Dark days are upon us. And short. No small wonder that we turn to family, friends, music, drink, feasting, lights and gifts to ward off the chill of the shortest day of the year. So, to the whole pack of yeh - diddley-riddled poets and pirates that you are... May the Tunes Be With You, whatever your belief system (or lack thereof). And, in so playing, may you bring more light into the world, and let it continue to be ever thus...
Count me as among the deluded, but also openminded enough to recognize the value of the many different 'delusions' that human beings pursue. And Steve, us deluded people also celebrate all things earthly!
May the turning of the year and the seasons, and the many holidays that fall at this time, bring each and all of you joy and happiness.
Not feeling any "lack of belief system" here. And yet I'll still celebrate the turning of the year with music and friends. Amazing, eh? One can still function regardless. It's all good. Have a happy holiday season, everyone.
I've just looked into these times a little more thoroughly and it's interesting that there is very little change on a daily basis at this time of year, i.e. about a minute at the most. The same seems to apply around the Summer solstice.
However, in Spring and Autumn etc, the daylight can increase or decrease by up to 4-5 minutes a day.
I used to think it was a fairly steady increase or decrease but obviously not.
Should we be out there saluting every sunrise with music - or would the result be the death of everyl traditional musician at the hands of their neighbours?
And if we believe more in ' The The Family on Man '
We might crawl out of our own imbecilic stupidity's..
And stop using God and, using him as a Scapegoat for,
Whatever we make him Stand For -
jim,
... I wasn't quite finished... and so in playing... we shall spread diatonic delight throughout all the lands, until the Entire World is reeling, and so shall the the Entire World be ours! Ours! Aaaahahahahaha... then we'll show 'em a thing or two. Perhaps a barndance.
I was raised a Jew and an atheist. There is no contradiction there. I don't believe in God (or Yahweh or the Hindu saints or the Greek gods or the Norse pantheon) any more than I believe in Santa or the BVM. The divinity of Jesus? The literal truth of the New Testament (or the Old)? Give me a break.
But I do love Christmas and I do love Hanukkah. So tonight we will light the candles and sing the borucha, and on Christmas morning we will kiss each other and wish us each a merry day.
So to all of you, atheist and believer alike, from the bottom of my heart, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.
Yes! It’s December (if you follow the calendar made up by Pope Gregory’s mathematicians in the 16 century).
So Happy Christmas to the Christians here, happy Ashura to the Muslims here, Happy Hanukkah to all the Jews here, happy Yule to all the Pagans here, happy Bodhi Day to all the Buddhists here.
I’m not a Christian so it would be hypocritical of me to celebrate Christmas, so I don’t. But neither do I celebrate the nasty secular bastard son of Christmas which most do: The Great Secular Winter Consumerist Indulgence Festival; the dreaded ex-Christian festival that is now a secular spend-frenzy, a world-wide worship of consumerism and cliché ridden bore. I do not engage with horrid event.
# Posted on December 1st 2011 by yhaalhouse
Something unexpectedly seasonal just happened, for me. I have one fan (stop laughing, back there--I figure it's "proof of concept"), a U.S. Navy sailor who is serving in Afghanistan right now. (Yes, they send swabbies to landlocked countries sometimes.) Anyway, he started trying to learn fiddle when he was at sea, but doesn't have one with him now, and he's bored.
I'm mailing him a used Feadog whistle today. Not because of any particular unproveable cosmological theories, just because it seems like the right thing to do.
John Galt,,,
I Like what you planning to do with that whistle...
Now there's what Christmas, Ashura, Hanukkah, Yule, Bodhi, etc etc, Should be all about..
jim,,,
"And if we believe more in ' The The Family on Man '
We might crawl out of our own imbecilic stupidity's..
And stop using God and, using him as a Scapegoat for,
Whatever we make him Stand For -
jim,
Well, I was up a mountainside today. After a bright start it turned into a fairly soft day - drizzle and a clinging mist. As I descended in the falling light, I came across this old farm. A rough narrow boreen led into a tight cluster of ruined buildings in a grove of trees.
Clearly it was a homestead of some import in times past but no motor car ever went there. Fine stonework, the two storey farmhouse had been roofed in Bangor blue slate, the several stone barns in the local Glaslacken slate, now all fallen in. A few rusted bedsteads, iron wheel rims, a spring gushing into an old tub, the sheep gathering over to see if any fodder was in the offing.
