Yes, Virginia

Today’s question for Dr. Science is from one of our younger readers. It’s actually a little more suited for Dr. Theology, but since we don’t have him on contract, I’ll try and fill in.

You are all familiar, no doubt, with the legends attached to the Wintergifting, and specifically - well, there is no child in the Empire that hasn't tried to stay awake and catch a glimpse of Grandfather Frost as he slips into their home upon the cold drafts of the season, leaves his icy fingerprints upon the window-panes, and brings gifts to all, each according to their deeds of the year. Or, for that matter, who has not left the traditional mug of hot, mulled cider out for him, whose dregs found frozen to ice in the morning are considered conclusive proof of his visit.

But time passes, and occasionally one's beliefs are challenged, whether merely by one's native skepticism, or by those of one's peers who have constructed calculations demonstrating the impossibility of Grandfather Frost reaching every home in a single night, or even by successfully catching him and realizing that the figure beneath his icy crown and robe of night and snowflakes is actually one's own grandfather, or the most suitable agéd relative to hand.

But does this mean that there is no Grandfather Frost?

Well, let's think about this. The first question to ask is not who is Grandfather Frost - for that we all know - but rather what is Grandfather Frost? And the answer to that, as the acquiescents would say, is that he is part of Esseldár, the eikone of time and tradition; a zeitgeist, the spirit of the current year, who is born with the year, ages with it as it turns - becoming Grandfather Frost as the winter closes in - and dies and is reborn on the Darkest Night.

And the eikones? Our gods are ideas - ideas so real and true that they shape the world - but nonetheless, they are ideas, and they touch the world of flesh and stone and matter through us, when we let them shape our thoughts and guide our hands. And the highest kind of this is called mantling, when we walk in their footsteps and do as they do, and so doing, let them become us so that we become them in turn.

And so - so long as the tradition is kept, so long as there are chill drafts and mugs of steaming cider, so long as we wait in anticipation for the morning to see what he has brought us, so long as there is one to take up the crown and wear the mantle --

Yes, there is a Grandfather Frost.

And there always will be.

Dr. Science

- from Children’s Science Theology Corner magazine