The Farmers’ Almanac calls for a snowstorm Dec. 1 - 3 in the Northeast. The local weather folks are saying the same. If so, it will be the first Nor’easter of the season. There is a fast moving storm coming across the US and this could be the start of what will be winter. I just returned from a conference on Early Childhood Learning. It is exciting to consider how young our children develop and the need to work with young parents and their newborns from day 1 and good healthcare before.

I have always thought of the Farmers’ Almanac as an educational piece. When I speak to school children, there is an excitement about the publication and all the information it contains. If you are out shopping this weekend. consider an extra copy of the 2008 Farmers’ Almanac. It is a wonderful stocking stuffer for any member of the family. We are in most stores and you can order copies through our website including a personalized hardbound cover edition. And, it can be autographed by the editors at no extra cost. Check us out at www.farmersalmanac.com.

Have a pleasant weekend. Watch the skies for white stuff.

by pgeiger
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Earlier this week, I shared our article about Putting Joy Back into Christmas. I’ve read a few stories in the mainstream media this week that talk about the stress that we all find ourselves in during the Thanksgiving - Christmas time crunch. Not only are there expectations for gift giving put on us by others but we magnify it by setting our own expectations of what we think others want from us.

Here are a couple thoughts:

First - a few years ago, my gift to my sister’s three daughters was a cash donation to the charity of their choice. The girls ranged in ages from 7 to 13 at the time. And their requests reflected personal interests. The youngest was an adopted child and her donation went to a an international adoption agency. The middle child loves animals and her wish was for an animal shelter and the oldest wanted to feed the hungry. The gift wasn’t the donation but the interaction the family had discussing what to do with the money and who might benefit the most. Another angle is to give a child a modest gift plus a donation to the charity of their choice. And, be sure the charity acknowledges the gift directly to the child. Now, it is automatic, my sister’s gang gives to a charity in my name and I do the same.

This year, my mother and I have decided we have no material needs. So, she is giving an animal ( water buffalo or 2 goats) to a family in Africa who will use the animal for food, breeding, etc. I am selecting a couple that is down and out and doing it for my mother. The good feeling that comes from carefully selecting a way to help others when many of us are fine is far better and longer lasting feeling.

My ultimate goal (personal) this Christmas is to not wrap a single gift but to use resources in a way that will make others better. And, no, I am not a candidate for sainthood. But, the needs are so great and the ability for each of us to do good work is only limited to our imagination.

If you read my article about taking the hassle out of Christmas, I’d be interested in any twists that you might have going into this Holiday Season. For those who just love shopping and wrapping gifts - have fun. Retailers are ready to help!

Happy Holiday Season - make it extra special.

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by pgeiger
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One of the most frequent questions and comments surround the Moon. And, every 2 1/2 years we are treated to what is referred to as a “Blue Moon”. We describe this on our website but here is an interesting question/ comment about the “true” blue moon and a response form my capable astronomer, Joe Rao.

Dear Farmers Almanac:

I found your article “What Is a Blue Moon?” to be fascinating. For some time I have nursed my own definition of a blue moon. Calling a full moon “blue”, whether it is the thirteenth in the year, the second in the month or the fourth in a season, has always seemed a little off to me. Like any full moon it will be white, or perhaps yellow or red when near the horizon, but hardly ever blue.
However, there is a real blue moon. If you observe a crescent moon while the sky is still blue, you can often see the outline of the rest of the ball, blue on blue in the late afternoon or early morning sky. In between the old moon and the new moon, there is a day when no crescent is revealed. The moon is very close to the sun, from our point of view. However, it can never be behind the sun because the sun is too far away. Occasionally it can be right in front of the sun, which is an eclipse of the sun.
Most months, however, the new moon is up there in full view. We can’t pick it out, because it is blue. If we knew just where to look, some late afternoon when the sun was just past the horizon, we would see a true blue moon.

Thank you,

J.D.

You are correct. And that blue color is actually Earth’s reflection. If you were on that part of the Moon where the blue color showed up, you would be looking up at a sky with a nearly full-Earth. Indeed . . . as seen from the Moon, our Earth goes through phases, but they are opposite to the lunar phases. So, if we are looking at a thin crescent Moon on Earth, from the Moon, the Earth would appear nearly full (a phenomenon called “complementary phases”).

