A Lewisian Year
Mar. 6th, 2021 05:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scrubjayspeaksPresented in partnership with the Lewisia Communications Board and Lewisia Public Library
Sponsored by The Historical Society
Hello, readers, listeners, and psychic osmosizers! Welcome to A Lewisian Year, a monthly showcase celebrating the rich culture here in the Lake Lewisia district. Each month, we'll highlight some seasonal events, local celebrations and interpretations of national and world holidays, and historical tidbits.
MARCH
Window Opening Festival
It's dawn on March first, and despite the cold, every window and door in the house is open. Screens have been removed; curtains have been taken down. Everyone in the household stands armed with paper fans (and sometimes pine brooms, depending on the family tradition), shivering as they wait for the first rays of the sun to come into view. If the occupants are very traditional, they have a set of fans dedicated for this use, kept stored the rest of the year. Otherwise, they might have a disposable set of paper fans purchased for the festival.
As soon as the light reaches them, everyone begins to furiously fan, sending dust flying up from every corner and nook of the house. They fan from east to west, drawing the newly rising sun's energy into the home and driving the old energy out into the last, fading darkness of the past year. Much whooping and hollering accompanies this, especially whenever a particularly large dust bunny is spotted tumbling out through the open doors and windows.
When the whole house has been fanned in this way, everyone quickly shuts all the windows and doors again before anything can sneak back in. (The screens and curtains will be put back later, usually after a more conventional cleaning.) Space has been cleared for a new year's luck to enter the home, while all the bad of the past year has been driven out.
Like many seasonal holidays and rituals, the Window Opening Festival has its roots in some very practical considerations. As I've discovered since coming to Lewisia, the winter weather combination of rain and snow creates plenty of mud to track indoors. It gets cold enough here to need to seal the house up against drafts, but remains warm enough that outdoor activity is still possible. And all the residual dampness from rain and lake and fog lends a certain mustiness to those closed-up houses by winter's end. Come March, it's time to air things out in a big way.
The incoming Spring is also a time of new beginnings. The Window Opening Festival serves to help with the more metaphorical and spiritual clearing of space to make way for better things. The paper fans drive that stuffy air out of the house, hopefully taking with it all the pent-up bad energy, dust sprites, and malevolent spirits who have been mooching off the house's warmth all winter. With them gone, good luck has room to join us for the year ahead.
According to my research, the date of the festival has moved around through the years. At times, it has been designated the last new moon before the Vernal Equinox, the start of the new astrological year. It was briefly designated as the first Monday in March during the 1980s, when some town council members sought to bring Lewisia calendars into greater alignment with the outside world. Today, the Window Opening Festival has settled on March 1st, possibly to avoid competing with the festivities on and around the Vernal Equinox itself.
Vernal Equinox
Obviously, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year, but the arrival of Spring runs a close second place. Lake Lewisia, with its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, has a reputation for pulling out all the stops to celebrate the return of growth and warmth. Just the other day, I was handed seed bombs and packets at three different shops, which is nothing compared to the number of displays of them for sale around town. (Are the ones from Fendler's always this cute? I got one that looked just like the heart-shaped message candies. Mine had "fertilize me" stamped on it. And a group of school children were trading theirs on the steps outside.) I can't wait to see first-hand what the town looks like once all those seeds have grown.
The passion for public distribution of seeds has expanded into a general tradition of public works. Half the notices on the community bulletin board have been sign-up sheets for volunteers. Repaint the 14th Street bridge. Feed the accidental libraries. Build nesting boxes for migratory mothmen. Flowers aren't the only things that start blooming this time of year. Everyone in town, it seems, has a project to help with.
Daylight Savings Time
Unfortunately, everyone has less time than usual on at least one day, thanks to the return of Daylight Savings Time. Spring Forward lops an hour off everyone this month. Well, almost everyone. The time banking system in Lewisia helps to spare a few people who need it. Every fall, when DST ends and we get that hour back, some people choose instead to bank their time with the college's laboratory. (I tried to research this. I didn't understand. I think I'll need to interview someone connected to the project for a follow-up piece when November comes around.) Throughout the year, those in dire need of extra time can petition to receive some of the banked hours. For most of us, though, it's just a little annoying to lose an hour of sleep. No scientific intervention needed.
This Month in History
On March 18, 1956, during a nighttime session in Spring training, Yancy Fortune, pitcher for the Lakeside Kelpies, exploded a passing kestrel. The kestrel is believed to have mistaken a discarded catcher's mitt for a particularly large and succulent moth, and the small but ambitious bird dove to grab this prey. Fortune chose this moment to throw a splitter and, well... Feathers everywhere.
The story has a happy ending, though. It seems Fortune's unnatural speed had a subtle effect on the quantum level, previously undetected. The exploded bird was not actually killed but atomically dispersed, forming a kind of avian cloud entity. This entity remained attached to Fortune for the rest of his professional career and could often be heard chittering during warmups.
That's a taste of what March has to offer us. See you next month, when April showers bring...ghost weddings?
Meet the Host
I'm one of the 2021 initiates training under the Women in the Black Hats. Of course, I can't tell you much about where I came from or who I was before I began my training. Just think of me as synonymous with this little leaflet, and say hi when you see me around town.
I don't yet know what my area of special study will be. I'm not from Lewisia, of course, but I didn't come from a sister city either. Lots of what you do here is new to me, especially the cultural traditions that just aren't known anywhere outside of Lewisia. So my mentor suggested a project: get to know the town I've come to serve while you all get to know me. Since there are always other newcomers looking to do the same, it was agreed that I would share my research through the various public service communication channels.
