Red and Yellow Blues

Posted by Verity on October 9, 2023 in Blog, Christmas, Living today, Seasonal | 2 comments

Autumn colours/Andrew Rees/flickr

By my totally unscientific reckoning (imagine a process akin to the DfE’s calculations of the number of school pupils in England), there is an almost infinite number of ways of bisecting the population: cat people v. dog people, introverts v. extroverts, etc. I would have added people who find autumn bracing v. people who find it melancholy to this list, except it’s occurred to me that there are vast tracts of the planet who do not experience autumn as we do.

I’m with those who find it melancholy, and I found this sentiment reflected beautifully in an article by Hannah Rose Woods (erstwhile University Challenge captain with an exquisitely arched eyebrow) in the New Statesman. In it she explores the concept of ’air ache’, the sense of a changing atmosphere, that 17th century scientists like Boyle and Bacon attempted to analyse.

‘La Rentrée’ is a big thing in France. It’s more than just back to school, given their habit of all going on holiday in August (the minority July separatists have their own name : ‘Juilletistes’). Preparing yourself for the return to the chalkface or the coalface is vital, and who can deny how invigorating new stationery can be? I’m sure I used to find autumn bracing when it did indeed mean back to school – and back to my fellow dames and all the fun and laughter they represented.

But when the parks and streets are aflame with colour, the feeling of the dying of the light is inescapable. For a parent, it’s the season when you are abandoned. You go from knowing everything about your child’s day – their meals, their play, their bowel movements – to virtually nothing, as they remain tight-lipped about what they did and who they saw. If you’re lucky tantalising snippets about best friends and playground gossip may seep out gradually. And when they leave home for university or work… well, best not to dwell on how much you are no longer needed but to enjoy the new-found freedom.

And yet… the colder nights make you want to draw them back into the fold, ply them with hot food, and step up the propaganda for vests.

The challenge of being properly dressed for the season adds to its discomforts. If, like me, you’re reluctant to break out the heavy-duty woollies until it’s really cold (‘you won’t feel the benefit else’), you’re doomed to spend a lot of time shivering. Glorious sunny mornings are a deception, you realise as you’re half way to the station in ridiculously optimistic clothing.

And then there’s the mission creep of Christmas! It’s still three weeks to Halloween, and yet the decorations are up in the West End (if not actually turned on), and Boots appears to have showered anyone who ever walked past one of their branches with festive coupons. Don’t marketeers realise how panic-inducing this is – and in a way that makes you want to hide under the duvet rather than go and spend?

Bring on winter itself, so you can go equipped with woolly tights and quilted coat, and finally get serious about Christmas.