So . . . when a nearly full Earth is in the lunar sky, there is no other illumination . . . no Sun, just the background stars. Our Earth appears nearly four times larger than the Moon looks for us. And because of the clouds and oceans, it appears about 45 to 90 times brighter than our Moon. So, a bluish-gray illumination (reflected from the clouds and oceans) illuminates the lunar landscape. From here on the Earth, we see this as a faint bluish color, lighting up the “dark side” of the Moon. We call it Earthshine, although it is also popularly referred to as “The Old Moon in the New Moon’s Arms.”

See: http://tinyurl.com/3dlcos

By the way . . . during total eclipses of the Sun, the features on the entire lunar disk can be brought out on a photograph. We don’t see them with our eyes — the Moon appears jet black against the Sun — but New Moon is when Earthshine is brightest. And if the camera is opened long enough, it can actually capture the lunar features on the dark disk of the Moon.

See: http://tinyurl.com/229×7h

Thanks for writing!

– Joe Rao

Astronomer

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by pgeiger
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Sixty percent of Americans say they are stressed by the thought of shopping during the Christmas season. Black Friday has come and gone and today is the top day for shopping electronically. So we survived the Thanksgiving Holiday and are heading toward Christmas. If you are one that finds this this to be less than jolly, let me reprint Halt the Holiday Hustle and put JOY back into Christmas from the 2005 Farmers’ Almanac.

There is so much good that goes on during the Holiday Season. Make the holiday season extra special for you and your family. Here is food for thought:

Ahh the holidays …

Blood pressures rise and trash bins overflow with the 5 to 7 million tons of extra garbage produced in the weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. All that trash is just one of the impacts our annual buying binge has on the environment. To put that into perspective, if everyone lived like the average American, we’d need another four planets to provide the raw resources and the space to dump the wastes.

There’s considerable evidence that our ever-growing pile of stuff—big-screen TVs, fancy electronic gadgets, etc.—aren’t making us any happier. Not surprisingly, nearly four out of five Americans surveyed want a simpler, less materialistic holiday with a greater emphasis on things that money can’t buy.

“People are looking for a better quality of life, not more stuff,” says Sean Sheehan, of the Center for a New American Dream, a nonprofit foundation devoted to sensible consumption and the protection of the environment. “What people really want during the holidays is less frantic running around, and more time to relax and have fun with their families,” asserts Sheehan. “We’ve done the survey since 1997, and the results are fairly consistent.”

Despite a desire to “dematerialize,” the spending spree continues, with dire consequences. Consumer debt has doubled in the past ten years, and a record 1.6 million Americans declared bankruptcy in 2003. A lot of that indebtedness is rung up during the holidays.

“People feel an awful lot of pressure, especially from their kids, to buy stuff,” Sheehan says. Behind all that pressure are more than 230 billion advertising dollars, a significant portion of which is aimed right at kids.

Reclaiming Your Rights to the Holidays

The trick to dealing with this powerful commercial juggernaut is to take time, in the relative calm of summer for instance, to talk about what your ideal holiday season would be. Don’t think of it as breaking the tradition, but as creating a better one. Patience and a little creativity can work wonders. For example, a few years back, my family decided that the adults would each draw one name for gift giving. The pile under the tree was considerably smaller, but the gifts were better. More importantly, we’re having more fun finding the right gift—often holding consultations with other family members—and feeling less rushed.

The conspicuous consumerism of Christmas has confused us about what we really want from the world, writes Bill McKibben, the author of Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas. McKibben has long championed a movement that advocates a $100 spending limit per family as a way of “reclaiming the holidays.”

“The point is not to stop giving; the point is to give things that matter,” he says. And the things that matter to most people these days are time, attention, memories, and joy. (See list above for ideas.)

“What makes us really happy are relationships, being creative, and
working towards a larger purpose than our own lives,” says Mark Burch, author of several books on voluntary simplicity, including Stepping Lightly: Simplicity for People and the Planet.

The annual holiday spending spree is “an environmental nightmare that
keeps us running ever faster on the work-and-spend treadmill,” Burch
says.

The Scrooge Factor

Another powerful force that keeps us buying more and more stuff during the holidays is the fear that someone will think we’re cheapskates like Scrooge. This is especially true when it comes to gifts for children or grandchildren, and, as a result, hundred-dollar electronic toys or games are not uncommon these days. But what do kids really, really want? They want to have fun. A friend told me this story from his family’s most recent Christmas: The children, ages 6, 8, and 10, spent a delightful afternoon playing with a big cardboard box, while $1000 in toys lay unopened under the tree.

We tend to underestimate the value of thoughtful homemade gifts (a photo album all about a child), or experiential gifts (taking a hike in the woods). And we forget that the holidays should also be about helping others. Many families donate a night to help out at a food bank or a shelter. Those shared experiences will be fondly recalled at family dinners years in the future. More fun, less stuff—isn’t that the kind of holiday you really want?

