Category Archives: Equinox

Mar 19 2025
4 Comments
Equinox, Spring, St. Joseph's Day

Approach of Spring, & San Giuzeppole

It’s the 19th of March: St. Joseph’s Day. And what St. Patrick’s Day is to the Irish, so St. Joseph’s Day is to the Italians. In Sicily, folks will be eating Pasta con le Sarde: very often Bucatini, and always with chopped sardines and anchovies, with chopped fennel, raisins, and saffron: flavors which nod to the Arabic influence upon Sicily and the rest of Southern Italy (from where my family hails). This pasta dish, which is topped with toasted breadcrumbs (to symbolize St. Joseph’s carpentry sawdust) is particularly Sicilian.

My Grandma Cutrone, who was from Palo del Colle, in Apulia, near Bari, would build an altar to St. Joseph in her home each March, and to all the visitors who came to see it, she would give oranges and boxes of animal crackers. This was before my time, so I never got to see the altar, save for in poorly-lit silent 8 mm home movies, nor did I ever get to ask why the animal crackers, though I can guess why the oranges: oranges, for centuries before they were commonplace, were beautiful, valuable gifts that symbolized the golden sun and its promised return after a long winter. Oranges made lovely gifts at Christmastime, and, I imagine, were just as welcome at the start of Spring.

St. Joseph’s Day is also Father’s Day in Italy, which is fitting, as Joseph was Mary’s husband and foster father to her son, Jesus. One of my favorite songs for the day is an old carol for Christmas called “The Cherry Tree Carol.” In it, Joseph is so very human and he comes across as a real jerk until he comes to understand, thanks to the cherry tree’s bowing down, the greater mystery he has become part of. It’s a song that’s been sung for many centuries, but I have two favorite recordings of it. One is by Emmylou Harris and is just so beautifully done. The other is from a Christmas Revels performance called Ribbon of Highway. It’s sung by Charmaine Li-Lei Slaven and I just love her emphasis on Joseph’s standing around while Mary gathers cherries… Joseph’s grumpiness and humanity really shines through in Charmaine’s version.

We call St. Joseph “San Giuseppe,” and while my family does not make Pasta con le Sarde (we are not Sicilian, after all) for St. Joseph’s Day, we will enjoy Zeppole di San Giuseppe. We make zeppole at New Year’s Eve, too, but Zeppole di San Giuseppe are different: these are delicious pastries that are filled with custard and Amarena cherries. They are Lenten treats that are meant to be eaten just on and around the 19th of March, though some Italian bakeries now bake them all year long (which, as you might imagine, I do not approve of). Seth has come to call the day San Giuzeppole Day (and that I do approve of). If you do nothing else today to celebrate, find yourself an Italian bakery and buy some Zeppole di San Giuseppe (or Sfingi di San Giuseppe, which are filled with sweet ricotta cream (like cannoli), rather than custard) and be sure to serve your pastries with strong espresso. Perfetto!

This year, as is often the case, San Giuseppe welcomes us to Spring, for the next day, March 20 at 5:01 AM Eastern Daylight Time, will bring the Vernal Equinox to the Northern Hemisphere and a brief period of roughly balanced sunlight and darkness across the globe. It is the start of Spring by the almanac for us, while in the Southern Hemisphere, it is the start of Autumn. The Wheel of the Year never ceases its slow turning, and now, once we pass this equinox moment, our Northern Hemisphere days begin to log more daylight hours than night. We are halfway between the Midwinter Solstice we left in December and the Midsummer Solstice we approach in June. But San Giuseppe, he begs us to put the Moka pot on the stove, brew an espresso with a nice crema, perhaps, and sit at the table and visit with friends and family and some zeppole. There is plenty of time for work, and plenty of time for Lenten austerity. Today, we get to enjoy ourselves.

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Those are my sister Marietta’s homemade Zeppole di San Giuseppe in the photo above. So good!

A reminder that our shop will be closed for the rest of March, but we will reopen again on the First Saturday of April, and indeed all the Saturdays of April, for our Springtide Saturdays series. Your online orders are still welcome, and we will be filling orders this week, but orders placed on March 20 or later won’t be filled until the first week of April.

We also have two in-house workshops coming up this spring! Collagraph Printmaking with instructor Kim Spivey is on Sunday April 6, and I’ll be teaching a workshop called Pure Bookbinding (these are books made without adhesive) on Sunday May 4.

