Journeys and Jottings
Issue - 54. Ode to Autumn by John Keats, Greek mythology and Autumn, Places you must travel in Autumn, Sikkim Stories and September trivia - 11 days please
“Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul.”
— Peggy Toney Horton
There is something magical about autumn especially if you are a traveller. It’s almost like there is a dream-like quality in the air, the landscape is surreal, painted in the most enchanted hues, the foliage is the flower and there is an enchanting vibe all around. And then as the leaves begin to fall, merging with the earth, it feels like it is time for a renewal. Autumn teaches us to let go as the season, once called Harvest is now referred to as The Fall.
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This issue is an ode to autumn. I grew up however romanticizing the season, because of my favourite poet, John Keats, and his poem, To Autumn, who richly layers his poem with the symbolism of abundance.
To Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.
Pic Credit - Bert Kaufmann from Roermond, Netherlands
The Greek Goddess of Autumn
The Greeks celebrated the seasons with Goddesses and there were three of them called Horae or Hours, being in charge of not just time but nature and seasons and the changes that happen as the wheels of time move. The three sisters, who were attendants of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love were Thallo, Auxo and Carpo or Xarpo and they represented Spring, Summer, and Autumn. While Carpo was the Goddess of Autumn, she was particularly in charge of ripening the fruits, which explains the rich imagery of Keat’s poem.
Pic Credit - Unidentified painter, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
The Greeks however did have another darker connotation to autumn which talks about the story of Persephone and Hades that explains the phenomenon of seasons through folklore. Persephone was the daughter of Demeter, the goddess of fertility and the harvest and she was kidnapped by Hades, the Lord of the Underworld who wanted to make her his Queen. A distraught mother who was always working towards abundance allowed the earth to become barren as she withered in sorrow. Finally, Zeus forced Hades to return Persephone but Hades tricked her into eating a few fruits and seeds. The Furies and Fates had decided that anyone who ate anything in the underworld would remain there and Hades had managed to keep Persephone or so it seemed. A compromise eventually was formed and Persephone was allowed to see her mother for some period every year. And in those months, the Earth would sparkle and flourish and be full of abundance but when Persephone returned to Hades, the separation caused barrenness again to the world. A heartbreaking myth, but it talks about the essence of seasons and the cycle of nature.
September trivia - Give us back our 11 days
There is a very interesting story that happened way back in September 1752 in the UK, when 11 days went missing. “Give us back our 11 days” shouted the people, when the UK decided to shift from The Julian Calendar to The Gregorian Calendar. As a result, “September 3 became September 14, “ and 11 days were completely erased from the lives of the British in 1752. People apparently rioted and felt cheated that they lost out on 11 days. How would you feel if you woke up one morning and realized that time had marched ahead of you?
Seven of my favourite autumn destinations
I love travelling more in autumn than in spring because the fall colours are blinding, the weather is amazing and the crowds are reasonably less than in most seasons. Although I have quite a few favourite destinations, here are the ones I would recommend if you are planning a trip in the fall.
British Columbia, Canada
Slovenia - Lake Bled,
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
Edinburgh - Scotland
Kyoto, Japan
Bruges, Belgium
Sikkim, India
Which destinations would you recommend?
100 Stories from India
Mystical, magical memories of Sikkim
A visit to the magical monasteries of Sikkim, listening to the stories around them as we drive from Pelling to Yuksom and finally to Gangtok.
It lasted for barely a few seconds. Freezing in the cold, I was at Pelling, in Sikkim, gazing at the cloudy sky only to see the veil drop for a second and reveal the mighty Kangchendzonga before the mist wrapped it again in its fold. It was just for a moment but it felt like eternity. This was my first introduction to Sikkim.
As the day dawned, I headed to one of the oldest monasteries in Sikkim – Pemayngste for some silent moments. Built in the 18th century, this monastery houses the Architectural Design of Heaven called the Zangdoplan, which is carved out of wood. This is where I heard about the original history of Sikkim.
It was in Yuksom, 40 km from Pelling where the first king, or Chogyal Phuntsok Namgyal of Sikkim was consecrated by the three wise lamas. Yuksam literally means the meeting place of the three learned monks. This eventually was the first capital of Sikkim. We went beyond, a 15 km walk from Yuksom to Norbugang to see the site – a stone throne shaded by a 300-year-old fir tree. A nearby chorten (stupa) contained soil and water from all over Sikkim. While the Dubdi Monastery and Sangachoeling Monastery were later built here
We later went to Rabdentse, the second capital after Yuksom , where the ruins lay hidden from the main road and told the tale of a ravaged Sikkim in the early 18th century. Due to a conspiracy by his half-sister, Chogyal was forced to flee to Tibet as Sikkim was invaded by the Bhutanese. Fierce battles were fought for several years and finally, the Chogyals came back to power with the Tibetans’ support, but not before Bhutan and Nepal had plundered Sikkim.
However my journey eventually took me to Gangtok, the capital of the state, which was in sharp contrast to the silence of Pelling and Yuksom, I left the bustling city and in my quest to see more monasteries, I visited Emchey, Lingdum, or Ranka Monastery and the famous Rumtek, which is one of the largest in Sikkim.
Stories greeted me everywhere. At Emchey I heard that a flying saint had initially built his hermitage here.. Even today, people from Gangtok believe that the Gompa called the Solitary Temple contains and preserves the spirits of protective deities that take care of them.
At Rumtek, I was told that the monastery was the seat of the Karmapas, who belonged to one of the schools of Buddhism called Karma Kagyu. It was rebuilt by the 16th Karmapa in the 1960s, who took refuge here after his exile from Tibet and it housed precious relics.
Finally, I entered the Lingdum or Ranka Monastery to see the lamas in the midst of their evening chants, while some of them were practicing their ritualistic dances in the courtyard. As they swirled around, I lost myself in the sonorous music that came from the monastery and felt at peace in their mystical world.
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