I’d be happier if it got cancelled altogether. But there you go.
Here it is dark already. Feels more like bed time than 6 o’clock.
I need to go hibernate until Spring.
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Here it is dark already. Feels more like bed time than 6 o’clock.
I need to go hibernate until Spring.
I agree! I've just learned to ignore all the commercialization.
Thank you for making your position more clear.
I am grateful there’s protections in place against such a feeling from actually becoming public policy.
Likewise.
Agreed, completely.
Lights on at five o'clock (17.00). Ugh.
As do I.
I couldn't agree more.
I don't think my folks and I have ever put Christmas decorations on the house. I'll be visiting Europe over Christmas though, so no need for them anyway.
Ah.
Wonderful.
Where in Europe will you travel?
Oddly, and ironically, much of mainland Europe "does" Christmas an awful lot better than the Anglo-Saxon world, (and for some of Europe, the main celebrations take place on 6th January, the Feast of the Epiphany (Three Wise Kings), - which reduces the stress laid upon 25th December, - and is also where the emphasis is less on economics, and where the celebration of ancient traditions trumps the crass vulgarity of commercial imperatives.
If you have an opportunity to see - and visit - them - try to take in a trip to one of the classical, traditional Christmas markets (Germany, Austria, France have wonderful markets), they can be wonderful, and some of them have been in place for several centuries.
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Tossing my tuppence into this discussion around Christmas and the blatant commercialization of it..... How have some on this thread seemingly not noticed or not cared? It really, really has become quite overly and overtly commercialized beyond belief and at this point (the calendar now having shifted on beyond October and into the 2nd of November) the blatant advertising and frequent commercial reminders online, on television and in stores of an event -- one day -- which in reality is still rather more than a month and a half away is indeed quite disturbing to a lot of people for various different reasons.
Aside from the fact that many people around the world who have different beliefs do not celebrate Christmas in the first place, there is also the reality that even in countries where many do place some importance on this particular day, there are still some people who for their own personal reasons are not excited about this designated holiday and for whom the increasingly extended commercial promotion of it loaded with adverts is more than irritating. Frankly, this rather lengthy and unnecessarily extended time frame of clearly business-oriented and financially-driven promotion of what actually simply started out as a religious holiday is actually an ongoing thorn continuously jabbing at and poking at more than a few unwilling recipients of such relentless potentially profit-driven messages.
One obvious solution would be for businesses and corporations to cut back on this way too premature extensive and unnecessary commercialization of this particular holiday. That would be a start, anyway...... Unfortunately I don't think that is going to happen, the time has passed for that, and this is really sad.
Aside from the fact that many people around the world who have different beliefs do not celebrate Christmas in the first place, there is also the reality that even in countries where many do place some importance on this particular day, there are still some people who for their own personal reasons are not excited about this designated holiday and for whom the increasingly extended commercial promotion of it loaded with adverts is more than irritating. Frankly, this rather lengthy and unnecessarily extended time frame of clearly business-oriented and financially-driven promotion of what actually simply started out as a religious holiday is actually an ongoing thorn continuously jabbing at and poking at more than a few unwilling recipients of such relentless potentially profit-driven messages.
One obvious solution would be for businesses and corporations to cut back on this way too premature extensive and unnecessary commercialization of this particular holiday. That would be a start, anyway...... Unfortunately I don't think that is going to happen, the time has passed for that, and this is really sad.
Agree completely @Clix Pix.
For example, Hallowe'en - starting with the pair of Christian holidays (themselves, grafted onto earlier pagan, Celtic, celebrations when the membrane between life and death was supposed to be unusually thin, allowing for transitions both ways, but saluting the dead, not the living, unlike Beltaine, on the 1st May, which traditionally does the reverse, by celebrating life, rebirth, and growth) - of All Saints' Days, and All Souls' Days, segued into November, traditionally a time of year set aside to allow us to remember the dead, a time when one remembered one's cherished deceased, one's close dead, those who have departed and who are no longer with us.
In our part of the world, the (war) commemorations of 11th November tie in with those, older, traditions.
And I, for one, would like to see that retained; let us remember those whom we loved (or liked, or simply knew) who are no longer with us while November - only in its second day! is still winding its merry way through the calendar.
Unfortunately, Christmas and Yuletide stuff is already yowling loudly as the blatant commercialisation smothers and drowns out anything else, something which I find both grossly offensive and quite repellant.