 

Sep 22 2024
Autumn, Equinox

Fall (into Winter)

Back when July became August, we talked about a subtle shift, an acknowledgement of summer’s waning. Some seven and a half weeks later, here we are at complete acknowledgment: we have reached the equinox. Here in the Northern Hemisphere, this day brings the autumnal equinox, and, by the almanac, the first day of fall. All is balanced. All is more or less equal, no matter where we find ourselves at this moment on our planet: Day and night, roughly in balance with each other, pole to pole and around the equator, and if you look west at sunset down a street that travels a clean line in that direction, the sun will most certainly be shining in your eyes, making everything awash in white, until our star sinks below the horizon, leaving behind a glorious sunset. This balance will last for a few days, but check back in a week and already you’ll see the sun has shifted further to the south. As the Earth seems to rock back and forth in its seat, we, here in the Northern Hemisphere, are now falling into winter, while the Southern Hemisphere in springing into summer. This is the Constant Rearrange that makes every day somewhat different from the one before and the one that follows. It is the way of our world, the way of our days, the way of the wheel of the year.

Equinox, from the Latin: equal night. The moment of equinox this time around, when the sun passes over the equator, is at 8:43 AM here in Lake Worth, which is currently in Eastern Daylight Time. And then darkness begins to overtake light as we enter the darker half of the year.

We’re entering our busiest time of year here at Convivio Bookworks. Here’s a sampling of where you can find us in the coming weeks, as well as an invitation to join us in our Lake Worth Beach shop, and a special for everyone else who’s not in our immediate vicinity. (Lucky you if you’re in a place where it’s apple harvest time!)

AUTUMN DATES to SAVE
Once autumn rolls in, we start planning out our busy fall and winter pop-up market calendar… plus now we’ve got our own shop for events, too. Here’s what’s currently on our calendar for September and October: BOO BAZAAR is our official Hallowe’en Premiere Event at Convivio Bookworks on Saturday September 28 (11 AM to 8 PM) & Sunday September 29 (11 AM to 5 PM), with yummy homemade treats, great spooky shopping, and tarot card readings and fortunes told by the mysterious Madame Marie-Claire. The shop address is 1110 North G Street in Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460.

Then, we return to OKTOBERFEST MIAMI for the second and third weekends of October (October 11, 12, & 13 and October 18, 19, & 20). That’s at the German American Social Club in Miami. The American German Club west of Lantana in suburban Lake Worth holds their OKTOBERFEST PALM BEACH the same two weekends, and we plan to have a small tent there, as well. It’s their 50th Oktoberfest! Soon after Oktoberfest, it’ll be time for FLORIDA DAY of the DEAD at Esplanade Park in Downtown Fort Lauderdale. Please note that for that festival, our tent will be located at Esplanade Park where the festival begins, before it processes over to Revolution Live. As such, we are there earlier than other craft tents that will be at the second half of the event. Find our tent at Esplanade Park from 3 to 8 PM.

AUTUMN SALE ONLINE
At our online store we’re offering $10 off your purchase of $85 or more, plus get free domestic shipping. Just use discount code PUMPKINHEAD at checkout. We’re adding new items this time of year almost daily! You’ll find new items from Germany for Hallowe’en and Christmas, plus new Advent calendars and candles are coming this week, and we’re getting ready for Dia de Los Muertos, too, and our next shipment of specialty foods and candies from Germany and Sweden should be here by the first week of October. Lots to see! CLICK HERE to shop!

Our image for this first day of fall is a photograph of Gingko biloba leaves in autumn sunlight. The photo was taken by Franz van Duns in October, 2021 [Creative Commons, via Wikimedia Commons].

 

Mar 19 2024
13 Comments
Equinox, New in the Shop

Big News!

We have big Convivio Bookworks news to share: This little home-based business that began in 1995 is finally moving out of the house, and since the month began, we’ve been moving into our new Convivio Bookworks shop across the street from the Brightline / Florida East Coast Railroad tracks here in Lake Worth Beach. We’ve moved the Colt’s Armory press, circa 1905, that our friends Gail Gremse & David Rose bestowed upon us many years ago (it’s nice to see it again after having it in storage for 5 years), and we’ve moved type cabinets in, as well. Space to work and space to teach workshops, and a small retail shop, too. And this coming weekend, we’re having an open house and if you are local, we would be so pleased to see you there.

