ALL IS CALM

IT CAN SOMETIMES FEEL AS IF DECEMBER IS ONE BIG CHARGE TO A SINGLE DAY OF CELEBRATION. BUT AS LIA LEENDERTZ POINTS OUT IN HER ALMANAC, THERE ARE OTHER, QUIETER, THINGS TO NOTICE THIS MONTH

December takes us full circle, down into the depths of the year and then up and out the other side. The dark triumphs, but briefly. This month there are several festivals of light and battles of fire and darkness: Hanukkah, Yule, and the big one: Christmas. Before it was Christmas Day, 25 December was celebrated as the birth date of Sol Invictus, the Roman god of the sun, and it is possible that the date was chosen to underline Christ’s role as bringer of hope and light. Just as the longest day at midsummer brought a sense of foreboding, the longest night brings with it great optimism. We feast and light fires, lanterns and candles to ward off the dark, and it works. By the end of December, the gloomiest days are behind us.

Landscapes and gardens are all bones now, with just little tufts of leaves clinging to the ends of branches, the last produced of the year, determined on their allotted time. When sunlight comes, it is weak and lemony, and the countryside is a watercolour wash of flax, buff and beige, with occasional ink crows and telephone lines. The days may be short and cold but the night is long and beautiful now, with the moon at its highest and clearest, and the stars showing at their brightest.

Sometimes it takes darkness to make us appreciate the light – and anyway, you never know what you might see if you step outside on a December night and look up.