Zappadan: A Desperately Necessary Winter Festival
The days between Franksgiving and Zappadan were challenged this season by the exhausting effects of a global viral pandemic with a chance of light snow.
The Christmas season having formally begun with the passing of Thanksgiving into Black Friday is still a few weeks away from the astrological onset of Winter. In the meantime, as solar and lunar calendars wind their ways toward the Solstice — the sun setting earlier each day and the Kislev moon waning with each passing night — we come to Bummernacht, the anniversary of Frank Zappa’s death and the traditional start of the Zappadan festival and then light the first Chanuka candle one week later. These traditions alternately mimic and evoke the deliberate rhythm of our galaxy that pulsates with the flight and return of darkness and light in our world. A few days after this year’s Chanuka menorah is fully lit, when the waxing light of the Tevet moon is joined by the longer daylight hours, comes the Solstice and Zappa’s birthday, concluding the eighteen days of Zappadan. Coincidentally, or not, the Hebrew alphanumeric 18 (חי) spells out the word “life.”
It is futile to pigeonhole Frank Zappa. He was a complex purveyor of libertine sexuality, conservative economics, liberal public policy priorities, disciplined musical performances and a consistent genre-shattering iconoclasm. Whether…