Heads Up!
Just a heads up for you, on December 21st, 2020, Winter Solstice will begin and we can see a very rare sight in our sky.
For the first time since March 4th, 1226, the planets Saturn and Jupiter will align and appear closer to us Earth dwellers. Rice University astrologist, Patrick Hartigan, says, “They will appear almost as a double planet.” Some say this is the reappearance of the “Christmas Star” that the Bible says led the Wise Men to find the Christ child. To possibly see this rarity, look towards the southwestern horizon on December 21st between dusk and 15-20 minutes after dark, no telescope needed. If you miss it this time, next viewing is March 15th, 2080.
YULE
If you have a fireplace, do you burn a Yule log in your fireplace on Christmas Eve? Starting in pagan times, the Yule log was lit early in the evening of the Winter Solstice and if it burned until the next morning you would have good luck. Winter Solstice is the longest day of the year and the next day the sun shines a little longer.
Today, for many of us the Yule Log ceremony is on a certain cable channel that repeats 24 hours a day. Last year, Hallmark Channel sponsored a channel that featured Happy and his friends starting at Thanksgiving and running to the New Year. An orange cat and a white dog both named Happy would lie contently by the warm hearth, bunnies would hop by, ducks waddled in and out, kittens scamper about.
This year there is none of that just when you needed it bad. Since July there have been 24 hours of endless romantic-themed tales, for instance, we are taken to a ski resort where there is a lonely woman or man, and the place is shutting down, no snow, then the miracle happens, snow, and everyone lives happily ever after. Best Yule Log of all is the one made out of cake. YUM!
SNOW
Christmas movies, everyone has their favorite from the highly sentimental, “It’s A Wonderful Life” where James Stewart learns a valuable lesson, to the always goofy Vacation Series, “Christmas Vacation” where Chevy Chase learns his valuable lesson. In between are a hundred, maybe more, movies ranging from happy to sad, but always with one ingredient, snow.
Personally, I go for my favorite, “The Man Who Came to Dinner” starring Monty Wooley, now there’s a name. Lucky me, I got to see it on Broadway one year starring Mr. Broadway, Nathan Lane. It may be my favorite, because they are always eating and of course, snow. In reality, if you have lived through a Metro Atlanta snow then you know it ain’t like in the movies.
SOMEONE SAID
The three stages of your life, you believe in Santa, you don’t believe in Santa, you are Santa.