We are at home… the Christmas lights are on outside… inside a single string of light illuminates our small, 4’ tall tree… (we have kittens in the house, three kittens… running, playing… a recipe for disaster for a conventional decorated tree…) There is a fire in the hearth… a traditional wood fire…
According to the Bay Area Air Resources Board, tomorrow, on Christmas Eve, a traditional wood fire is unwelcome, even illegal.
This bothers me…
There are many reasons to celebrate in late December… There is Hanukkah (or Chanukah) the Jewish Festival of lights… There is the Birth of Christ, which according to many Biblical scholars likely did not take place in December, more likely in September after harvest or in April...
The December date is an homage to the winter solstice… the shortest day of the year… typically December 20th or 21st… A significant day in several “pagan societies” abet several days before the adopted Christian day…
The traditional European pagan (German, English, Scandinavian) celebration celebrated the turn… the day when days stopped getting shorter, and began to again grow longer…
They, the early Europeans, celebrated with a feast, with an evergreen tree brought indoors, with a fire in the hearth and maybe a bonfire outside.
Our Christmas celebration was assigned the late December date to the celebration of the birth of Christ by the Romans as they attempted to subdue the Goths and as an olive branch, continue an “acceptable appropriate” celebration to a date significant to their culture… Later in the 19th century, we, collectively added references to the German tree and Santa Claus (previously St Nickolas or Father Christmas) to the celebration… Since retailers and the media have made it into a frenzy of shopping and consumerism.
My background is English and German… My wife is Scandinavian… We are nominally, but not actively practicing Christians. We are not pagans, but have pagans as ancestors.
Fires are banned because in winter, fires affect air quality… Air quality impacted as too many of us try to live in the west…
Edward Abbey ranted against the industrialization of tourism in the arid west… about improved roads bringing casual tourists… in The Monkey Wrench Gang. Seldom Seen Smith says, .."Any road I wasn't consulted about that I don't like, I litter. It's my religion." "Right," Hayduke said. "Litter the shit out of them."
Tomorrow, Christmas Eve, I will have a fire on the hearth… part of my religion… part of my Mid Winter celebration…
So the rebellion begins! Occupy your hearth! What peeves me is that we had EPA approved Jotul fireplaces put in this old house, and received a substantial rebate from the EPA for doing it....but the BAAQB has no mechanism for telling the difference between an open hearth, so outlaws all wood fires.
ReplyDeleteThe BAAQMB members are not elected, but appointed. Budget information? Board stipends? How many inspectors do they have, at what salary, vs how many $400 citations are issued? You do the math.
ReplyDelete