A festival season
Halloween New England by -jkb- (CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons)
Just after the death of the flowers,
And before they are buried in snow,
There comes a festival season,
When nature is all aglow—
Aglow with a mystical splendour
That rivals the brightness of spring,
Aglow with a beauty more tender
Than aught which fair summer could bring….
(attributed to Emeline B. Smith, about whom I could find no biographical information)
If you are lucky enough to have kids in your life, you probably have plenty of festivity awaiting you this weekend. Even without trick-or-treating, however, it’s easy to get into the spirit of autumn. Just look at those gorgeous pumpkins and chrysanthemums, glowing with a colorful harmony that suggests they were created to go together.
There are lots of phrases that memorably describe this season, but “aglow with a mystical splendour”* seems as perfectly apt as any I’ve heard. I hope this finds you enjoying a cheery lightness of heart “that rivals the brightness of spring.”
*I left the spelling just as I found it. Emeline Smith must not have been from the USA. Wish I knew more about her…
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: Autumn, chrysanthemums, colors, excitement, fall, festivity, halloween, holidays, pumpkins, seasons
Defeat Despair 
Good morning, Julia!
I had not considered that pumpkins and chrysanthemums could have been “created to go together,” but they certainly do look that way!
I’m leaving Arizona this morning, to start the long trek back to Minnesota – via California – where I’m meeting my son Erik, to hand-off some of my uncle’s many tools.
What an adventure life is!
So today I’ll be viewing mainly desert colors rather than autumnal colors, a subtle difference.
Wow, what a shame that your trek back to Minnesota could not have come during the heat of the summer, when the cooler temperatures would have been welcome. Still, I bet travel during this time of year will be better than in winter OR summer, in terms of comfort. If you have not yet arrived, safe travels!