K.A.C. 2025 - T - 02 Days ... [2020]

 

     2020 - This year will not soon be forgotten, as it asked a remarkable question: how does one celebrate Christmas during a worldwide pandemic?

     The COVID-19 pandemic officially stretched from March of 2020 to May of 2023. To really get the feel of the times as they happened, feel free to go back to our K.A.C 2020 articles (links at right) to see how the challenge was met. Among the stories we covered that year were:

     - The Christmas Star. In a remarkably timely stellar coincidence, just when people needed it most, Jupiter and Saturn passed in a very close conjunction right before the Winter Solstice, forming a 'Christmas Star' in the sky. Our original report PLUS a 2025 update appear below:

     http://www.conjurecinema.com/2020/12/kac-2020-t-18.html  

     https://www.astronomy.com/science/the-star-of-bethlehem-can-science-explain-what-it-was/  

     

     - The 'Plexi Santa' - what with masks being mandatory and 6 feet between people at all times also being enforced, the notion of ANYONE sitting on Santa's lap during the pandemic was right out. We covered some interesting workarounds (including MUSHROOMS) for the overworked elf AND showed what happened to SC when proper protocols were NOT observed:

     http://www.conjurecinema.com/2020/12/kac-2020-t-12.html 

     
 

     - The Spanish Flu - over the course of the 2020 articles, we researched the FIRST pandemic to hit these shores - as we wrote at the time: "With COVID still rampant around the world, it got me wondering what Christmas was like when the world went through this before, so I started researching the 1918 Spanish Flu. According to the National Archives: "The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus. Within months, it had killed more people than any other illness in recorded history." What was remarkable about this poster and the warnings that came with it were the wording and article warnings could be lifted wholesale without changing a word during the Covid-19 pandemic with only one difference: in 1918 and beyond, the public religiously observed and followed the precautions and warnings, while during Covid, after a very short while, people started bucking the system, figuring out ways to get around the cautions (and causing a LOT of needless infections). 

     

     So, with the lock down in effect, holiday parties were out. Those who could (ourselves included) worked from home and only went out for groceries or other essentials. Still wanting to interact with family and friends during the holidays, online Zoom meetings became the 'go to' means of checking in with each other, oftentimes with embarrassing results for those unfamiliar with how to tell if your camera was still on or not. The safest way to spend the holiday? Iceland had the answer, one they've had for YEARS and one that our family adopted WAY before the pandemic: the Jolabokaflod (see picture at left). You should, too!

     Other variants still pop up and the fear of a newer, deadlier virus still haunts us today. We hope for a safer world, but with this current administration's denials of Covid and downplaying the efficacy and ESSENTIAL need to get vaccinated, this could all go Very Wrong Very Quickly ... and for once, we don't have a witty comeback for that.

 

     With THAT somber coda in your heads, join us tomorrow for our final entry of the year!