The Daily: 3 February 2026

Yesterday morning, the sun shone on Gobblers Knob in Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, so the groundhog, Punxatawney Phil, saw his shadow and went back to bed, thereby forecasting six more weeks of winter. Of course, today, February 3rd, being the exact cross-quarter day between the winter solstice and the spring equinox means that there are, indeed, six more weeks until the beginning of spring — if you start spring on the equinox. Which, outside this confused culture, is an unlikely if…

Most of the calendars I know label the solstices and equinoxes as the middle of their respective seasons, not the beginnings. Notice that on February 1st we just celebrated the ancient Celtic holiday of Imbolg, the enkindling, the very beginning of the growing season, and note that we still call the solstices by the names Midwinter and Midsummer. Now, early March was the new year in many Roman-influenced calendars, and some cultures did and still do start their year later in March, on or near the equinox. But the season of spring started much earlier. 

Chinese New Year begins their annual cycle, obviously, but it is also the beginning of spring in the cultures that celebrate this festival. In fact, it’s more commonly known in Asian cultures as the Spring Festival. This Spring Festival, which lasts an entire month, begins with the second new moon after the winter solstice (usually… there is math involved in calculating the date…). This most frequently falls in February with the new Hunger (or Snow) Moon. This year it coincides with Mardi Gras on 17 February, a festival that also marks the beginning of spring, Lent, which name derives from lencten, which meant “springtime” in Old English.

So, I would say that for most cultures, including the cultural ancestors of our own, spring does not begin six weeks from today, on the equinox. It begins today, at the midpoint between the winter solstice, Midwinter, and the vernal equinox — which actual day, by the way, was so inconsequential in much of Europe that it wasn’t was even named anything special and was eventually subsumed into the Easter season.

However, springy beginnings and a bit of sunshine notwithstanding, we are not experiencing spring weather here in the Northeast. We rarely do around Imbolg. For my part of the world, the Wolf Moon is deep in winter weather, with four-foot piles of snow and bone-chilling temperatures. Yesterday, while Phil was scrambling to head back to the burrow, I was heading off to work in -12°F weather. Fortunately, there was no wind, so no wind chill, because -12° is quite chilly enough for my body. And for my car, which does not appreciate the cold at all… I can hardly get five miles of charge on the battery even with it plugged in all night… I imagine Phil was more put off by the arctic air than by his shadow. I know, as soon as I stepped out the door, I sure wanted to head back to my burrow and hibernate for six weeks.

But despite doomy rodent weather forecasting and polar temperatures, it actually is almost time to rouse from our winter lethargy, almost… though most of us are still slow and stiff and not ready for rousing. These days, it takes time to convince our sun-starved bodies to get motivated — because our bodies deeply resent being active in the darkness, and it takes a while to get over that hurdle. This resentment manifests as winter depression and increased illness and exhaustion. We all feel tired when the days are short because our bodies want to be asleep through the long nights, and we’re just not. So we spend much of winter with the flu and colds and seasonal affective disorder. After weeks of feeling poorly, facing the new demands of spring and the upcoming growing season feels rather Sisyphean. If we just slowed down and slept more in the winter, we would be so much healthier, and the transition to activity in the spring, when the sun is shining on our endeavors again, would be so much easier.

Our calendars show that we used to listen to our bodily imperatives. Our former good sense is preserved in the holidays and traditions. In more sensible times, the Wolf Moon was the time to get back to work after the long Midwinter holidays. Most work was set aside for the duration of the holiday period — from St Andrew’s Day to Plough Monday. This time away from work was not only time for human bodies to rest and recuperate, nor was it merely a time to sanctify in celebration and remembrance and honor. Resting during Midwinter was and is just basic biology. Most beings that live in temperate climates slow down in the winter simply because it conserves energy and drastically reduces waste. Those that don’t tend to live very short lives…

In addition to the stress it puts on the body, being active when the body is programmed to be sleeping — actually, being more active, given the onerous consumer obligations of the holidays added onto household budgets and the regular work week — refusing to slow down through the winter months is also a substantial strain on material resources. For example, consider all the electricity burned simply to light the long winter darkness, light artificially generated for the sole purpose of keeping us awake when our bodies want to be asleep. A more rational economy would laugh at such wasteful nonsense.

And, indeed, in the days before constant economic activity for the sake of profits — rather than for the sake of provisioning — humans listened to their bodies. They slept when it was dark and slept more when the dark lasted longer. We have become so used to molding the hours to fit our ridiculous ideas that we seem to think that our ancestors used candles and lamps to work through the night just as we use fossil-fuel-generated electric light. But nobody worked in the darkness. For one thing, very few people could afford candles and lamps. But also, the small flames from oil lamps and candles do not cast strong light. One can’t do much work, nor much of anything, by candlelight.