I dwelt for a while on the people who made a life there; lived, loved, children playing in the haggard, growing & leaving, perhaps dying and being waked there. Leaving the good people there in the gathering gloom, I made my way on down the rough tracks to civilisation and as I did so, a few tunes went around my head and I understood again where this music comes from..
Nice, hussar! It's a soft day here too. I was going to skip my walk (logging roads, no homesteads alas) but you have inspired me. I wonder what my "head tunes" will be, today? There's no telling, when I'm just putting one foot in front of the other.
John Galt, Just what any unit needs, a beginner whistler... (be careful when the boys come home, they might not all be grateful)
Myself, my wife just knitted a scarf for our friend in Afghanistan. He is a rock drummer (my friendship with him is yet another example that I support multiculturalism).
neither do I celebrate the nasty secular bastard son of Christmas which most do: The Great Secular Winter Consumerist Indulgence Festival; the dreaded ex-Christian festival that is now a secular spend-frenzy, a world-wide worship of consumerism and cliché ridden bore. I do not engage with horrid event.
# Posted on December 1st 2011 by yhaalhouse
I would not want to be seen siding with those supporting a secular spend-frenzy, but I do like getting Christmas presents for and from those I love
If you have any, may your gods bless you all. Else, enjoy the break.,
Now is the time to forecast the weather for the next three months. Just note what the pattern and general conditions are from the Solstice for the next week. This sets the pattern for the next three months. Mild and wet ? It will be mild and wet. Frosty and clear ? It will be frosty and clear.
You don't believe me ? Well, just take a note and observe. I have nothing to gain or lose by telling you this.
The Winter Solstice
The Winter Solstice
Dark days are upon us. And short. No small wonder that we turn to family, friends, music, drink, feasting, lights and gifts to ward off the chill of the shortest day of the year. So, to the whole pack of yeh - diddley-riddled poets and pirates that you are... May the Tunes Be With You, whatever your belief system (or lack thereof). And, in so playing, may you bring more light into the world, and let it continue to be ever thus...
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by drone
Re: The Winter Solstice
There's no such thing as lack of a belief system. There are the celebrators of all things earthly and there are the deluded. But good luck to you too.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Steve Shaw
Re: The Winter Solstice
Count me as among the deluded, but also openminded enough to recognize the value of the many different 'delusions' that human beings pursue. And Steve, us deluded people also celebrate all things earthly!
May the turning of the year and the seasons, and the many holidays that fall at this time, bring each and all of you joy and happiness.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by AlBrown
Re: The Winter Solstice
I'm with 'ya Steve Shaw on that sentiment.
Not feeling any "lack of belief system" here. And yet I'll still celebrate the turning of the year with music and friends. Amazing, eh? One can still function regardless. It's all good. Have a happy holiday season, everyone.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Conical bore
Re: The Winter Solstice
Hmmm... that didn't come out quite right. I'm not feeling a lack of belief system because I'm not a believer. Pesky things, these words.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Conical bore
Re: The Winter Solstice
You know what I'm celebrating? Just five more days until no more bloody christmas carols for another six or seven months, at least.
Happy Newtonmas to all...
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: The Winter Solstice
sure the day after tomorrow there will start to be a stretch in the evenings...
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Theirlandais
Re: The Winter Solstice
They have been stretching for a week.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by David50
Re: The Winter Solstice
In the wrong direction.....
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
http://uk.weather.com/climate/sunRiseSunSet-London-UKXX0085
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by David50
Re: The Winter Solstice
"They have been stretching for a week"
That's right - and we have to wait till the 29th till the latest sunrise.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by domhnall.
Re: The Winter Solstice
"Count me as among the deluded"
me too.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by domhnall.
Re: The Winter Solstice
I've just looked into these times a little more thoroughly and it's interesting that there is very little change on a daily basis at this time of year, i.e. about a minute at the most. The same seems to apply around the Summer solstice.
However, in Spring and Autumn etc, the daylight can increase or decrease by up to 4-5 minutes a day.
I used to think it was a fairly steady increase or decrease but obviously not.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
I suppose there are times when seeing a summary of things on a chart makes them easier to notice ...
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by David50
Re: The Winter Solstice
Christmas comes but once a year ...
... and when it comes, we all drink beer ... !
Never the rest of the year, of course - except for the very occasional half-a-shandy between tunes at sessions ...
