Bayview Park in Key West at three in the morning:
Tonight is Twelfth Night and this is the deadline for removing one's decorations, or a year of bad luck will follow. The city has I hope, taken note of this deadline as 2009 is shaping up to be not a good place to be relying on pure luck to escape economic catastrophe unscathed.Truman Avenue had city displays too: 
Citizens were also keeping their private displays on view:
I hope I have made it clear that I feel no need whatsoever to celebrate the season of shopping by enjoying a nice fat snowfall. Thus a plastic snowman illuminated form within and surrounded by palm trees is entirely up my street:
Twelfth Night is supposed to represent the arrival of the Three Wise Men, the Arabs bearing gifts from"afar." Whereas frankincense, myrrh and gold have been supplanted by shopping sprees and gifts are exchanged on or around the 25th of December it wasn't always so. In Italy they talk of la befana, a little old lady who brought modest gifts on this day, and this modest image I found on an Italian website:
North American images are more pagan in some sense, trees, snowmen and a penguin. I have no idea what a penguin in a Santa hat represents:
Perhaps it isn't a penguin but who knows what it's supposed to be. I enjoy the attempts at making Key West part of the Germanic Christmas history, with trees and snow in the image:
Not forgetting reindeer, like they have anything to do with Keys lore and tradition, but they are so small perhaps they are just white Key deer:
And behind them I found Good King Wenceslas, St Nick to some, Santa Claus to others playing on a see-saw, again with the plump penguin motif on the other end:
This next on Flagler at Linda could be Christmas lights in red and green the traditional colors, but they are here year round. Disabling traffic lights could be very unlucky for some people:
And as I cruised around on my 2am lunch break I did spot some Jews keeping up their own decorations well past the eight day deadline:
I like the tradition of each night putting the lighted Menorah in the window to illuminate the world but...not year round! I came across one parsimonious householder with their decorations turned off, symbolic perhaps of my desire to see us all move on with the rest of the year:
In the spirit of closing the door on another holiday season here's one of the Bonneville nowhere near any Christmas lights:
On Jose Marti Drive, looking northeast up North Roosevelt Boulevard. Not a fairy light in sight.
8 comments:
Tesco in England have apparently cleared their shelves of Christmas stuff to make room for Easter eggs.
Time to go Easter bunny-spotting!
No rest for the wicked.
Wait, easter? They don't do Valentine's day in merry ole England? Or is that a sole American Greetings card industry day?
Search February 14th 2008. I like the essay enough I may re-run it this year. The whole holiday industry is a slavish imitation of what happens in the good ole USA. Where Hollywood and Hallmark lead, the rest of the world (minus Conchscooter) follows.
Oh, and Easter. There's a good one, the greatest holiday in Christendom's calendar (anyone can be born, hardly anyone gets resurrected) and they celebrate it with a bunny rabbit? Thumbs up for pagan fertility symbols eh?
Pagan fertility symbols? Hehe, gives new meaning to "bouncing like bunnies".
I have heard the argument that Christ's birthday was sometime in June (after the Romans and Pope's and later Greenwich moved the calendar around) and we celebrate it in December to bring more of the pagan's into Christianity via their winter solstice. Is there a similar argument for the date of Easter since it moves each year (like the sun or moon or heavens move). People's resurrection dates shouldn't move each year.
The things I ponder... now, how can I make the world a better place by pondering them? I guess that takes action upon the ponderings.
"I hope I have made it clear that I feel no need whatsoever to celebrate the season of shopping by enjoying a nice fat snowfall."
I almost feel that this is being directed to us that reside in the northern climes, but we have no choice in controlling Mother Nature's wrath. At least we save on having to purchase those aerosol cans with that "fake" snow. For some reason, in spite of Global Warming, we have had the worst weather in half a century. Our KW weather will be here during July & August and we will post pictures to prove it when the time comes.
Happy Easter
Ok, I'm gonna hurry home and take down all the Christmas decorations tonight.
Watch out Easter Bunny...here I come
Dear Sir:
There is a distinct advantage to having dense foliage and dogwood trees around the house. Twinkle lights with brown wires carefully threaded through branches become invisible when unplugged... Invisible enough to stay where undisturbed for another year.
I cut though the wires and dispose of the lights once every four years. Then they have to be rehung. This is called "The Judicious Conservation of Effort."
For Valentines Day this year, I am going to reuse the velvet heart I got at the trendy chocolatier at the mall. But instead of refilling it with luscious chocolates, each little crinkly paper cup will contain a rolled-up coupon for things like food, toilet paper, and Imodium -- to stem the initial reaction to the ongoing financial news. Practical stuff. I think it will go over well.
The ice is falling at the moment. I am going to sprinkle rock salt outside the garage door, and use the Suburban to retrieve the garbage cans from the street. And I have no shame in admitting this.
Fondest regards,
Jack Riepe
Twisted Roads
Post a Comment