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December

The word December comes from the Latin word decem which means ‘ten’. In the Roman calendar, which began with the month of March, December was the tenth month. The days between the end of December and the beginning of March (cold and snowy in the Northern Hemisphere and hot and sunny in the Southern Hemisphere) were originally unnamed. Eventually, those days were given the names January and February and they were considered the first months of the calendar year. Although December was now the twelfth month in the Gregorian calendar, which was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, its name was kept.

December has the shortest daylight hours and longest nighttime hours on December 21 and that day marks the beginning of winter. It is the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, with December 21 having the longest daylight hours and shortest nighttime hours. That day marks the beginning of summer.

The Anglo Saxons had two names for the month of December. One was ‘Winter Monath’, which is self-explanatory, and the other was ‘Yule Monath’ which is the custom of burning a Yule log as part of the pagan Yule celebrations. Yule, at the time, meant the observance of the Winter Solstice. It is now synonymous with the word Christmas and the celebration of the birth of the baby Jesus. When the Anglo-Saxons converted to Christianity they changed the name of ‘Winter Monath’ or ‘Yule Monath’ to ‘Heligh Monath’ meaning ‘Holy Month’.

For the Native American first peoples, the full moon in December was called the ‘Full Cold Moon’ because of the cold winter months that followed it.

There are other important holidays observed in December along with Christmas. The Jews celebrate Hanukkah, which takes place on the 25th day of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar and lies between late November and late December. This is in recognition of the rise of Jews against their Greek/Syrian oppressors, as well as, the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the 2nd century AD.

The Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day on December 8. A man named Siddhartha sat under a Bodhi tree and meditated for three days until he found the root of suffering and liberated himself from it. On the third day he discovered the answers he sought and became enlightened. He was then known as Buddha or the ‘Awakened One.’

A Hindu festival, Datta Jayanti, commemorates the birth day of the Hindu Deity Dattatreya or Datta, which is the combined form of the Hindu male divine trinity of Shiva, Vishnu, and Brahma. The festival takes place between November 30th and December 3rd in the temples throughout India.

December is a month full of historical events, festivals, and observances of special days. And it marks the end of the old year and a time to look forward to the new one.

Helen Castrel has just arrived in Victoria, British Columbia, from England and she hires Baxter Davenport of the Davenport & Son Detective Agency to go with her to Dawson City and help find her second oldest brother, David, whom she hasn’t seen since she was eleven years old.

David had been trouble to the family since he was young and was sent to Canada as a remittance man ten years ago. The last communication her father, Charles Castrel, received from David was late last summer when he sent a telegram from Victoria, British Columbia, saying he was on his way to the Klondike gold rush at Dawson City. Since then Charles Gastrel has heard nothing from his son, not even a letter stating where his remittance money was to be sent. Helen needs to find David to make sure he’s alive and to deliver a message from their father.

Baxter Davenport isn’t sure about travelling north with two women. He will have a job to do and doesn’t need to be looking after them. Plus, he doesn’t like the idea that Helen Castrel is excited about being a sleuth along with him. He soon finds out that both women can look after themselves.

Mattie Lewis, Helen Castrel’s lady’s maid, insisted on accompanying Helen, not only to look after her but because she has worked for the family for years and remembers David better than Helen does. She also has her own motive for wanting to find David.

The three head north armed with an old photograph and a recent description they obtained from David’s former landlady. They arrive in Dawson City where the gold rush is in full swing. There they are challenged by deceit, fraud, and danger in their quest to find David.

Joan Donaldson-Yarmey began her writing career with a short story, progressed to travel and historical articles, and then on to travel books. Between 1990 and 2000 Joan traveled through and researched the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, the territory of the Yukon, and the state of Alaska and wrote seven books them.

She called these books her Backroads series and in them she described what there is to see and do along their back roads. Once she was finished travelling she switched to fiction writing and has had four mystery novels published: ‘Gold Fever’ is a stand-alone mystery/romance; and ‘Illegally Dead’, ‘The Only Shadow In The House’, and ‘Whistler’s Murder’ are three novels in her Travelling Detective Series.

Romancing the Klondike, Rushing the Klondike, and Sleuthing the Klondike are her Yukon Historical Novels. Joan has also published two Canadian Historical novels for two young adults: West To The Bay and West to Grande Portage. The third one will be out in 2025. She has had two holiday romances, The Twelve Dates of Christmas, and Single Bells (both written with her sister Gwen Donaldson) published. In the continued variety in her writing, Joan has also written Cry of the Guilty, Silence of the Innocent, a two book sci/fi series. The titles are: The Criminal Streak and Betrayed.

Joan was born in New Westminster, B.C. Canada, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. Since she loves change, Joan has moved over thirty times in her life, living on acreages and farms and in small towns and cities throughout Alberta and B.C. After seventeen years on Vancouver Island she is now back in Edmonton.

Joan belongs to Crime Writers of Canada and Writer’s Guild of Alberta.

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