The months of October and November.
A blaze of colors of the season, fire roasted orange, yellow, red making up for the fading green, interspersed with black, grey and more black for the season of witches, spirits and graves. Warm and dazzling colors, moving the year to the dead of winter in literally a riot of hot colors.
So stunning people travel from around the world to do leaf peeping in the Northeast.
The celebrations of Halloween, All Hallows Eve, with the spooky and scary, when the dead are believed to be closer to this world, moves into the season of Thanksgiving with turkeys, pumpkins, orange foods, wreaths of leaves and sheaths of corn.
One morphs into the other.
Color families that blend.
But despite the fever pitch over pumpkin spice everything (thank you Starbucks) something odd is happening.
THIS…..
Christmas trees have been appearing, creeping in slowly but you can see them on Facebook, Instagram, blogs. And not just the Rockefeller Center Christmas trees that has arrived and is sitting naked. These are trees fully decorated, filling a corner, covered in lights and ornaments. Causing seasonal confusion. So what is with the Christmas trees going up in November? (won’t even mention those that appeared before Halloween). What is with this early stuff, before Thanksgiving?
Wasn’t the arrival of Santa in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade the start of the holiday season?
Isn’t the point of a Christmas tree…..Christmas? Which is the season that traditionally was associated with the arrival of Jesus, and before that the pagan celebration of the darkest day? Then it was hijacked by businesses to sell more stuff and became a holiday tree? Whatever, it is the evergreen tree that is decorated with lights ~ to light up the dark days of winter. At the time of the solstice, the shortest day. But now they are appearing before the leaves have even fully dropped, the colors have disappeared and the grey and drabs of winter need the splashes of color.
What is going on? Why are people putting trees up earlier and earlier?
Are lives so dull they need the uplift of some sparkle? Or so busy they need to get ahead of things?
Whatever, please stop. It is confusing. Sets in panic……how many days are left? It sets a dangerous precedent, pushing everything forward, inching life on. It almost feels like an episode of the Twilight Zone.
Whoever you are please just stop it.