Let Christmas have December, and the first week of January.
For, it is not necessary for it to trespass on older, venerable traditions, - both pagan and Christian, and equally, it is not necessary for commercial imperatives and blatant advertising to drown out those older traditions and loudly demand that a sickeningly sentimental interpretation of the events depicted should be celebrated at the expense of everything else.
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Agree completely, @Clix Pix and @Scepticalscribe... the actual traditions themselves have almost been completely wiped away. Instead, we have what corporations and other influential individuals have CHOSEN. No regard for factuality - instead, we have something completely different that doesn't represent at all what these holidays/observances were initially meant for. You both said it better than I ever could have!
We are in-between seasons, officially called Spring.
We have gone weeks without having to use our reverse-cycle (heating and cooling) air conditioner.
However, the weather has suddenly gone unstable.
Yesterday it was so cold (< 17C) we had to have it on Heat.
Today it is so hot (> 30C) we have to have it on Cool.
I mean, it averages out ok, but really????
We have gone weeks without having to use our reverse-cycle (heating and cooling) air conditioner.
However, the weather has suddenly gone unstable.
Yesterday it was so cold (< 17C) we had to have it on Heat.
Today it is so hot (> 30C) we have to have it on Cool.
I mean, it averages out ok, but really????
What’s on my mind right now is that a friend from back home is moving to Argentina. I’ll definitely miss him, but I am eternally happy for him! He holds dual citizenship and wants to continue studying there after he graduates college. I’ll definitely need to pay him a visit at some point, I’ve never been there. Anyway, really glad he’s able to do everything he loves!
I’ll take the 30 thanks. Below 17 here as well (16.5 in my bedroom right now), but no heating on yet. Try to hold out until it gets to 12 or 13 in the house these days for that.
Regarding Christmas it’s way too long a period. Apart from the office conversations and adverts on the TV it’s mostly avoidable.
Fortunately these days most of our food gets delivered. Although that is another issue. With Mrs AFB having such a limited number of foods she can eat, these sometimes get harder to source at this time of year as shops prefer to fill their shelves with other ‘seasonal’ crap.
Although apart from the perishable stuff, we probably have supplies to take us through to New Year on many lines. Mrs AFB likes to be prepared.
Anyway I’m looking forward to January. Or even better March or April!
Fortunately these days most of our food gets delivered. Although that is another issue. With Mrs AFB having such a limited number of foods she can eat, these sometimes get harder to source at this time of year as shops prefer to fill their shelves with other ‘seasonal’ crap.
Although apart from the perishable stuff, we probably have supplies to take us through to New Year on many lines. Mrs AFB likes to be prepared.
Anyway I’m looking forward to January. Or even better March or April!
I don’t think it ever got fully light today. The light this weekend has been pretty poor.
Sadly this is often the case. Poor lighting. Cold and damp outside. Not much better inside. The dehumidifier has been on most of the day.
Sadly this is often the case. Poor lighting. Cold and damp outside. Not much better inside. The dehumidifier has been on most of the day.
No, it didn't.
Dismal, in fact.
Overcast, with threatening charcoal coloured skies, and a truly wretched absence of natural light.
The only redeeming feature of today (and yesterday, and Friday) was the fact that it hardly rained.
Agreed.
It's been raining all day. Going to rain most of next week, too. So no, it never really got light here, either. Still only 1:00 in the afternoon, but there's only about 4 hours more daylight anyway.
It’s sunny and dry and clear here in California, to no one’s surprise. But frankly, I’m looking forward to wetter weather. We have such a small window for it here, and wildfires are not unheard of in November and December. When you live in a dry climate, you come to appreciate the brief respite from unending sunny, dry days, when the brown grasses turn green again.
I'll trade you for the next four months.
There is no shortage of rain in our windswept, sodden, saturated, isles.
Imagine if you lived where there aren’t any street lamps like I do. Much darker in our village I can assure you.
Dark when I get up. Dark when I drive home.
Not a fan.
Made the shift from Eastern Daylight Savings Time to Eastern Standard Time in the wee hours of 11/03/2024 Sunday morning. So now, later in the day, darkness began falling here (Northern Virginia suburb of Washington, DC) around 5:10 PM or so and now at 5:37 PM it is totally dark. <whine> I want Daylight Savings Time back again!!!
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