The Grinch had it right: Christmas doesn’t come in a store.

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by pgeiger
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As I look out my window, I see a mixture of rain and snow falling to the ground. This week, some parts of New Jersey received up to 10 inches of white stuff. Many places will see more wet conditions for Thanksgiving. Storms are not normally a big deal unless most of the country is traveling by car - train - plane. Inclement weather reminds me of a campaign we launched in the 1991 Farmers’ Almanac.

In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated in October. There is no specific date that Thanksgiving actually commemorates. Rather, it is a celebration of the “harvest” and sharing bounty with family and friends. In 1991, we made the suggestion that the United States follow our Canadian friends and move Thanksgiving to the second Monday in October.

We were in USA Today, Wall Street Journal and on CBS News debating the issue with an “expert” from the Smithsonian Institute. There were three reasons we liked the idea:

1) The two major family holidays are within 4 weeks of each other on the calendar. Why not spread out the visits and holidays?

2) Thanksgiving celebrates the harvest - shouldn’t “the day” be closer to the harvest? Isn’t it a day that befits gold and red leaves on our trees?

3) Usually, weather for folks coming from or to northern states is hazardous and time consuming. That is not an issue mid October. Since this is the most traveled holiday, why not have it land on a date that might insure safe travel and fewer hours getting there.

Since the 1990s I’d have to add a new twist. Retailers have so much vested in Christmas, that Thanksgiving is almost an afterthought. Let’s just let the stores go wild in late October and push merchandise for an entire quarter.

In the end “tradition” won out over making the move. But, if we wanted to all that is needed is a Joint Resolution in Congress. . .
Below is the 1991 article Should We Tinker With Thanksgiving? Glance over it and let me know if you like the idea. Send me an email at pgeiger@farmersalmanac.com.  It created quite a stir back then.

Happy Thanksgiving Day - stay safe and make memories with family and friends.

SHOULD WE TINKER WITH THANKSGIVING?

The Farmers’ Almanac, through 174 years of existence, has mellowed in the tradition and heritage of our ancestors. While it has supported those traditional values that have made our country great, this loyalty has not been blind nor unquestioning and it has not hesitated to question those traditions that have worn thin because of the changing mores.
Thus, we have questioned the singability of the National Anthem, practicability of the nine-digit zip code, and suggested eliminating completely the copper penny. We have asked our readers for their feelings on these subjects and more as a guide to developing a better way of life.

In the last few years there has been some question about the placement of the Thanksgiving holiday on the fourth Thursday in November and whether, in fact, it should be observed at a more appropriate time in the fall season.

Thanksgiving is a sacred holiday. What makes it sacrosanct is not that it is observed on a certain date each year, but rather for what it means. When one ponders the real reason for Thanksgiving, the date of celebration seems immaterial. Whether it is the fourth Thursday of November, the second Monday in October, or some other date is just a detail. What is significant is that we in America set aside a special day to rejoice and be grateful for our blessings, that we recognize Thanksgiving as an occasion for slowing down our headlong rush toward the future to give thanks to God for the miracle of life and growth.

Thus, it is the occasion that is meaningful, not the calendar listing. The original concept behind Thanksgiving was recognition of a good harvest, and the question arises - when should that be? Should we continue to wait until weeks after the harvest has been completed or should we salute its success at the time it occurs?

In the northern hemisphere, most vegetables, fruits, and grains are harvested during the summer and early fall. By late September, frost creeps in along the northern tier of the nation. Crops are in and under cover by then and the farmers heave collective sighs of relief and thankfulness. It is in early October, the colorful foliage season, when most American hearts are filled with gratitude for what a gracious God and the good earth have provided for bodily nourishment and visual pleasures.

For years now, after having varied the date year to year, Canada has celebrated Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October. For Americans to follow suit, all that would be required would be a joint resolution of Congress fixing the new date. Now comes the question, should we change the date of Thanksgiving and why? The arguments given are many. Changing the date for this festive occasion has been done many times before.

The first American Thanksgiving was a festival observed by the Plymouth Colony of transplanted English families in December, 1621, when they felt it appropriate to give communal thanks, after many setbacks, for a successful harvest.
The idea caught on throughout the British colonies and celebrations featured feasting on foods of the land: turkeys, pumpkins, fresh vegetables, apples, and berries. The date of Thanksgiving wasn’t always the same. What was significant was that the reason for the celebration was the same, and the timing was always at the end of the agricultural year.

