February is a down time for many Hoosiers. The weather is often wintry with a bit of spring – just enough to tease us and raise false hopes. Sunlight seems rationed; the barometer likes to plummet, making our sinuses and joints swell. The masses are sick of winter and anxious for the warmth of spring. Like waiting in a doctor’s office, there is no joy in “Februaryville” – at least not for some!
One advantage of getting older and living a full life is that time flies. February is but a blink away from March or April or August, at least for me. Of course February is but a few blinks away from next February! But I don’t think that’s so bad.
February is a great month for a lot of reasons. First, the holidays are low-hassle ones. How much stress is Groundhog Day? For some, Valentine’s Day is a romantic time, but for folks who are alone or whose marriage is anything but romantic, it can be depressing. OK, I have it good and it is easy for me to say; still, the Valentine’s season is not long. How did the ancients deal with the February blahs? They did their spring cleaning. According to Wikipedia, “Februa, also Februatio, was the Roman festival of purification ... The festival, which is basically one of Spring washing or cleaning (associated also with the raininess of this time of year) … The Roman month Februarius … is named for the Februa/Februatio festival, which occurred on the 15th day of the Roman month. A later Roman god Februus personified both the month and also purification, and is named for them. Thus, the month is named for the festival and not for the god.”
Doing cleaning in the “spring” probably originated from an even more ancient practice associated with the Jewish holiday of Passover (Pesach), which truly is a spring feast. Because Passover initiates the week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, devout Jews (then and today) thoroughly clean their houses to assure that all traces of leaven (yeast or other risers) have been removed from the house. The cleaning tradition (minus the leaven removal) spread to non-Jews, hence the Western custom of spring cleaning.
Of course many of us are too busy to do an annual spring cleaning.
Those of us who enjoy cooking adopt Emeril’s motto, “Every day’s a Party!” It is usually cold enough in February to put on a pot of soup or bake that roast. Hurry – the warm weather is coming. Give your oven a workout.
Those of us who love the great indoors thrive in February. We can play board games and cards; we can invite friends over to socialize, maybe even sort out our sock drawer. It is the time of year when we indoor/relational types excel.
Soon spring will be here and your schedule could be filled to the hilt. People are afraid to plan January or February banquets, fundraisers or celebrations. They have a snow-phobia. But in spring, some people and organizations come out of their nooks and crannies with perhaps too much energy. The good news about spring is that it is humanly impossible to be more than one place at a time.
Spring also can invigorate people with discontent and determination to make changes. People have put up with – you name it – (spouse, job, neighborhood, apathy) all winter, and, with the warm weather, they are not going to stand for it anymore. Thus February is a good time to regroup before the spring bug gets – or victimizes – you! Have a great month!
• Ed Vasicek is pastor of Highland Park Church and a weekly contributor to the Kokomo Tribune.
