To the editor:

As we approach the date that promises longer daylight hours, I thought I would learn a little bit about mistletoe. Well, what a surprise — that which the Druids and the Romans and the Norse worshipped or included in their folk tales is a different species from that which grows in the warmer parts of the United States although they are both parasites and draw fluids from the host trees. (I will not bore you with the Latin names.)

My mind’s eye chooses not to dwell on the Romans or the Norsemen, instead I see white robed Druid men with golden knives cutting off the woody bunches. Scattered around Ireland there are abandoned circles of once holy stones and you would have to be there at the right time to know if the sun came into the circle for the winter or the summer solstice. (I am too lazy to look up Stonehenge.)

And here is where my mind’s eye is having a hard time. At the same time that we are freezing, south of the equator it is hot and the Peruvians are celebrating the beginning of summer in many ways that the early Incas did (albeit only animal sacrifices.)

So over the centuries, wise men have messed around with the calendar and as far as I’m concerned December 21 is the beginning of the New Year and I hope it is a safe and healthy one for all of us.

Sidney Tynan

Little Compton