It’s not a grand opening, mind you. That will come later, perhaps in May, I’m thinking. No, this weekend’s open house is more about seeing what works and what doesn’t, and (let’s be honest) a chance to earn some do-re-mi to help pay next month’s rent. So far, I’ve been feeling that same excitement I feel when I set up a pop-up shop, like at Oktoberfest or Christkindlmarkt… except I don’t have to break this shop down once Sunday night comes.

Won’t you come see us? Click on the picture above to see the announcement (larger, full size), but here, essentially, is what it says: We’ll be open at our new location (1110 North G Street, Suite D, Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460) for an open house on Friday evening, March 22, from 6 to 9 PM, and on Saturday & Sunday, March 23 & 24, from 11 AM to 7 PM both days. The press won’t be operational yet (we’re waiting for our friend Val Lucas to come down from Maryland to help us get the thing running), but it sure is a beautiful machine all the same. There will be treats, no doubt, and good company. And our new shop will be stocked with lots of lovely items for Easter and Springtime from Germany and Sweden and Ukraine, plus my mom Millie’s hand-embroidered tea towels, our amazing new Síríus chocolates from Iceland and many other fine foods, culinary herbs and herbal teas from the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in Maine, writing papers and pens from Italy, non-Christmasy pyramids and nutcrackers and incense smokers and cuckoo clocks from Germany (all authentic and all handmade), Swedish cake candles… I don’t even know what else because my mind is full and I am a bit overwhelmed but trust me: lots of good things, many of which you had no idea you would find useful and/or joyful. This is what we do.

To be sure, I’ve missed writing to you, but I’ve just had no time, so please forgive me. Be that as it may, I do hope you had a nice St. Patrick’s Day, and St. Urho’s Day before that, and St. Joseph’s Day has just passed, too. In fact, as I write this for you, the vernal equinox has just occurred, less than an hour ago, at 11:06 PM Eastern Daylight Time. All is balanced, all is light, as our Northern Hemisphere days grow longer and longer still, as they will through the Midsummer Solstice in June. Ah, but that is far from now.

Please come see us: you know we’d love to see you. Here’s the address and simple directions:

Convivio Bookworks
1110 North G Street, Suite D
Lake Worth Beach, FL 33460

From I-95, exit 10th Avenue North, eastbound. At the first traffic light, turn left on North A Street. At the first stop sign, turn right onto 13th Avenue North. Once you cross the railroad tracks, turn right on North G Street. It’s one of Lake Worth’s little warehouse districts, and we are in the second blue-roofed building on your left before you get to 11th Avenue North. Plenty of free street parking and there are eight parking spaces in our parking lot, too.

From Dixie Highway, turn west at the traffic light onto 13th Avenue North, then turn left onto North G Street just before the railroad tracks. You’ll find us on the left side in the second blue-roofed building before you reach 11th Avenue North.

We won’t be open regular hours; not yet, anyway. For now, just special events (like this weekend’s open house) as we announce them, and some occasional weekend hours, most likely. And we’ll gladly open for you, by appointment, too. Just email us to arrange a time. We’d also be happy to receive your cards and letters at the address above, and will send you something in return, promise. Georgia, our mail carrier, is very kind and so far, she hasn’t delivered one bill, but instead, she’s brought us four cards and letters over the past four days. She makes me feel very welcome, and we’d like to extend that good feeling to you, too.

 

SHOP OUR SPRING SALE!
Spring is here and at our online catalog right now, you may use discount code BLOSSOM to save $10 on your $85 purchase, plus get free domestic shipping, too. That’s a total savings of $19.50. Spend less than $85 and our flat rate shipping fee of $9.50 applies. CLICK HERE to shop; you know we appreciate your support immensely.

A STORY FOR WINTER
Spring has arrived but we know that sometimes winter is slow to go. Here is a short bedtime story for a chilly night that I recently read for Stay Awake: Bedtime Stories for Kids & Sleepy Adults, from the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. It’s called “The Magic Porridge Pot,” and you’ll find this story (Episode No. 11) and nine others in the Stay Awake Library at the Jaffe Center’s Vimeo Channel. If you like what we do there at Stay Awake, please consider following the series on Instagram @stayawakebedtimestories … I do love this storytelling project, and it would be awfully nice to see the project get to a hundred followers, at least! Thank you!

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