BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE

 

Monumento a la Patria (Monument to the Fatherland) Merida, Mexico

Baby, it's cold outside

 I'm staying inside.

When it comes to living in temperate climates, many of us who were born and raised in the tropics get anxious. And for good reasons, temperate climates have months of winter where temperatures can be frigid and daylight sparse. Well, depending on the part of temperate who go, places like Siberia are not popular with us Tropicanas, but parts of Northern Europe and North America can also have brutal cold temperatures in the winters. 

I personally never cared for Canada or the United Kingdom. I always fantasized about going to live in France for a year. I still dream about it sometimes. Because I once loved a French man, but he loved living in Africa instead.

Anyway, some schools of thought can inundate you with some benefits of living in cold climes, like it can help you live longer and slow aging. C'mon now, that is enough to pack a suitcase and move to one of the cold regions, yes? Especially since most of the world's population lives in temperate climates, in the Northern hemisphere. But no, six months of cold temps is not worth it.

Last winter, I spent 3 months in one of those climes, and If I had any doubts about living in a temperate climate before, now I am certain it's not for me. I can manage the South of France though.  Aside from having to wear socks all day and layering up inside and outside. I cannot indulge in one of my favorite past times— flāneur. The world would come to a halt if that is taken from me. There are few pleasures I indulge in life and that is one of them.

I noticed months of life in the winter increase my heart rate. I pulled out the books to find out why, Duh, the cold temps constrict the blood vessels therefore the heart has to work harder to pump. Ah! as simple as that. I don't know how folks manage with the cold for half the year, it's dreary and miserable.

Some have said people who live in places with long winters tend to get depressed during the cold months— seasonal depression they call it. I can only imagine what life without a "real' Sun for so long can do. The Sun is life, and I mean proper Sun, not the "pretend Sun" You know what I mean, it appears sunny, but you do not feel the heat on your skin. in parts of North America during the winter where the sun is out but you are still cold.

So, as soon as I was able to, I flew out to warmer climes. And I was reborn. My soul felt lighter and I was happier. I used to wonder why many folks from the North who visited our islands were happy wearing flip-flops about with so much joy. Now I understand better, I refused to wear covered shoes and was happy to feel the sun on my feet and indeed every part of my body as I touched down South of the border. I happily wore flip-flops everywhere too.

It is not for nothing that people from the North celebrate Spring and Summer like a festival. If you stayed through those dead winter months, you would do the same. But most significantly is the celebration of the "Sun's Rebirth" The winter solstice. The Winter celebration of the Sun. An astronomical event in nature. Which happens between Dec 20 and 23, and this is when the earth's axis tilts away from the sun, making it the shortest day and longest night of the year for those living in the northern hemisphere. in the southern hemisphere, it is reversed. 

If you are a history and theology aficionado, you will also know that Christmas/the birth of Christ was chosen to be around the Winter Solstice, because of an existing festival in honor of the rebirth of the Sun.

Why do I bring up the Winter solstice? Because it is astronomically the Rebirth of the Sun. Without the Sun we would not survive on this planet. Do you remember the Mayans? A pre-Columbus Civilization in what is today parts of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Belize. The Sun was so important to the Mayans and many ancient civilizations around the world: Egyptian, Roman, Inca, Greek, and Aztec,  but I am gonna focus on the Mayans today, "cos I recently took a trip to the Mayan Lands in the Yucatan.

The Mayans believed the GODS guided the Sun and the Moon through their journey across the sky and there were evil Gods who wanted to stop the progress. And that would mean the world would come to an end. Because they tracked the Sun and the Moon for agriculture and almost every aspect of their lives. 

To prevent this they made a human sacrifice every day so the Sun would not be stopped. They believed the heavenly bodies needed human help, and a human sacrifice was a small price to pay for the continued survival of the universe. Of course, we now all know better  The Mayans were not the only ancient civilizations that sacrificed a human to the Sun God. The Sun represented enlightenment, productivity, and divinity. Kinich Ahau was the Mayan Sun God.

All across the world, the Sun meant so much to ancient civilizations, when humans were more in tune with nature.