There is a reason candelabra and chandeliers became popular among the wealthy. Those dozens of flames are the only effective way to banish the darkness and light up a party (for people who did not have to go to work the next day, it should be noted…). But most nights the candles were not lit because keeping dozens of candles alight was a prohibitive expense even for the wealthy. It was also a good deal of work to manage the flames and keep them burning neatly. One wonders how many ball gowns and fancy hats were ruined by dripping wax and how many burns resulted from reaching across the table. (One of the many reasons the wealthy were served individually at dinner parties is that a table laden with candles, so one could actually see the food, is dangerous.)

In any case, even the wealthy tended to slow down in the winter and sleep more through the dark nights. They probably wouldn’t have remained wealthy if they were burning dozens of candles all night long. But they also just listened to their bodies more than we do. They may not have had work schedules, but there was a season for socializing, and winter was not it. 

But even among the laboring peasantry, until the advent of factory wage work, very little work was done in the winter months. There were few year-round jobs, because most jobs were done to meet needs, not grow profits. So most jobs were directly tied to biophysical reality and were, therefore, seasonal. And winter is the slow season.

Artificial light and constant year-round work schedules are symptoms of our disembodied, senseless ways of being, our culture of “mind over matter”. Not only do we not listen to our bodies (much less prioritize our biophysical needs), we’re supposed to flat out deny our physicality. We’re supposed to suppress how we feel and stoically soldier on in masochistic displays of will, ignoring the body’s strident complaints, all so that we can… well, I’m not really sure what the rewards are. The putative benefit is that we gain wealth and status when we are always on, always striving away, always working despite the body’s increasing protests. But, since hardly any of us have wealth or status, the rewards are certainly not obviously flowing from the sacrifice of our health and well-being.

In any case, wealth and status are no substitutes for health and well-being. You can’t ignore the body’s needs and attain either health or well-being, no matter your bank account and societal rank. You can’t buy rest and recovery. Once ill-treated and misused, there is no monetary remedy. You can’t buy a healthy body. Nor can you think yourself into well-being. We don’t like to admit this — we like to be “in control” of our bodies (whatever that means) — but you can’t will the body into good health. In short, you ignore your body’s needs at your own peril. Your mind and your money will never make you well…

(Your mind and your money do nothing, actually… but that’s an argument for another day…)

Working full tilt all winter is undoubtedly making us sick. If we want to feel better, even for the sake of getting more work done overall, then we need to slow down in the darkness so that when the sun is shining we are up to full speed. We may not be able to hibernate like Phil, but we could follow our ancestors and turn off the lights at night. Then, when the days start lengthening, we would be ready to get back into the busier schedule of summer. Think of how much more we could accomplish if we sensibly followed the seasons and rested when we needed it!

And in that more sensible culture, today would be the day we start to wake up. It’s the beginning of spring. In fact, in my part of the world, even the plants are starting to wake up, no matter the cold weather. The first ten-hour day is Thursday. This is when plants get enough sunlight to put energy into new growth. Also… on a purely personal note… yesterday was the first day the sun set after 5pm. From here on out, the sun will be shining when I get off work, and there will still be twilight when I get home even on days when I have errands to run. No more fumbling for the house keys and barking my shins in the dark. No more skipping dinner and evening exercise because I just want to go to bed — because my body is biologically programmed to be asleep in the dark. It will be light enough in the evenings to get a little living in…

I can only imagine how wonderfully restorative it would be if I could always get home before dark… and be asleep through all the long hours of darkness. Then, by Imbolg, I would truly be ready for spring! I wouldn’t feel like running back to my burrow, wanting to sleep for six more weeks. I would feel like running! Because I would be fully rested and recharged.

There are fights for 4-day work weeks and more paid time off… I would rather we fight for a complete economic slow-down in the winter. Shorter work days, but also less need to spend money, so less need of wages. There are obviously many jobs that can’t be dialed back for a season, but most jobs are not such necessary work. To the contrary, most jobs could be done in a few hours every day. It would be no hardship to start the workday late in the morning and close the doors early in the evening, and maybe take a few weeks around Midwinter with no work at all. Our ancestors did just fine with that schedule. (Obviously, or we wouldn’t be alive…) The only thing that will suffer is… profit…

So…

I can dream of a sensible calendar. But I doubt I will live to see it. However, with biophysical constraints straining our senseless economic system on all sides, it’s not unrealistic to think that this is the direction our culture will eventually go. After all, artificial light is… artificial… and an aberration, made possible only in an era of abundant and cheap fossil fuels. 24-7 lighting is not going to last much longer. In fact, it is already failing in many places. Soon the embodied world will put our culture in its place… and time… And we will sleep all night once again.

Maybe some of you will live to see a time when Imbolg will be the beginning of spring after a lovely, restorative winter of sleep. Certainly, those who follow us will not follow our calendars. In time, our descendants will revert to living in time, whether they will it or not — though I believe they will choose this path because the benefits are manifest. And, for them, in that future time, this time, the Wolf Moon will be the time to shake off the long winter’s drowsiness. Today, in that future time, it will be time to wake up and step gladly into spring.

Groundhog weather forecasting notwithstanding…

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©Elizabeth Anker 2026