressed best by carols that are in a minor key, like "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." O Magnum Mysterium
A lot of sacred anthems written during the 14th century, obsess about the cold, which was of course when the Little Ice Age occurred. The "cold, cold" night, which must have been an oppressive, maddening, inescapable reality for so many, even the rich. Maybe that's why I love the Middle Ages so much; I can empathize with their environmental misery so well.
The Little Ice Age is fascinating (although I disagree with this site on at least one thing--from what I understand, crops began failing much earlier than "mid-14th century," thus softening up the population nicely just in time for the devastation of the Black Death).
I associate darkness with mystery as well (being the literary Romantic that I am). December is a season of mystery, expressed best by carols that are in a minor key, like "Carol of the Bells" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." O Magnum Mysterium
A lot of sacred anthems written during the 14th century, obsess about the cold, which was of course when the Little Ice Age occurred. The "cold, cold" night, which must have been an oppressive, maddening, inescapable reality for so many, even the rich. Maybe that's why I love the Middle Ages so much; I can empathize with their environmental misery so well.
The Little Ice Age is fascinating (although I disagree with this site on at least one thing--from what I understand, crops began failing much earlier than "mid-14th century," thus softening up the population nicely just in time for the devastation of the Black Death).