Happy Labor Day!

By the time you are reading this, the holiday will have come and gone. How was it? I would love to spend some time talking about the holiday origins and labor unions, but I am here right now to talk about Labor Day as a marker, a line to be crossed on the calendar.

Midcoast resident Heather D. Martin wants to know what’s on your mind; email her at heather@heatherdmartin.com.

Yes, this is when white shoes, skirts and trousers get packed away and corduroy and velvet can come out of the closet. Obviously. Those of you who know me well know I am being ironic – and that I also do genuinely feel quite strongly about this. I am a charming bundle of contradictions that way. Or, as Walt Whitman so eloquently put it, “I contain multitudes.”

Those fashion “rules” exist because Labor Day has traditionally been seen as the transition point between summer (think beaches, vacations, carefree lazy days) where those colors and textures are appropriate, and autumn (think back-to-school, industrious new plans, winter on the horizon) where they are not.

Climate change has been messing with the temperature of the day, and changing attitudes plus remote work has been messing with our travel patterns. It used to be that our state emptied out except for us locals come the Tuesday after Labor Day. Now, folks stay on until well into November. Which is fine by me. Make yourself comfy, say I. Stay for the winter and enjoy the calm.

However – and I really mean this – to the stores, I say no.

No. No, no, no. Absolutely not. Do not be bringing out your fall declarations early, storefronts. I will not have it.

I had planned this little rant of mine for the Labor Day holiday because I have noticed the creep of pumpkins and bats getting closer every year. But I need to amend myself because good grief, I should have been ranting about this weeks ago.

They were out on shelves in full display in early August. Possibly even before, I just wasn’t going out so I might have missed it.

What I know for sure is that Starbucks announced its new date for offering pumpkin spice latte got moved back to Aug. 21. No! I mean, skipping over the landline-laden conversation about “is that even a thing which should exist at all?” (I said I was skipping over it, do not come at me, people), surely we can all agree that no pumpkin spice anything ought to be showing its face in public before Labor Day. Right? It’s common decency.

To see shelves packed full of jack-o’-lanterns, skeletons, witches and black cats while I am wearing shorts and a T-shirt is confusing at best, infuriating in reality. I love autumn. I love Halloween. Love Thanksgiving, too.

But I love them in their place.

They belong where they are and when kept in their season, they help orient us to the season itself. These celebrations were born from, and are tied to, specific times on the calendar for a reason.

The ancients who started Halloween were working off of the lengthening nights and darkening shadows that come with the approaching winter. It was a marker for where we should be with the harvest and our cold weather preparations. It is a reminder to get the sweaters out. It is an invitation to hunker down.

I realize that we now have indoor heating and electric lights, so maybe seasons don’t matter so much, but I would argue that is all the more reason to keep our holidays firmly tied to their natural spot. Now more than ever we need anchor spots to remind us who we are and “when” we are.

So. Stores. Please. I am begging you. Hold off the decor until the proper time. We will all be happier campers for it.