That’s right, it is the official start of winter to-day. Each year, on this day, my dad was keen to point this out and would announce: ‘We are now entering the black hole’! December 21st has the latest sunrise and the earliest sunset, it’s the shortest day. (Bright and sunny here in Edmonton with temperatures rising above 0 c. Hardly winter).
The days don’t start drawing out again for a few weeks. My father would announce; “We are out of the black hole. Thank goodness“! when the allotted day arrived. (When is that day, anybody know?) In the mean time in darkness there are lights and I am enjoying them sparkling from the trees on Whyte Avenue, tastefully done too. The city has ‘gone to town’ with lighting, especially around the legislative building. I saw them briefly the other evening on a trip through the city. Hopefully I’ll be escorted there one evening before they get switched off so I can appreciate their magic at a leisurely pace.
Here is an uplifting message for those who need one:
While the light of the world is diminishing may your heart and mind be steady and ever bright. And may you ‘go on beyond’ the ups and downs of daily life and know the, ever present, ‘serene luminescence’ now before your very eyes; unchanging, undying, uncreated. Permanent.
Note: In my book on plain English I read that it is OK to split infinitives. I think I just did that!
Keep up the meditation folks.
Here you go. Data for Edmonton.
Date Sunrise Sunset In south
Dec 22, 2005 8:49 AM 4:16 PM 12:32 PM
Dec 23, 2005 8:49 AM 4:17 PM 12:33 PM
Dec 24, 2005 8:49 AM 4:17 PM 12:33 PM
Dec 25, 2005 8:50 AM 4:18 PM 12:34 PM
Dec 26, 2005 8:50 AM 4:19 PM 12:34 PM
Dec 27, 2005 8:50 AM 4:20 PM 12:35 PM
Dec 28, 2005 8:50 AM 4:20 PM 12:35 PM
Thanks for the uplifting verse always welcome. I don’t know when the alloted day is but I do remember going to the doctor with my children yet again one winter and him saying that things would be better when spring arrived in a few days ….and they were!!!
I must do this more often and then I might remember my sign in details!
Thanks for the lovely message. “In darkness there is light” — although it can be hard to see in winter. Some of us move South.
As for the Note: the English teacher does not detect any split infinitives. They may be “OK” but in my writing I try to edit them out. The cosmologist says, How can I split anything related to Infinity? The English teacher agrees.
Thanks one and all for braving the comment section. Much appreciated.
I’m still wondering when the period of ‘black hole’ ends though. Not that I’m much troubled for lack of light being here in sunny Alberta…but it is not by the sea! Too bad.
An old Cornish saying used frequently by my Mother was ” Six weeks after Christmas it is daylight to go to Chapel” As I recall this would be for the evening service at 6.15pm.She also used to say that the daylight stays the same for a week after the 21st December, the shortest day, then gradually increases .