Tag Archives: winter

Inuit in Canada’s North have their own unique names for the months of the year. Aseena Mablick, an announcer for CBC Nunavut’s Inuktitut-language radio program Tausunni, has been collecting information on the names of the months in Inuktitut for years.

Mablick says one of the reasons she’s sharing this now is to “keep the language.”The names in Inuktitut are interconnected with the environment and wildlife surrounding the Inuit in Canada’s North.”It’s a truthful and honest calendar for people who are living over here, everyday, like us,” she says. “We just follow mother nature’s ways for naming the calendar.”

Each region in Nunavut has its own unique names for the calendar, and Mablick shared with us just two of the regions she’s looked into — Baffin region (also known as the Qikiqtaaluk Region) and Nunavik (northern Quebec).

January In Nunavik, January is “Naliqqaittuq”, literally meaning “nobody’s able to compete with it,” says Mablick. “It has to do with the coldest weather in that month.”

January is called “Qaummagiaq” in the Baffin region. It means “bright day coming back.”

meanwhile in ann arbor…

Continuing a six-decade tradition,

hundreds participated in a huge snowball fight

at the University of Michigan Diag,

embracing the Michigan snowstorm.

credits: cbc news (north), aseena mablick, deadline detroit

Jan19

partly cloudies.

Posted on January 19, 2023 by beth

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when walking by the river

—

“today is one of those excellent january partly cloudies

in which light chooses an unexpected part of the landscape to trick out in gilt,

and then the shadow sweeps it away.

you know you’re alive. you take huge steps,

trying to feel the planet’s roundness arc between your feet.”

-annie dillard

—

huron river, argo park, ann arbor, mi, usa – january 2023

Dec30

in the dark of december.

Posted on December 30, 2022 by beth

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“i heard a bird sing in the dark of december.

a magical thing.

and sweet to remember.

we are nearer to spring than we were in september.

i heard a bird sing in the dark of december.”

-oliver herford

—

art credit: “Winter Moon”, photograph by Ginette Brosseau

This dark winter landscape photo was taken not far from her home

along the shores of the St. Lawrence river in Quebec.

Dec21

essence of life.

Posted on December 21, 2022 by beth

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picture from a past solstice celebration

—

every year

one of my favorite things to teach and share with my class

is the story and traditions of the winter solstice

i get to play the sun

the children play the tilting earth and the seasons

who spin and dance and throw snow

as the season changes

the sun stays in the middle

offering extra light

to the other side of the earth now tilting toward it

knowing it will always return to them

even as our days grow shorter

they quietly rest on the ground

waiting, waiting

only to emerge

when the time is right

happy to dance once more

in the light of the warm spring sun.

—

*notes: here is my recipe for the winter solstice, and many thanks to all for your low-tech special effects support of this performance: torn paper snowflakes made by the children, many smiles, a bit of dizziness, a sun doing an interpretive dance, a person to turn off and on the classroom lights at just the right moment, a flashlight, a yellow paper sun, a dj to play the music (‘carol of the bells’ by george winston, and ‘here comes the sun’ by the beatles) at just the right time, and a class full of kinder/whirling twirling planets throwing snow, lying down, and awakening as emerging new life in the spring when the sun returns. somehow it all falls into place, each year a bit differently, as is the way of the world.

—

“spiritually, life is a festival, a celebration. joy is the essence of life.”

-agnivesh