Category Archives: Autumn

Sep 22 2024
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Autumn, Equinox

Fall (into Winter)

Back when July became August, we talked about a subtle shift, an acknowledgement of summer’s waning. Some seven and a half weeks later, here we are at complete acknowledgment: we have reached the equinox. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, this day brings the autumnal equinox, and, by the almanac, the first day of fall. All is balanced. All is more or less equal, no matter where we find ourselves at this moment on our planet: Day and night, roughly in balance with each other, pole to pole and around the equator, and if you look west at sunset down a street that travels a clean line in that direction, the sun will most certainly be shining in your eyes, making everything awash in white, until our star sinks below the horizon, leaving behind a glorious sunset. This balance will last for a few days, but check back in a week and already you’ll see the sun has shifted further to the south. As the Earth seems to rock back and forth in its seat, we, here in the Northern Hemisphere, are now falling into winter, while the Southern Hemisphere in springing into summer. This is the Constant Rearrange that makes every day somewhat different from the one before and the one that follows. It is the way of our world, the way of our days, the way of the wheel of the year.

Equinox, from the Latin: equal night. The moment of equinox this time around, when the sun passes over the equator, is at 8:43 AM here in Lake Worth, which is currently in Eastern Daylight Time. And then darkness begins to overtake light as we enter the darker half of the year.

We’re entering our busiest time of year here at Convivio Bookworks. Here’s a sampling of where you can find us in the coming weeks, as well as an invitation to join us in our Lake Worth Beach shop, and a special for everyone else who’s not in our immediate vicinity. (Lucky you if you’re in a place where it’s apple harvest time!)

AUTUMN DATES to SAVE
Once autumn rolls in, we start planning out our busy fall and winter pop-up market calendar… plus now we’ve got our own shop for events, too. Here’s what’s currently on our calendar for September and October: BOO BAZAAR is our official Hallowe’en Premiere Event at Convivio Bookworks on Saturday September 28 (11 AM to 8 PM) & Sunday September 29 (11 AM to 5 PM), with yummy homemade treats, great spooky shopping, and tarot card readings and fortunes told by the mysterious Madame Marie-Claire. The shop address is 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460.

Then, we return to OKTOBERFEST MIAMI for the second and third weekends of October (October 11, 12, & 13 and October 18, 19, & 20). That’s at the German American Social Club in Miami. The American German Club west of Lantana in suburban Lake Worth holds their OKTOBERFEST PALM BEACH the same two weekends, and we plan to have a small tent there, as well. It’s their 50th Oktoberfest! Soon after Oktoberfest, it’ll be time for FLORIDA DAY of the DEAD at Esplanade Park in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Please note that for that festival, our tent will be located at Esplanade Park where the festival begins, before it processes over to Revolution Live. As such, we are there earlier than other craft tents that will be at the second half of the event. Find our tent at Esplanade Park from 3 to 8 PM.

AUTUMN SALE ONLINE
At our online store we’re offering $10 off your purchase of $85 or more, plus get free domestic shipping. Just use discount code PUMPKINHEAD at checkout. We’re adding new items this time of year almost daily! You’ll find new items from Germany for Hallowe’en and Christmas, plus new Advent calendars and candles are coming this week, and we’re getting ready for Dia de Los Muertos, too, and our next shipment of specialty foods and candies from Germany and Sweden should be here by the first week of October. Lots to see! CLICK HERE to shop!

Our image for this first day of fall is a photograph of Gingko biloba leaves in autumn sunlight. The photo was taken by Franz van Duns in October, 2021 [Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

Sep 01 2024
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Autumn, Book of Days Calendar

First of the Ember Months, or Your September Book of Days

It’s September –– equinox month and first of what I like to call the Ember Months: these closing months of the year that share mostly the same sounds as their names roll off the tongue: September, October, November, December. The seasonal shifts here in Lake Worth are subtle to be sure, but I can remember summers drifting into autumn in Maine and there is, in my experience, a distinct shift once September rolls in.

And no wonder. As the Wheel of the Year turns, we find ourselves today, on this First of September, just three short weeks away from the planet’s equinox, and once that moment passes, our Northern Hemisphere’s nighttime hours begin to overtake our daytime hours. It is our autumnal equinox. The nights will grow increasingly longer through the Midwinter solstice in December, at the tail end of those Ember Months. This is our time for gathering in. Our time for shifting attentions inward, to hearth and to home.

