Southern Sun and Christmas Fun

If someone had casually asked me to draw up a list of the people I was most likely to use as sources for my blogging over the coming week there would have been some predictable names. Nowhere in the top ten thousand names would the words 'Nigella' or 'Lawson' have appeared together. Regular blog readers will know how much I enjoy understanding the connection between phenomena such as the earth's orbit around the sun and our daily lives. Christmas is such a time and, almost unbelievably, this is where we hand over to Nigella in her Christmas cookbook,

'Biblical scholars generally tend to believe that Christ's birth probably fell about six months after Passover, which would make it nearer September than December. However, the Roman Festival of Saturnalia - a time of merry-making, excess and misrule, precursor to the office party and much else besides - fell around the middle of December, and led up to the Sol Invictus - or unconquered sun - festival. Around this time mummers would go about carousing and entertaining people in their homes, which is what has led to our carol-singing now. The idea of thte unconquered sun, or the rebirth of the sun, has been linked by Catholics to the notion of the birth of Christ, and links, too, with the pagan notion, the one I cling to most affectionately, of the winter solstice being about the promise of the return of light in the depth of the dark winter.'

Put another way, it didn't really matter what name your god went by or whether they existed at all, the sun's cycle was a very large part of the popular culture of the past couple of thousand years and more. Almost everything we popularly consider 'Christmassy' these days can be linked back to the amount of south in the sun. From giving presents, singing carols, celebrating holy births, snow, merriment... it all has its roots in the fact that the earth is tilted by twenty-three and a half degrees from its plane of orbit around the sun, which means that the sun gives more heat and light at certain times of the year and rises and sets in a different place each day.

Saturnalia, Christmas and Common Sense

A great morning for stargazing and one planet in particular was holding court. Saturn hung brightly in the southern sky between Virgo and Leo.

In astronomical terms Saturn is an impressive planet, the second largest in the solar system and girded by its famous rings. It also comes with as much religion and mythology as you could ask for on a crisp November morning.

Saturn featured very strongly in Roman religion as the harvest god, responsible for sowing, seed and most things agriculture. His festival, Saturnalia, was a time of much merriment and became the most celebrated of Roman festivals as tools were downed, slaves granted temporary freedom and 'certain moral restrictions were eased', and for all their seriousness in battle the Romans sure knew how to ease a moral restriction when they chose to. It was such a success that we are still feeling its partying power to this day. Saturnalia was originally celebrated on December 17th, but became a week long celebration and paved the way for our festivities at Christmas and New Year.

When Saturn was not busy doing all this he also lent his name to a day of the week, 'Saturday', from 'Saturni dies' in Latin.

While thinking this over I noticed something else less mythical and more tangible, the back of my head and ears were freezing. If a wind feels a lot colder than normal it often has some north in it, which like so much of understanding nature is common sense. A bigger slice of common sense was for me to stop shivering in my pyjamas and coat and get inside.