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Mix O'Lydian
Re: The Winter Solstice
Christmas is when eggs are used to make Eggnog rather than being shaken.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
"However, in Spring and Autumn etc, the daylight can increase or decrease by up to 4-5 minutes a day.
I used to think it was a fairly steady increase or decrease but obviously not."
It's sinusoidal, because daylength is a function of the earth's angular position on its orbit.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by skreech
Re: The Winter Solstice
Thanks. I thought it would have something to do with that although my maths are a bit rusty these days.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
Should we be out there saluting every sunrise with music - or would the result be the death of everyl traditional musician at the hands of their neighbours?
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by LowProfile
Re: The Winter Solstice
LP, are you based in Thurso?
I don't imagine there'd be much daylight up there just now. Great in the Summer though.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
My myths are a bit rusty these days.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by nicholas
Re: The Winter Solstice
My moths are a bit rusty too - need more meths. Keeps the cold out when saluting the sunrise.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Weejie
Re: The Winter Solstice
Would meths help to make my fiddle rolls more fluid?
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
It might make you think they are.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Weejie
Re: The Winter Solstice
My sinusoids give me a lot of trouble at this time of the year.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by DaveL35
Re: The Winter Solstice
A pure drop or two of fresh airs should sort that.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Weejie
Re: The Winter Solstice
the music helps me get through the month...December is the busiest time of the year for piano tuners.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Greg the Piano Tuner
Re: The Winter Solstice
Well then,, May your God be in your Heart !
And if we believe more in ' The The Family on Man '
We might crawl out of our own imbecilic stupidity's..
And stop using God and, using him as a Scapegoat for,
Whatever we make him Stand For -
jim,
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by FIDDLE4
Re: The Winter Solstice
... I wasn't quite finished... and so in playing... we shall spread diatonic delight throughout all the lands, until the Entire World is reeling, and so shall the the Entire World be ours! Ours! Aaaahahahahaha... then we'll show 'em a thing or two. Perhaps a barndance.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by drone
Re: The Winter Solstice
I was raised a Jew and an atheist. There is no contradiction there. I don't believe in God (or Yahweh or the Hindu saints or the Greek gods or the Norse pantheon) any more than I believe in Santa or the BVM. The divinity of Jesus? The literal truth of the New Testament (or the Old)? Give me a break.
But I do love Christmas and I do love Hanukkah. So tonight we will light the candles and sing the borucha, and on Christmas morning we will kiss each other and wish us each a merry day.
So to all of you, atheist and believer alike, from the bottom of my heart, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by David Levine
Let me reitterate what I said earlier!
Yes! It’s December (if you follow the calendar made up by Pope Gregory’s mathematicians in the 16 century).
So Happy Christmas to the Christians here, happy Ashura to the Muslims here, Happy Hanukkah to all the Jews here, happy Yule to all the Pagans here, happy Bodhi Day to all the Buddhists here.
I’m not a Christian so it would be hypocritical of me to celebrate Christmas, so I don’t. But neither do I celebrate the nasty secular bastard son of Christmas which most do: The Great Secular Winter Consumerist Indulgence Festival; the dreaded ex-Christian festival that is now a secular spend-frenzy, a world-wide worship of consumerism and cliché ridden bore. I do not engage with horrid event.
# Posted on December 1st 2011 by yhaalhouse
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: The Winter Solstice
Here's a wee tune for ye all.
http://www.thesession.org/tunes/display/2532
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Johnny Jay
Re: The Winter Solstice
Something unexpectedly seasonal just happened, for me. I have one fan (stop laughing, back there--I figure it's "proof of concept"), a U.S. Navy sailor who is serving in Afghanistan right now. (Yes, they send swabbies to landlocked countries sometimes.) Anyway, he started trying to learn fiddle when he was at sea, but doesn't have one with him now, and he's bored.
I'm mailing him a used Feadog whistle today. Not because of any particular unproveable cosmological theories, just because it seems like the right thing to do.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by John Galt
Re: The Winter Solstice
p.s. I know it all sounds ridiculously twee, but I swear it's all true. I'm taking his whistle to the post office this afternoon.
Happy Hols, all.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by John Galt
Re: The Winter Solstice
Round here (kiwiland) we're just gearing up for Chrissymessy then summer camping at the beach. YAY.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Bredna
Re: The Winter Solstice
John Galt,,,
I Like what you planning to do with that whistle...