And so it is a new month and here is your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for September. It is a month for wine (Our Lady of the Grape Harvest, or the Nativity of Mary, on the 8th), a month for apples (Johnny Appleseed’s birthday on the 26th), and a month for angels (Michaelmas on the 29th… which then leads us to the Feast of the Guardian Angels on the 2nd of October).

In choosing a cover star for this month’s calendar, I’ve settled into the idea of apples. Our September painting, “Apple Tree with Red Fruit” by Paul Ranson, captures the apple aspect, plus the very golden hew of September. Oil on canvas, 1902, [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

AUTUMN SHOP!
You won’t believe all the great new items for autumn and the spooky season we have in our online shop and our brick & mortar shop. We’re pretty excited about what we’ve gathered for you. Plus, you may use discount code PUMPKINHEAD to save $10 on your $85 purchase, and get free domestic shipping, too. That’s a total savings of $19.50. Spend less than $85 and our flat rate shipping fee of $9.50 applies. CLICK HERE to shop; you know we appreciate your support immensely. And yes, you may use that $10 discount when you visit us in the store, too!

Our new shop is open on Saturdays from 11 AM to 4 PM, and by appointment, too (we’ll be happy to open for you). We’re located at 1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460. From I-95, exit 10th Avenue North eastbound; make a left at the first traffic signal onto North A Street, then at the first stop sign, turn right onto 13th Avenue North. Cross the railroad tracks and turn right again onto North G Street. We’re a couple blocks down on your left side in a blue-roofed building. Plenty of street parking on G Street and there are a parking spots in our little parking lot, too. If our OPEN TODAY sign is out, we are open.

NEW! IN-HOUSE WORKSHOPS!
One of our goals for our new Lake Worth shop is to create a space that is about community and a place where you can come learn new things. Our first summer workshops series was a big hit, and there is one more workshop in the series yet to come: Instructor Kim Spivey will be teaching Exploring Monoprints on Saturday September 14.

DATES TO SAVE
Once autumn rolls in, we start planning out our busy fall and winter pop-up market calendar… plus now we’ve got our own shop for events, too. Here’s what’s currently on our calendar for September and October: BOO BAZAAR is our official Hallowe’en Preview Event at Convivio Bookworks on Saturday & Sunday, September 28 & 29, with great spooky shopping and tarot card readings and fortunes told by Madame Marie-Claire. Then, we return to OKTOBERFEST MIAMI for the second and third weekends of October (October 11, 12, & 13 and October 18, 19, & 20). That’s at the German American Social Club in Miami. The American German Club west of Lantana in suburban Lake Worth holds their OKTOBERFEST the same two weekends, and we plan to have a small tent there, as well. It’s their 50th Oktoberfest!

 

Nov 08 2023
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Advent, Autumn, Book of Days Calendar, Hollantide, Martinmas

St. Martin’s Day Lanterns, or Your Convivio Book of Days for November

I did warn you on Hallowe’en night that your Convivio Book of Days Calendar for November would be belated, and boy, was I right about that! But here it is (click here for the calendar), finally, in plenty of time for St. Martin’s Day, or Martinmas, which approaches this weekend on the 11th. Martinmas brings the conclusion of our annual autumnal days of remembrance, this time of year when we particularly keep close in heart and mind those who have come and gone before us.

Of course we honored these days of the dead at the start of the month with Hallowe’en and All Saints and All Souls. But the connection of Martinmas to the days of the dead is just as strong, through memory. Before the change to the Gregorian Calendar, the 11th of November was Samhain, the Celtic New Year. Another name for Martinmas is Hollantide, and just as Hallowe’en is a corruption of the words All Hallow’s Eve, so is Hollandtide, which comes from Hallowtide: the time of the sacred, the holy. Many of our contemporary Hallowe’en traditions come out of Hollantide traditions: the carving of turnips (replaced by pumpkins here in America) into Jack o’ Lanterns and the going door to door in search of soul cakes, which has evolved into the trick-or-treating we know today. The day is also a traditional weather marker: If ducks do slide at Hollantide, At Christmas they will swim. / If ducks do swim at Hollantide, At Christmas they will slide. / Winter is on his way / At St. Martin’s Day.

