For centuries, Christmas lights and candles in the windows and blazing fires have spread the light in the darkest time of winter. That solstice, every year, is the time of briefest light, and mankind has been fighting back from the beginning.
After the season -- whichever of them you celebrate, daylight begins creeping back into this old world. Minute by minute, day by day -- or maybe it's minute by day -- the time of not-dark increases. Our joyous blazing celebrations have brought back light, even if we don't think of it that way.
Recent years, the wooing of the light starts earlier and lasts longer. We begin, now, with ghost lights in October. Orange and white, only the orange has a tendency to look a lirrle red. We leave the spakling clear lights on through November, and then comes the extravaganza of Yuletide.
Carnival, which culminates in Mardi Gras, begins at Epiphany -- the twelfth day of Christmas.
But, between then and now, there are more secular holidays, made for fun and cheer.
Red lights and reshaped wreaths on doors celebrate Valentine's Day, the time of year when the sap rises in our spirits as well as in our yards. Green lights replace the red, and the wreaths are joined together in threes, to celebrate St Patrick and the return of the Green to the northern hemisphere.
And the twinkling lights give way to pastel ornaments and blushing bouquets, awaiting the full touch of sun as they burst into bloom.
From ghost lights to green lights, we keep away the darkness.
Or at least we try.
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