[Uryoces]

Secular western culture has this bad tendency to trivialize religious holidays. I know that tomorrow I'll go over to Barnes and Noble and see them putting up the Christmas decorations. "Baby Jesus will cry if you don't take advantage of these savings!!!"

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I didn't see the aurorae tonight, but I did see them Wednesday night. The entire northern sky was green; very pretty. I know it's end of October because the Pleiades, Subaru, the Seven Sisters were directly overhead. Someone was trying to place some ominous significance to that conjunction a few years ago, but I growled at them that the Pleiades is always at the zenith on Halloween night at midnight. Is there any special significance placed on them in your Samhain celebrations, Elspode?

I know that the Romans moved Christmas to near the Solstice celebration from the month of April for marketing reasons, but I always feel the changes of season are significant anyway. I always find out when those days occur, and make a special effort to sit out in the backyard and note the sky, the moon, the constellations, the smell of the earth, etc.