A Midwinter Night’s Gleam

Holiday display by Detroit Garden Works.

WINTER — if you believe the ancient Greeks — came about when Demeter was mourning the abduction of her beloved daughter Persephone. To protest, Persephone’s mythic momma refused to nourish the earth until her daughter was returned from the underworld. It’s slightly more dramatic than your run-of-the-mill weather report, but really just another way of saying it’s dark out there. Luckily, the holidays provide many opportunities to celebrate light. From Christmas trees to menorahs, the season’s traditions fight winter woes and offer a response to the mythological melodrama that plunged us into darkness to begin with.