“Winter is coming,” the standard admonition from the recent Game of Thrones series, has become rather pervasive. In fact, in adapting the script of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) (see All the World’s a Stage) the troupe to which I belong, The Merry Tricksters, changed a reference my character makes from a popular soap opera to Game of Thrones. As a result, I’ve been saying “Winter is coming” a lot lately.
And now, it’s here. Samhain, All Saint’s Day, the feast of Saint Marcel (protector from vampires—I do love that little irony) all today, the first day of winter according to the Celtic reckoning (see Samhain Welcomes Winter). While not as all-encompassing as the winter warned against in the series, it seems winter has come, to our homestead at least. It’s less about the season’s most obvious weather feature, snow, than it is about a certain feel in the air.
Such a winter’s day. No snow, but it must be on the way…. (Photo: Mark A. Zeiger).
