• Winter provides contrast

Four Seasons by Alfons Mucha, circa 1896. Wikimedia Commons

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness?”

John Steinbeck

I have often heard people say that they are glad to live in Britain, in a climate of distinct seasons. Having year-round similar weather, whether hot or cold, would deprive them of an important experience.

This is the experience of seasons that are contrasting; we are heavily influenced by their repeating cycles. The changes in climate feel important and therapeutic to us, for the seasons are intimately connected with human beings, in relation, for example, to circadian rhythms. Seasonal changes frequently affect our moods, our ways of being, and our eating habits.

Spring, for example, brings contrast, new hope and a sense of growth after a long, cold and dark winter, and we come to appreciate the welcome changes it brings. There is a sense of renewal, of lightness, of new beginnings, a feeling of transition that affects us all, mentally and physically.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes – The Snowstorm.1786-7. Wikimedia Commons

“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”

Anne Bradstreet

 Spring (portrait of Mary Jaumandreu) – Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench.1885. Wikioo

“Spring passes and one remembers one’s innocence.
Summer passes and one remembers one’s exuberance.
Autumn passes and one remembers one’s reverence.
Winter passes and one remembers one’s perseverance.”

Yoko Ono

• Peace, cosiness, contentment and a kind of safety

  

A Hygge Moment. Bob Jenkin. 2021. Wikimedia Commons

“Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.”

Thomas De Quincey

The peacefulness and cosiness of winter are encapsulated in the Danish term ‘hygge,’ meaning a snug, contented feeling. The words above amply describe the warmth, nostalgia and comfort we can experience when we are indoors, cosy and protected from the weather.

In this pleasurable situation, we can often feel at peace, sheltered within a comforting and comfortable home, and glimpsing the external winter scene from within.

Georg Pauli (Swedish, 1855-1935), Winter Evening at Söder, Stockholm, 1889. Wikimedia Commons

“Outside, snow solidified itself into graceful forms. The peace of winter stars seemed permanent.”

Toni Morrison, Beloved.

16th Street, Indianapolis in Snow – Theodore Clement Steele.(1847-1926) Wikioo

“Winter keeps us warm, covering Earth in forgetful snow.”

T.S. Eliot

Snow can have an insulating effect as it covers and mutes the world, silencing and softening some harsh, everyday sounds. Eliot speaks of snow being ‘forgetful;’ this is an unusual term, but there is some reality in this, in that snow can be like a calming, mollifying blanket and can temporarily distract us from our daily concerns.

• Bonding

Vasily Surikov – Taking a Snow Town. 1891. Wikimedia Commons.

“I love snow for the same reason I love Christmas. It brings people together while time stands still.”

Rachel Cohn

The painting above depicts a Siberian ritual to mark the end of winter; it involves a group of men ‘attacking’ a huge snow fortress. They are having fun, playing together, riotously sharing in the celebration, forging and cementing relationships. 

Winter celebrations and activities exist around the world, such as Guy Fawkes’ Night, Halloween, Christmas, Hogmanay, Thanksgiving, going to Christmas markets, or skiing and sleighing in the snow. All these bring people together and provide opportunities to form and maintain social bonds.

Christmas Market in Berlin. Franz Skarbina. 1892. Wikimedia Commons

In the colder months, there can develop a greater feeling of community, as people check on ageing neighbours, or gather to feed the homeless.

• Warming food

François Barraud – La Tailleuse de Soupe. (The Bread Cutter) 1933. Wikimedia Commons

“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.”

Edith Sitwell

Winter means to many people food that is satisfyingly warming.  Food can be therapeutic, comforting, and cheering to us even on the coldest of days and in the saddest of moods.

People sometimes say they find it harder to lose weight in winter, they get hungrier, and they do not want salads or diet food. What they want is thick warming soups, hot broths, substantial casseroles, warm, fresh breads, spicy curries, sponge puds. Thus, there are ‘winter menus’ in pubs and restaurants, serving hearty dishes to get us through the darkest and coldest of days.

Winter is actually a time when people tend to eat more, needing the comfort and the sustenance that food brings.

• Time out and rest

First Snow In Autumn – Thomas Thompson. 1916. Wikioo

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, ‘go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.’”

Lewis Carroll

In winter, the cold weather and the snow can sometimes make us feel like hibernating, or at least taking more rest, using the cold times to nurture and care for ourselves, both mentally and physically.

Carroll seems to be suggesting that the ‘white quilt’ of snow can offer us some solace, and can function in a kind, parental way, urging us to keep the promise of summer always in our minds. This is similar to the themes in Katherine May’s book, mentioned in part 1 of this post, where winter is seen as offering a ‘fallow’ time for comfort and rest.

Early Snow at Louveciennes (also known as Rue de Voisins, Louveciennes: First Snow) 1871. Alfred Sisley. Wikimedia Commons

“Snow isn’t just pretty. It also cleanses our world and our senses, not just of the soot and grime of a mining town, but also of a kind of weary familiarity, a taken-for-granted quality to which our eyes are all too susceptible.”

John Burnside

• Beauty

Snow on Valencia – Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench. Wikioo. 

“Winter is not a season; it’s a celebration of nature’s beauty.”

 Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau urges us to deeply appreciate the intense aesthetic value of winter, to see it as a time for celebration. He reframes it as so much more than just another season, with its magical, transformative beauty and its profound natural wonders.

How picturesque is a snowy scene! Its beauty is legendary, and nobody could fail to be impressed by the metamorphosis that snow can confer upon a landscape. I will end this post with some special quotations and images about winter…

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – Winter Landscape in Moonlight, 1919. Wikimedia Commons

“Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own.”

Charles Dickens

The Delaware in Winter – Fern Isabel Coppedge.(between 1920 and 1940) Wikioo

“The snow is sparkling like a million little suns.”

Lama Willa

. The Shortening Winter’s Day is near a Close. Joseph Farquharson. Wikimedia Commons

St. Agnes’ Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp’d trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold.

Keats.

Snow Flowers – Henri Matisse. 1951. Wikimedia Commons

“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.”

John Burroughs

Tom Thomson (1877–1917), Snow in October (1916-17), oil on canvas, 82.1 x 87.8 cm, National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, Ottawa, ON. The Athenaeum.

“Snow was falling,
so much like stars
filling the dark trees
that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness.”

Mary Oliver

© Linda Berman