I always notice that temperatures in Galway seem to drop by about ten degrees when the Christmas Market is upon us. I used to think that those Siberian stallholders brought the cold over with them when they unpacked. As if a cloud of winter chilliness would escape from their crates of goods and envelope us all in a coldness, sated only by the mulled wines and the hot treats of the stalls.
In a way, the sudden onset of the chill is always charming, in that a winter wonderland as seen from the Big Wheel is only enjoyable when it is actually winter; and the nip in the air adds to the ambience of the entire event.
The market is still a week away, but you can feel the temperatures have dropped a bit; as if winter was just waiting in the queue for Halloween to get its business done, so it could fully move in.
In a year that seems to have flown by, a year in which we got out again, the arrival of the lights and sights of Christmas ought to warm our hearts.
But there is a worry.
This time last year, the Ukrainian invasion had not commenced and so, this generation that has not known wartime, is totally ignorant of any impact of conflict. We were not to know of the effect on fuel prices, on our sense of identity and security and our dread that this could actually happen in modern times.
Now, among us are tens of thousands of displaced people who are nightly traumatised by the word from their homeland. To them we have to offer the open hand and the broad smile.
So too to those who are less directly affected, but who will bear the impact of high fuel prices and the cost of living.
Already this year, there are concerns that vulnerable people are feeling the bite, not just of the cold, but of the raised electricity bills, the cost of oil and gas, and the rise in the price of briquettes which has been steadily doubling up to what it was a decade ago.
Because of this, there will be a lot of vulnerability out there this winter. This time last year, we were just hoping that we would not have a repeat of the Covid winter of 2020. Getting through and staying healthy was the hope. This winter, we are just hoping that people can stay warm and that if they are in need of help, they will be able to ask for it.
With the clocks going back last weekend and nights becoming longer, the window for loneliness and isolation has been expanded. There are those who are trapped in their cold homes; and those who would only wish to be in their homes.
So now is the time for empathy and understanding. We have to become cognisant of the needs of each other this winter. Check on those who are cold and hungry; give a welcoming smile to those who wander strange streets not knowing when they will ever wake up for this never-ending nightmare.
Every winter is a winter of discontent. But together, we will get through it, by looking out for one another.
