November feasts

It’s a gloomy month, November. Halfway between summer and winter, dark mornings, dark evenings, rain, sleet, fog, mud, autumn chills... in short: yuk.

It’s not all bad, mind. A really still and clear November day, with autumn leaves in full polychromatic splendour, can beat all especially as dusk begins to gather.

I remember just such an evening a few years ago in the formal gardens at Fountains Abbey, where a giant copper beech in its best crimson stood on the edge of the ornamental lake. Its image was so perfect, so vivid, so minutely detailed in the crystal surface of the water that one could hardly tell reflection from reality. It was a moment of pure transcendence.

Odd moments of enchantment aside, November can be pretty murky; which is perhaps why so many religions have festivals of light around then. As not all cultures use a 12-month calendar, dates are often flexible, but November generally starts with Diwali, the five-day Hindu festival of light. The word “diwali” literally means “row of lamps”, and the festival signifies the triumph of good over evil as instanced by the homecoming of Lord Rama after his victory over Ravana, the demon king.

Meanwhile on November 1st it’s Celtic New Year and is the occasion of the winter slaughter, when surplus livestock are butchered and salted down. On an equally cheery note, England’s own festival of light on November 5th marks nothing more edifying than the hanging, drawing, and quartering of a bunch of hapless conspirators – you probably know who I mean. To redress this rather grisly balance, late November/early December is the start of Hannukah, the Jewish festival of light, when the nine-branched menorah candelabras are lit.

November is also the occasion for a number of feasts of the dead.

The Christian month opens with All Saints, when prayers are offered for the intercession of those who have died and gone to Heaven, and is followed on November 2nd by All Souls, when prayers are offered on behalf of those who have died and not gone to Heaven. Samhain is also a feast of the dead and is claimed as the origin of many Hallowe’en customs such as carving turnip masks. (Because, of course, they didn’t have pumpkins in those days. But then they didn’t have turnips either until the 18th century, so maybe that bit was made up).

Finally, on November 16th this year (but it can be in October or December) Muslims have eid-ul-adha, Great Eid, which isn’t actually a feast of the dead but commemorates the example of Ibrahim, who was ready to sacrifice his son Ismael at Allah’s behest. When Allah saw how faithful Ibrahim was he relented and commanded him to sacrifice a goat instead, so the slaughtering animals motif recurs here too.

Still relevant today is the Norse feast of Ullr on November 27th. Ullr was the Norse god of hunting, who travelled around on skis – cross-country rather than downhill; but if you’re off skiing this winter you might as well offer a prayer to Ullr asking him to keep you out of the orthopaedic ward.

So that’s November. Plenty of excuses to banish the blues with a special dinner whether you’re Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan or none of the above. And it all ends on November 28th (this year) with the first day of Advent, the official start of the countdown to Christmas. Mind you, the tinsel will have been up in Tesco long before then, so a premature merry jingle bells to you all.

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