Little Day - Starn

CHRISTENING GOWN,
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Family Heirloom
Worn by my grandmother's older brother
Great Uncle Harry Louis Heideman
Born 16 June 1887

My Grandson William Aidan McCartney
Born 18 May 2022
Modeling the same gown 135 years later

Swathed in antique handmade lace,
Aidan looked like a modern day Baby Jesus,
so perfect for the Christmas Season,
and just like all the sweet songs:

The Face of Love
For I have seen, the face of love
The grace of God, the face of love . . .

Mary, Did You Know . . .
When you kiss your little baby
You kiss the face of God . . .

. I'm also thinking of The Second Shepherds' Play (c. 1500), a medieval mystery play in which three bumbling but earnest shepherds -- Coll, Gib, and Daw -- come with fun presents for the baby: a cluster of cherries, a bird, and everyone's favorite: a ball!

COLL
Hail, young child! . . .

Lo, he laughs, my sweeting!
A well fair meeting!
I have holden my heting [kept my promise]
Have a bob of cherries.

GIB
Hail, sovereign Saviour,
For thou has us sought!
Hail freely child and flower,
That all thing has wrought!
Hail, full of favour,
That made all of nought!
Hail! I kneel and I cower.
A bird have I brought
To my barn [child].
Hail, little tiny mop!
Of our creed thou art crop.
I would drink on thy cup,
Little day-starn [star].

DAW
Hail, darling dear,
Full of Godhead!
I pray thee be near
When that I have need.
Hail, sweet is thy cheer [face]
My heart would bleed
To see thee sit here
In so poor weed [clothing]
With no pennies.
Hail, put forth thy dall [hand]!
I bring thee but a ball:
Have and play thee withal,
And go to the tennis.

For Aidan, instead of a ball,
a 21st C bubble punch toy!
(And a little bird!)

Hail, little tiny mop!


Hail, darling dear!

Christmas 2020: Ellie in Swaddling Clothes (on the right)
Christmas 2021: Ellie's Concept Costume

********************************


Additional medieval mystery / morality play connection:

These headstones in the old cemetery near our house
seem to me like characters in Everyman (c. 1510)

In the words of Martin Luther's hymn:
"Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also . . ." (c 1529)

I can hear them saying,
"No, Everyman! Kindred and Youth
will NOT be stepping into the grave with you!"
Poor Everyman!

I have always felt sorry for Everyman that Knowledge can't go to the grave with him. All the others -- Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin -- I can accept. But it seems such a shame to say farewell to Knowledge after staying awake all those hours in pursuit of it. That will be my next conundrum to overcome -- as soon as I find away to overcome (instead of being overcome by) Sleep -- how to take Knowledge with me to the afterlife.

Next Fortnightly Post
Saturay, January 14th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com

Oakleaf Hydrangea

THE OAKLEAF HYDRANGEA,
ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS

Oakleaf Hydrangea
Still vivid red in mid - December!

The amazing thing about these robust hydrangea leaves is that even on the darkest night of the year, a full week or more after the above photograph, they will still be hanging from the branches. A few might be withered and sad or crumbled on the ground from rough winds, but many will remain to make the offical transition from fall to winter, long after autumn has "rolled down the hillside":
In village stations hamlets, market towns,
Cathedral cities, ends of country lanes
Like this one, where the autumn's rolling down
The hillside, and it wont be very long
Before the leaves are stacked up window-level . . .

~ Martha Grimes ~

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.

~ Emily Bronte ~

"I don't know why,
but I always love the way
the fall leaves cover my back yard
before they turn brown and brittle."

I love the way that my sister Peg has written a kind of inadvertent, slightly expanded haiku to go along with this photograph of her backyard that she took this month. In one of those perfect coincidences that feature on this blog, one moment I was admiring Peg's current photograph, and a moment later, I just happened to scroll across these wonderful words Peg shared way back in November 2011. Like the autumn itself, Peg's words are timeless:

"I think these beautiful colors of a fall sunset are what makes it my favorite time of year. I even enjoy looking at the trees in my yard as they begin disrobing for winter. The stark contrast of the still-clinging colored leaves, the dark branches, and the ever-changing sky as a backdrop are so beautiful. And there's no sound in the world like the crunching of brittle fall leaves as you walk."

Next Fortnightly Post
Wednesday, December 28th

Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com

Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogsppot.com