A change in mood as light creeps back into our days

Country Living with Francis Farragher

Well, February, one of my favourite little months of the year, is slipping by quite seamlessly and ushering us quite nicely into the Spring season, although she did deliver our fifth storm of the year on the 7th and 8th  when Erik arrived, but we’ll forgive her for that.

I often think that the Chinese have got it right in terms of when their New Year starts. Their New Year is based on the New Moon that’s closest to the start of Spring but must occur between January 21 and February 21, when at last there are just little indications that the Winter colds and the season of darkness is about to come to an end.

It really won’t me anywhere, but I’ve always thought it a bit ridiculous to start our New Year on January 1, when we are still enclosed in a thicket of Winter darkness with with desperately gloomy mornings almost impossible to shake off.

We too are still in the peak of our meteorological Winter in the Northern Hemisphere (December 1 to February 28/29) so our efforts to celebrate a new year and a new beginning are often set against the backdrop of dark days and equally gloomy weather.

I’ve also taken somewhat of a unilateral decision in declaring February 1 as the first day of Spring, even if its only a symbolic act, and one that wouldn’t find favour with Met Éireann and all suitably qualified meteorologists of the Northern Hemisphere.

Based on temperature models, December, January and February are our three coldest months of the year, but the teachers of the Franciscan Brothers who tried to ‘give us some learning’ in our primary school days were always pretty adamant that the official launch of Spring was on February 1.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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