Another New Year, and - On The Twelfth Night Of Christmas

 

                                            On The Twelfth Night Of Christmas

                                             An original oil on canvas, 24" X 20" , unframed

                                                              ( click on image to enlarge )

     

     I am wondering what percentage of our regretful countrymen woke up on the 

first of January, ( the month named for Janus the god of new beginnings), sadly

wishing they had been more mindful of the consequences of their New Year's Eve's

overindulgence, in celebrating the end of of the old year.   Unfortunately, we mere 

mortals do not have Janus' ability to see into the future, ( as I mentioned last January

30th, in my blog entry about a painting from my Carnival series ), so the numbers of 

hangover sufferers this year must have been staggering, as usual.

     Who can explain this annual ritual of New Year's Eve celebrations, where it seems we

are permitted to go a bit crazy, with paper hats and horns, drinking too much, making too 

much noise, popping balloons, tossing streamers and confetti, and making ourselves sick?

And who can explain the competition between men to see who can fire off the most guns

and ammunition at midnight?  The combined weight of all the lead they shoot into the air

is probably enough to sink a battleship.    Is it all an inheritance from our pagan 

ancestors, trying to create enough noise and fire to call the sun back, to put an end to 

winter and the old year?  Some of us still do try to keep the old yule-log burning for 

the full, twelve days of Christmastide, as if we want to make certain that the sun is 

returning.

     This holiday period of the twelve days between Christmas and the feast of Epiphany,

falls under the astrological calendar-sign of Capricorn, the goat.  That is one of the 

reasons I'm showing this Twelfth Night Of Christmas painting in this blog entry.

It is from the series I called Mediterranean Fantasies, and like the painting in my last

posting, it is another of those folk-art style pieces, which were made for greeting cards, 

using flattened space, shapes and patterns, for the designs, suggesting images similar

to religious icons .   Shakespeare also set one of his well known comedies on 

Twelfth Night, on the Adriatic coast in the Mediterranean, which is so layered 

and rich in tales of adventure as well as being steeped in religious mythologies.

     The traditional song about the twelve days of Christmas doesn't tell us what 

became of the true love's gifts.  Did that partridge and the other domestic fowls 

end up roasted, in a pear sauce perhaps? And after those milk maids finished 

milking the goats, did they do a bit too much of their own celebrating, with all 

those lords-a-leaping and ladies dancing, and then fail to notice that the goats had 

gone missing, and were busily devouring the noble lady's garden? 

     Some who view this painting will think that I may have been making a reference

to the work of Marc Chagall, and the domestic livestock he painted drifting in the air 

in a love dream-scape with he and his wife.    But goats actually do climb trees. All 

over the middle east and north Africa, where the land has been so overgrazed for 

centuries, the goats can be seen climbing on cars, roofs, and into the trees themselves, 

to get to the fresh green branches and leaves.  

     After we have given ourselves a few days to recover from the holiday's excesses

of over-spending and over-indulging, we can take time to acknowledge the fact that

we can't erase the problems of 2021 through the use of noise and feasting.  Our  

problems are going to continue on into the new year, and it is up to us face up to

to the problems of our own creation, and do our best to provide the remedies.  We

have to start by recognizing the fact that we are killing our planet, and we must take 

the necessary steps to reduce global warming.   And we have to acknowledge and

denounce the great, political fraud created by the lies of Donald Trump and his cabal,

which is undermining our faith in our honest elections and threatening to destroy 

our democracy, just for one man's narcissism and greed, and his refusal to admit he

is a loser.    And we all have to do our civic duty, in our war against the covid 

viruses, by getting vaccinated.    Ignorance is no excuse; if you haven't done it yet, 

get the shot!   

                                                                  Eugene P. McNerney