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I have a similar theory about Valentine’s Day. The optimism and hope of a new year rapidly gives way to gloom and despondency. January resolutions are rapidly confined to disappointment. The weather is wet and wintry, no more so than this year’s record-breaking persistent rain. The nights inch shorter but Easter takes a long time coming. Hence Valentine’s to brighten things up.
In these dark days, pinpoints of brightness keep hope alive. Valentine’s Day being the main one. The high street turns crimson as every shop that can piles red and pink paraphernalia into its window display. Bouquets of hothouse-grown, carbon-hungry imported roses gain supermarket prominence as flower growers plead in vain for lovers to gift native seasonal blooms instead. Royal Mail gets a fillip. Restaurateurs that I know swear that if it wasn’t for Valentine’s Day, they’d be out of business before the end of the month. So, unless you disappointed your beloved by forgetting it completely or buying the wrong gift or card, it’s blessings all round for St Valentine, the third-century bishop who reputedly defied the emperor’s decree forbidding young men to marry by conducting marriages in secret, and was martyred for it in the dying throes of winter.
Another pinpoint of brightness for me is the show of snowdrops this year, bravely defying frost and rain to adorn the byways hereabouts, at least those byways that aren’t closed by flood or roadworks. These early harbingers of brighter days ahead seem to be more prolific this year, or perhaps it’s just that the weather is gloomier. Either way, they tell us that the crocuses and daffodils aren’t far behind, with swathes ready to welcome visitors to the City.
And to top it all, a couple of days ago was Shrove Tuesday; Pancake Day. The day before the start of Lent, when tradition has it that you finished up whatever was in the pantry ahead of the Lenten fast, which, as Canon James reminds us in this week’s Footnotes, can be more positive than simply giving something up. There’s something deliciously simple about a pancake; lemon and sugar being my topping, but really anything goes, savoury or sweet. So easy to make; I’m always left thinking, ‘I should have these more often.’
Bright spots piercing these gloomy days. What are yours?
Martin Field.