Sponsored by The Historical Society
Hello, readers, listeners, and psychic osmosizers! Welcome to A Lewisian Year, a monthly showcase celebrating the rich culture here in the Lake Lewisia district. Each month, we'll highlight some seasonal events, local celebrations and interpretations of national and world holidays, and historical tidbits.
MARCH
Window Opening Festival
It's dawn on March first, and despite the cold, every window and door in the house is open. Screens have been removed; curtains have been taken down. Everyone in the household stands armed with paper fans (and sometimes pine brooms, depending on the family tradition), shivering as they wait for the first rays of the sun to come into view. If the occupants are very traditional, they have a set of fans dedicated for this use, kept stored the rest of the year. Otherwise, they might have a disposable set of paper fans purchased for the festival.
As soon as the light reaches them, everyone begins to furiously fan, sending dust flying up from every corner and nook of the house. They fan from east to west, drawing the newly rising sun's energy into the home and driving the old energy out into the last, fading darkness of the past year. Much whooping and hollering accompanies this, especially whenever a particularly large dust bunny is spotted tumbling out through the open doors and windows.
When the whole house has been fanned in this way, everyone quickly shuts all the windows and doors again before anything can sneak back in. (The screens and curtains will be put back later, usually after a more conventional cleaning.) Space has been cleared for a new year's luck to enter the home, while all the bad of the past year has been driven out.
Like many seasonal holidays and rituals, the Window Opening Festival has its roots in some very practical considerations. As I've discovered since coming to Lewisia, the winter weather combination of rain and snow creates plenty of mud to track indoors. It gets cold enough here to need to seal the house up against drafts, but remains warm enough that outdoor activity is still possible. And all the residual dampness from rain and lake and fog lends a certain mustiness to those closed-up houses by winter's end. Come March, it's time to air things out in a big way.
The incoming Spring is also a time of new beginnings. The Window Opening Festival serves to help with the more metaphorical and spiritual clearing of space to make way for better things. The paper fans drive that stuffy air out of the house, hopefully taking with it all the pent-up bad energy, dust sprites, and malevolent spirits who have been mooching off the house's warmth all winter. With them gone, good luck has room to join us for the year ahead.
According to my research, the date of the festival has moved around through the years. At times, it has been designated the last new moon before the Vernal Equinox, the start of the new astrological year. It was briefly designated as the first Monday in March during the 1980s, when some town council members sought to bring Lewisia calendars into greater alignment with the outside world. Today, the Window Opening Festival has settled on March 1st, possibly to avoid competing with the festivities on and around the Vernal Equinox itself.
Vernal Equinox
Obviously, Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year, but the arrival of Spring runs a close second place. Lake Lewisia, with its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, has a reputation for pulling out all the stops to celebrate the return of growth and warmth. Just the other day, I was handed seed bombs and packets at three different shops, which is nothing compared to the number of displays of them for sale around town. (Are the ones from Fendler's always this cute? I got one that looked just like the heart-shaped message candies. Mine had "fertilize me" stamped on it. And a group of school children were trading theirs on the steps outside.) I can't wait to see first-hand what the town looks like once all those seeds have grown.
The passion for public distribution of seeds has expanded into a general tradition of public works. Half the notices on the community bulletin board have been sign-up sheets for volunteers. Repaint the 14th Street bridge. Feed the accidental libraries. Build nesting boxes for migratory mothmen. Flowers aren't the only things that start blooming this time of year. Everyone in town, it seems, has a project to help with.
Daylight Savings Time
Unfortunately, everyone has less time than usual on at least one day, thanks to the return of Daylight Savings Time. Spring Forward lops an hour off everyone this month. Well, almost everyone. The time banking system in Lewisia helps to spare a few people who need it. Every fall, when DST ends and we get that hour back, some people choose instead to bank their time with the college's laboratory. (I tried to research this. I didn't understand. I think I'll need to interview someone connected to the project for a follow-up piece when November comes around.) Throughout the year, those in dire need of extra time can petition to receive some of the banked hours. For most of us, though, it's just a little annoying to lose an hour of sleep. No scientific intervention needed.
This Month in History
On March 18, 1956, during a nighttime session in Spring training, Yancy Fortune, pitcher for the Lakeside Kelpies, exploded a passing kestrel. The kestrel is believed to have mistaken a discarded catcher's mitt for a particularly large and succulent moth, and the small but ambitious bird dove to grab this prey. Fortune chose this moment to throw a splitter and, well... Feathers everywhere.
The story has a happy ending, though. It seems Fortune's unnatural speed had a subtle effect on the quantum level, previously undetected. The exploded bird was not actually killed but atomically dispersed, forming a kind of avian cloud entity. This entity remained attached to Fortune for the rest of his professional career and could often be heard chittering during warmups.
That's a taste of what March has to offer us. See you next month, when April showers bring...ghost weddings?
Meet the Host
I'm one of the 2021 initiates training under the Women in the Black Hats. Of course, I can't tell you much about where I came from or who I was before I began my training. Just think of me as synonymous with this little leaflet, and say hi when you see me around town.
I don't yet know what my area of special study will be. I'm not from Lewisia, of course, but I didn't come from a sister city either. Lots of what you do here is new to me, especially the cultural traditions that just aren't known anywhere outside of Lewisia. So my mentor suggested a project: get to know the town I've come to serve while you all get to know me. Since there are always other newcomers looking to do the same, it was agreed that I would share my research through the various public service communication channels.