Now it has been pointed out that by late November, trees have lost their leaves, fields and orchards are bare, and chill winds whisk us indoors for most of our waking hours. When we celebrate Thanksgiving under these conditions, we seem to have lost our sense of timing. The harvest season is long gone and the date we use for Thanksgiving seems to be enmeshed in other activities: football and basketball games and Christmas shopping. Department and specialty stores confuse us with their decorations to the extent that we wonder sometimes which holiday we are celebrating.

Then, too, late November weather is often no help for folks traveling to the traditional family reunions. Garbed in its most beautiful foliage a few weeks earlier, nature turns drab by our present Thanksgiving day. Snow and ice make travel hazardous and time consuming. Air travel is difficult and bumper to bumper traffic in sometimes blizzard conditions dims the beauty of this important day.

Thanksgiving has been an official holiday since the days of George Washington, who, in 1789, issued the first proclamation of Thanksgiving to honor the new national constitution. During the early 19th century, numerous states began to observe Thanksgiving on their own, setting different dates state by state.

In the 1860’s, Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, editor of Codey’s Lady’s Book, mounted a vigorous campaign for a national Thanksgiving Day to be on the same date each year, coast to coast. This gained presidential attention, and subsequently, on October 3 of 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national Thanksgiving Day.

For the next seven decades, each U.S. President issued his own proclamation confirming the date. Then, in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt re-set the day as November’s third Thursday. But, in 1941, a resolution was made to change it to the fourth Thursday of November, and it has remained thus ever since.

The concept of thanking a deity for the substance of life is not restricted to America. Throughout the world, harvest celebrations are held and observed in some instances by feasting and in others by fasting, but always embodying mass gratitude.

Today, Thanksgiving is a family holiday, recognizing the sanctity of the family as well as each member’s dependence on wind, rain, and soil. Now, should we consider changing the celebration to a more logical date such as the early part of October, possibly in conjunction with the Canadian Thanksgiving Day when nature is dressed in its colorful best, when the harvest moon is a bright orange disc, and when the season’s crop gathering is largely finished to the point that a pause is practical?

Let there be no misunderstanding. It is not to suggest that any one of the year’s 365 (or 366) days is not a day in which, and for which, to be thankful. But can we improve the meaning and purpose of this day by adjusting the date to the second Monday in October, or the day of October’s full moon when misty dusk brings out a special beauty?

Quite naturally, sports lovers who gear schedules to late November might object, but these schedules extend long after this day into December. The big parades could continue as now, since they are primarily for signaling the coming of Santa Claus and Christmas activity.

The Farmers’ Almanac supports this study and would like to hear from you, a valued reader, on this issue. Do let us know, and we’ll be grateful for your thoughts and will pass them along to our millions of readers for consideration as guide to the future celebration of this valued holiday. Write Thanksgiving, Farmers’ Almanac, Box 1609, Lewiston, Maine 04241.

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by pgeiger
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I spent a few days in Key West Florida last week. It was my first vacation in many years and first time in the Keys. Between snorkeling, the Harry Truman Winter White House, Hemmingway Home and lots of sunshine, it was relaxing. Temps were a comfortable 80 degrees days/ 60s at night. Returned to Maine and it is freezing. But, today, Sandi Duncan, Managing Editor, sent me this photo from her yard. Let’s put Global Warming on the back burner - at least for today. Sandi reports 6 inches of snow which will most likely melt, but we are seeing signs of winter. Nothing says winter like snow on the ground. Enjoy. Maine may get some tomorrow. We call for wet (rain/ snow) for Thanksgiving in the Northeast.

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by pgeiger
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I had a great question this week about the North Star. Is the North Star really true north? Actually, the North Star, Polaris, is not located true north. It’s actually about one degree (more or less) from the North Pole of the sky. It appears to be true north because the Earth’s axis is pointed almost directly at it. Thus, all of the stars that we see in the sky appear to be revolve around Polaris. However, the pole itself is not stationary and actually moves in a tiny circle around Polaris.

Speaking of Polaris, the next time you visit the US Post Office, they have a wonderful stamp called Polaris Lights. It is an almanac editor’s type stamp with the many colors of the northern lights. It is almost worth the 41 cents you have to pay. Might be graphically the most attractive stamp of all time.

Why do stars twinkle, but planets do not? Stars are minute pinpoints of light. No matter how powerful the telescope, a star will always appear just that - a tiny pinpoint with no discernable disk. When we look at stars through our turbulent atmosphere, those tiny pinpoints become easily distorted and thus appear to twinkle. This is something to keep in mind when you are studying the sky at night.

