Small Cold

Today is the first day of the Small Cold (pinyin: xiǎohán ) solar term.

小寒

The name seems ironic, considering the news coming from the middle of the North American landmass, where wind-chill adjusted temperatures are in the -50s Fahrenheit. But it is mild here out West.

It is also the day of the Epiphany, which in Catholic countries used to be a bigger gift-giving day than Christmas. And, coincidentally, I believe the Orthodox Christmas is going to be tomorrow, which translates to December 25 on the Old Style Russian calendar, which is what the Orthodox church still uses for its observances.

In places that use that Gregorian calendar, today was the first Monday after the New Year week, and everybody returned to work (not just the people who work obscene hours for minimum wage in retail and other services business - they had to work last week, and the one before it).

Winter Solstice

Today is the first day of the Winter Solstice (pinyin: dōngzhì) solar term:

冬至 

 

The first character is the one for winter, one of two times the name of the season appears in the name of a solar term (all seasons follow the same pattern: first a "Start of season" term, and later a term named for the astronomical event, solstice or equinox). I may have written this before: the second character conveys the idea of a destination point, the end of a journey. For example, it appears on underground trains, following the name of the end station, meaning "train goes to [end station]". It is a good description of the winter solstice - the end point, or the deepest point, of winter.



Big Snow

It is the second day of the Big Snow (pinyin: dàxuě) solar term.

大雪

No snow yet, although we did have a just a bit of mixed rain and snow late in the previous term, Small Snow. The weather has been cold, and what little snow settled on grass and bushes then has not melted yet, about one week later.

Small Snow

In the Chinese calendar, today is the first day of the Small Snow (pinyin: xiǎoxuě) solar term:

小雪

We are having some very cold (for the Northwest) days, but no snow. In fact, the weather is sunny and crisp. There is some frost in the mornings but no fog. 

Gettysburg Address

Today, November 19th, is the anniversary of Lincoln's delivery of the Gettysburg Address - 150 years to the day. The speech is famous for its conciseness. On that day in 1863, it followed another speech, now totally forgotten, that lasted for two hours.

Day of Saint Martin

Today, November 11th, is the day of St. Martin (of Tours, to be precise).

The day lends its name to the "estate di San Martino", which is the Italian name for Indian Summer.

It is also marked in Sweden as Mårtengås. Gås is a goose, and Mårten is, of course, the Swedish form of Martin. The association with the goose is specific to Nordic countries and is not rooted in the legend of the saint. Instead, I guess it stems from the fact that this is a good time to slaughter domestic geese (the wild ones have left the Nordic countries a couple of months ago). Geese eat grass, and accumulate fat in late summer. By now, green grass begins to be in short supply, because there has been frost for several weeks already, so there is no hope to fatten the geese any further.

Traditionally, a dish made of goose blood is served in Sweden on this day (I suppose that the reason is that blood does not keep very well, so it was probably consumed first; the meat can be kept longer, especially in cold weather; and geese are large enough to justify preserving the meat, as in the goose sausages and salted legs that are traditional in several places).

Start of Winter Solar Term

Last Thursday, November 8th, was the first day of the Start of Winter (pinyin: lìdōng) solar term:

立冬

As usual, this is the start of the season from a weather point of view; the winter solstice is marked by another solar term later in the year.