"Happy Dark Month, Ann! Thanks for introducing me to this concept, of which I think yearly."

Writes Darconville, in the comments to last night's "Lake Mendota ice at noon."

Maybe Darconville is Alexander Louis Theroux, the author of the novel "Darconville's Cat," who is about 85 years old at the moment, or maybe he's a fan of that novel, or maybe Darconville built his pseudonym beginning with the word "dark."

I wonder if he began with a liking for the dark and the idea of Darkmonth played into his preference or if — like Christmas — it helped make a difficult time of year easier to bear. 

I first mentioned Darkmonth in the first year of this blog, 2004. And here's something I wrote in 2020: "My word for this time of year is 'Darkmonth'... I put the solstice in the center — it's December 21st — and count back 15 days to get to the first day, and that is today, the 6th. We have not yet reached the coldest month-long period of the year — and you never know exactly when that's going to be (and it's very rarely 30 consecutive days). But we have reached the 30 darkest days of the year, and by the first day of winter, we'll be halfway through the darkest month."

The winter solstice this year is also December 21st — it's not always December 21st — so Darconville correctly identified yesterday, December 6th, as the first day of Darkmonth. Revere the dark through January 5th.

On January 6th — it's always Epiphany — we will be out of the dark.