Now there's what Christmas, Ashura, Hanukkah, Yule, Bodhi, etc etc, Should be all about..
jim,,,
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by FIDDLE4
Re: The Winter Solstice
Jim - well said, my friend!
"And if we believe more in ' The The Family on Man '
We might crawl out of our own imbecilic stupidity's..
And stop using God and, using him as a Scapegoat for,
Whatever we make him Stand For -
jim,
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by MaryMargaret
Re: The Winter Solstice
Well, don't just let him stand there! Offer a chair and put something nice to drink in his hand and let the (long, long) evening progress!
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by Michele Sims
Re: The Winter Solstice
Well, I was up a mountainside today. After a bright start it turned into a fairly soft day - drizzle and a clinging mist. As I descended in the falling light, I came across this old farm. A rough narrow boreen led into a tight cluster of ruined buildings in a grove of trees.
Clearly it was a homestead of some import in times past but no motor car ever went there. Fine stonework, the two storey farmhouse had been roofed in Bangor blue slate, the several stone barns in the local Glaslacken slate, now all fallen in. A few rusted bedsteads, iron wheel rims, a spring gushing into an old tub, the sheep gathering over to see if any fodder was in the offing.
I dwelt for a while on the people who made a life there; lived, loved, children playing in the haggard, growing & leaving, perhaps dying and being waked there. Leaving the good people there in the gathering gloom, I made my way on down the rough tracks to civilisation and as I did so, a few tunes went around my head and I understood again where this music comes from..
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by the wounded hussar
Re: The Winter Solstice
Nice, hussar! It's a soft day here too. I was going to skip my walk (logging roads, no homesteads alas) but you have inspired me. I wonder what my "head tunes" will be, today? There's no telling, when I'm just putting one foot in front of the other.
# Posted on December 20th 2011 by John Galt
Re: The Winter Solstice
John Galt, Just what any unit needs, a beginner whistler... (be careful when the boys come home, they might not all be grateful)
Myself, my wife just knitted a scarf for our friend in Afghanistan. He is a rock drummer (my friendship with him is yet another example that I support multiculturalism).
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by AlBrown
Re: The Winter Solstice
Self-defense, your honor. He told me there's a beginning banjo player next door.
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by John Galt
Re: The Winter Solstice
Ah, down the musical slippery slope we go!
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by AlBrown
Re: The Winter Solstice
neither do I celebrate the nasty secular bastard son of Christmas which most do: The Great Secular Winter Consumerist Indulgence Festival; the dreaded ex-Christian festival that is now a secular spend-frenzy, a world-wide worship of consumerism and cliché ridden bore. I do not engage with horrid event.
# Posted on December 1st 2011 by yhaalhouse
I would not want to be seen siding with those supporting a secular spend-frenzy, but I do like getting Christmas presents for and from those I love
If you have any, may your gods bless you all. Else, enjoy the break.,
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by greg sheils
Re: The Winter Solstice
If I had it all to do again...would I?
Hell yes
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by croxton
Re: The Winter Solstice
This Christmas I am just going to drink a lot and sleep a lot.
I will leave idealism, generosity, forethought and active effort to the mature.
I am 59, and too old to be mature.
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by nicholas
Re: The Winter Solstice
I was just giving up on Christmas altogether and then I listened to Manx Radio's Folk programme at http://www.manxradio.com/audiovault/Folk.mp3. Then I felt a tiny bit better.
# Posted on December 21st 2011 by LowProfile
It's all over now!
Oh well! It's all over now!
The Solstice was at 5.30 am this morning.
# Posted on December 22nd 2011 by yhaalhouse
Re: The Winter Solstice
Darwin est natus.
# Posted on December 22nd 2011 by Atahualpa Quigley
Re: The Winter Solstice
Now is the time to forecast the weather for the next three months. Just note what the pattern and general conditions are from the Solstice for the next week. This sets the pattern for the next three months. Mild and wet ? It will be mild and wet. Frosty and clear ? It will be frosty and clear.
You don't believe me ? Well, just take a note and observe. I have nothing to gain or lose by telling you this.
# Posted on December 23rd 2011 by Guernsey Pete
Re: The Winter Solstice
Do you predict lottery numbers too?
# Posted on December 23rd 2011 by bazouki dave
Re: The Winter Solstice
I wish, then I could buy all these fine bouzoukis and citterns I hear about.
# Posted on December 24th 2011 by Guernsey Pete