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The Time of Magic
A Christmas meditation
I
In the old days, people work in fields. The labor was hard and tenuous for the entire season, from early spring until late autumn. December and January were perhaps the only two months when people could rest. Days were short, and so they gathered around the furnace. Grandparents told children stories while parents were mending tools or torn clothes. Time slowed down.
In such an ambiance, people became open to all sorts of wonders. The darkness consumed the country, and shadows sprung to life in peoples’ imaginations. Winter was also a time of magic and superstition. Elves and fairies entered the life of commoners. This is where the use of pyrotechnics comes from. People believed that around this time the gates to the other world is open and that bad spirits need to be chased away.
What a contrast to today’s times when we go on vacations during the summer and hurry like idiots to get everything done before the end of the year. We turned the world on its head. We lit the world with billions of lightbulbs, chased the shadows away, and closed our hearts for magic. Who even bothers to look up at the night sky and look at the stars? If stars are visible at all amidst all that LED glow.
But I guess not all is lost. In the last couple of days, I began noticing an increasing…