While I am in a trivia mood, do you know that the jury of 12 may have come from astrology?

Like everything else, there are theories on how things got their origins. There is one theory that the number 12 came from picking a juror from each sign of the zodiac to get balanced representation. Another speculation is that it came form the 12 knights who were chosen to investigate a variety of matters for the king. Still others believe it might date back tot he 12 disciples of Christ.

Are you noticing a change in weather?? While it is almost 40 degrees in Maine, we are getting snow flurries. It has to be really cold just above us. But, for those who love or depend on snow for winter, there is hope in the air. It is suppose to clear later but still, those in northern states are getting a sense that an early winter is imminent.

I will be away for about a week and will have my next blog on November 15th.

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by pgeiger
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The weather is what many focus on in the Farmers’ Almanac. We are good for lots of information but I am always pleased when I get a weather report (of sorts). We know the folks in Southern California have had a rough few weeks with the fires and resulting smoke. Here is something that reminds all of us to “check the Farmers’ Almanac“.

A comical note from two hard workers that unfortunately didn’t check the weather report. On Saturday, Ken and I cleaned all the tile grout on our floors then all the windows and screens, shutters and blinds in our 3200 SQ FT Home in Corona. While we were doing that we had two hired men digging out plants and digging new holes to transplant our large Potted Birds of Paradise into our garden which created tons of dirt everywhere which we were too tired to wash down that day after all we had done. That evening we were awakened by 50 MPH winds at 3 a.m. We threw our robes on and ran downstairs to take down four 13 inch umbrellas while fighting the high winds. It actually was very comical to see us. Then a potted 12 foot tree that we didn’t have time to anchor down fell on top of me. I’m ok thank God. However, our bodies feel like we are 80 years old. Needless to say, on Sunday, we had all the loose dirt in the bottom of the pool and a layer of dust and dirt on the screens and floors.

Lesson learned, check the Farmers’ Almanac. Tired Tam

In the Southwest we called for Storms in Utah but squalls everywhere in the region. The definition of a squall is a brief, sudden and violent windstorm, characterized by a sudden onset and termination and lasting only a few minutes. Squalls are often but not always accompanied by rain or snow.

We can joke about these things once they are over but for those in Southern California are hearts go out to you as you battle the effects of fires and winds .

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by pgeiger
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We associate Candy and Halloween with October. Mention November and thoughts go to the turkey and Thanksgiving. But how did the Turkey get it’s name? Some people say that Christopher Columbus had a lot to do with it.

As you know, when Columbus discovered land, he thought he was in India, a country overrun with peacocks. When he saw wild turkeys roaming the new land, he assumed they were a type of peacock (turkeys are actually a type of pheasant). So, Columbus named them “titka” which is “peacock” in the Tamil Language of India.

Other people believe the turkey got his name from Native Americans. They called the turkey “firkee”. Still others believe it has something to do with the noise a turkey makes when it is frightened, “turk, turk, turk”. So, your guess and story is as good as mine. I am always fascinated with the origin of names. More on turkeys and Thanksgiving as we go along.

New England is being pelted with rain and some snow in higher elevations. It does my heart some good because we talk about storms with possible snow in our predictions. I hope this is a sign of what is to come later this month and a white Christmas for much of the US and Canada

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by pgeiger
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“Didn’t see another way to submit…the August article about persimmon seeds said to mention if we opened one. We cut open 2 seeds, in Jefferson City, Missouri, and the first one didn’t have anything that we could make out. The second one that we opened, from a different persimmon, definitely had a spoon. First time I’ve ever opened one…heard about it, but never done it or actually seen one.”

I enjoy this time of the year. I get reports about what the “animals, birds and insects” are saying about the upcoming winter. The persimmon seed is another one we hear about often. When cut in two pieces, the persimmon seed will display one of three symbols.

> A knife shape indicates a cold and icy winter (where the wind cuts through you like a knife).

> A fork shape is an indicator of a mild winter.

> A spoon shape stands for a shovel to dig out the snow.

I have heard from 3 individuals in the Carolinas and now, Missouri, that the seed calls for snow and lots of it. Interesting.

Daylight Saving Time ended on Sunday morning - 2am. So, we’ve gone through the first cycle of 4 additional weeks. How did this impact your life?? If you flip to our home page, you can vote for the DST Plan as voted by Congress. The purpose was to save energy. Did it work?? Tell us.

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by pgeiger
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