I've decided to start a new family tradition. Care to join in?

It’s not a holiday. It’s nobody’s birthday in my family. But it is a day of note: the end of Daylight Savings. We set our clocks back an hour and watch the night close in.

Starting tonight, the darkness comes on in earnest. From now until the winter solstice, it’s white-knuckle time, waiting for the days to start lengthening. This is always a bit of a tough time of year for me. Even here in California, where it’s relatively mild, the deepening darkness can be depressing.

What better way to mark this transition than a cake? A Dark Cake. To propitiate the Spirits of Darkness and prevent them from shutting out the light completely.

Of course this won’t work if you live where daylight all but disappears in winter, or where the seasons scarcely change, or where they don’t practice Daylight Savings at all.

But you can make a cake anyway. A Dark Cake. Chocolate, of course. That’s what I’m going to do. And, for the sake of the symbolism, I’m not going to frost it.

Join me?

 
Tags as I wrote them: Daylight Savings, darkness, light, cake, chocolate, ceremonial observances, time.