Saturday, February 15, 2025

News and Ideas Worth Sharing

HomeViewpointsLettersCross-quarter days

Cross-quarter days

We have lost so much in the transformation of these ancient days of honoring, giving thanks, and celebration, now trivialized and commercialized, as is so much of our impoverished culture.

To the editor:

Re Judy Isacoff’s recent column, “Turning the corner to spring,” I wanted to credit the tradition from which this reference came: the Celts. Once thought to have occupied much of Europe, this Earth-honoring tradition was gradually pushed to the hinterlands of France, the British Isles, and Galicia in Spain.

The cross-quarter days do fall between each Solstice and Equinox, and as one would expect of a culture grounded in the rhythms of nature, honor the changes of the seasons, and people’s hopes and fears for their livelihood. Imbolc, February 1, honored the first stirrings of spring, when ewes would give birth and people’s thoughts began to turn toward the next planting season. Groundhog Day is a corruption of this celebration. The next “Feis” will be Beltane, May 1, when spring has truly arrived, and we see the spin-offs in other celebrations that have overtaken that day. Then Lughnasadh, the harvest celebration on August 1 that marks the end of summer. And, the most sacred, Samhain, on October 31, a liminal day of honoring our ancestors and the beginning of the Celtic New Year.

We have lost so much in the transformation of these ancient days of honoring, giving thanks, and celebration, now trivialized and commercialized, as is so much of our impoverished culture.

Bonnie Campbell
Lenox

Click here to read The Berkshire Edge’s policy for submitting Letters to the Editor.

spot_img

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.

Continue reading

Leigh Davis is off to a running start

I am certain that, even as a freshman legislator, Leigh Davis will provide the ideas and leadership we all sorely need at the moment.

Those closest to Trump warned us not to let him back in the White House

Trump is transactional. Most decisions are based on what is in it for him.

With the Trump administration’s stop-work order on USAID, the United States has moved backwards, with possibly decades of loss

The administration’s actions are cruel and counterproductive. We can only hope that it is not too late to regain much of what has already been lost.

The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.