And with Martinmas, winter certainly is on its way: the nights are much longer than they were just a few weeks ago at the equinox, and still growing longer as we approach the solstice of midwinter that will arrive in six weeks’ time. The increasing darkness informs one of the great Martinmas traditions, especially in Germany, where after sunset on St. Martin’s Day, people gather outdoors with lanterns, often homemade, shining warm light onto the chilly night. And it is a scene just like this that is the cover star for this month’s calendar: it’s a 1905 watercolor by Heinrich Hermanns depicting those St. Martin’s Day lanterns in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Martinmas also has much to do with wine, for it is time for the first tasting of the wine that was put up to ferment in September. These are not aged wines, mind you, but young new wines: think Beaujolais, for instance. This has to do with timing (this year’s wine has had a few weeks to ferment by now) and with the good saint himself, St. Martin of Tours, being a patron saint of winemakers. It is also the last big religious feast before Advent, that time of preparation for Christmas. In earlier days, Advent was a season of fasting, and so Martinmas was a very big deal, a chance to indulge. Traditional Martinmas foods include goose and turkey, and also chestnuts and in Italy, very hard biscotti, some of which are baked not just twice like regular biscotti but three times. The extra baking makes them hard as rocks, but with good reason: Biscotti di San Martino are meant to be dunked in that new wine that we’re drinking on his day.

And with this day’s passing, Advent fast approaches. At our online shop, you’ll find traditional Advent calendars from Germany and Advent candles from both England and Sweden. We don’t sell anything anyone really needs, but I would say we do sell many useful things, and these simple candles and calendars are indeed useful: they help us slow down, they help us set a pace for the Christmas joy that is to come, and perhaps help us appreciate it, too, and this is the value of Advent and this time of preparation that is to come. Martinmas, Thanksgiving, Advent. Enjoy each as it comes. This is what we mean by enjoying the ceremony of each day.

 

COME SEE US!
We’d love to see you at our pop-up shops at these upcoming events in South Florida. These are the ones we currently have planned:

DELRAY BEACH 100′ CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTING & YULETIDE STREET FAIR
We’ll be there near the 100′ tree in our 10′ tent with a nice little shop of Advent candles and calendars and Christmas goods from Germany, Sweden, and Mexico. Tuesday November 28 from 6 to 9 PM at Old School Square, Downtown Delray Beach.

CHRISTMAS MARKET MIAMI
We’ll have a huge pop-up shop of handmade artisan goods from Germany plus specialty foods, too, and our Advent candles and calendars. Saturday December 2 from 11 AM to 8 PM, indoors and outdoors (we’ll be indoors) at the German American Social Club in Miami, which is where we spent Oktoberfest this year. 11919 SW 56th Street, Miami.

SANKTA LUCIA FESTIVAL & JULMARKNAD
This lovely festival is a fundraiser hosted by SWEA, the Swedish Women’s Educational Association. It will be held at the First United Methodist Church of Boca Raton at 625 NE Mizner Boulevard on Saturday December 2 from 11 AM to 3 PM. Our pop-up shop will feature traditional and contemporary Swedish Christmas items plus Advent candles and calendars, and some delicious German Christmas cookies and candies, too. (Same day as the Christmas Market in Miami, but don’t worry, we’ll be at both!)

KRAMPUSNACHT
On the Eve of St. Nicholas’ Day, it is Krampus who accompanies the good saint to scare girls and boys into good behavior, and he gets his own celebration at the American German Club in suburban Lake Worth on Friday evening, December 8, from 7 to 11 PM. We’ll be there with our biggest pop-up shop ever as this night ushers in the weekend’s Christkindlmarkt. Tickets required and must be purchased in advance. 5111 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

CHRISTKINDLMARKT
It’s our favorite event of the year! The annual Christkindlmarkt at the American German Club in suburban Lake Worth is just wonderful, and we’ll be there with our biggest pop-up shop ever, filled with German Christmas artisan goods plus more from Sweden and Mexico, as well as specialty foods and who knows what else! Tickets are required and must be purchased in advance. Usually sells out! Saturday December 9 from 2 to 10 PM and Sunday December 10 from 12 to 8 PM. 5111 Lantana Road, Lake Worth.

Image: “Sankt Martins Zug vor dem Düsseldorfer Rathaus” by Heinrich Hermanns. Watercolor on paper, 1905 [Public domain] via Wikimedia Commons.

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