it’s just not a party
until
the
accordion
and
the
watermelon dancers
come out.
just in time
glasses on
i read
i heed
the warning.
could have been
such
a disaster.
who would
have
ever imagined
that i
should not
toast
the warning paper
that comes
stuffed into
in the
new toaster
warning me
not to toast
the
warning paper?
—
lord, what fools these mortals be!
-william shakespeare , “a midsummer night’s dream”

now you might reasonably say to me: “why put yourself through all this? why go up to the loft when you know the decorations won’t be there? why untangle the lights when you know they haven’t a chance of working?” and my answer to you is that this is part of the ritual. christmas wouldn’t be christmas without it.’ bill bryson – ‘notes from a big country’
“And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.”
― Susan Cooper ( children’s author and first woman to edit oxford university’s paper)
—
image credit:portlandmaine.com