Old Man Winter Defined Kind of For Mac

Our local newspaper referred to Old Man Winter this year as,
"All hat, No cattle." Of course that was earlier, not so much now,
as his brutal action, determined power, blustering substance and pretentious nature came to life once again.

"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it."
Confucius


But when his back is turned,
On winter days like this 
Old Man Winter doesn't come to mind.

Winters come and winters go
but when the icy breath of Old Man Winter blows in
calmness quickly becomes calamity.

Dear Old man winter, who are you and where did you come from?

My own curiosity has prompted me to try and answer our blogging friend, Mac  after he recently left a question on my blog, "How did old man winter get his name?"

Wikipedia explains old man winter as a personification of winter, a colloquialism for the winter season derived from Greek mythology and old world pagan beliefs evolving into modern characters in both literature and popular culture.
Myths and Fairy Tales too.

"The gem cannot be polished without friction, 
nor man perfected without trials."
Confucius 


We humans are funny and for the most part we fight his blistering blizzard like temper-tantrums and the spiraling snow he drops upon us like heavy paperweights. 

Fight, fight, for what's right.

It's a magical winter-wonder-land for the most part, 
when Old Man Winter and his icy breath disappears.

Even Bunny statues ignore Old Man Winter's hammering
 as they throw on a hat and scarf and rest quietly
upon the fluffy white snow drifts in spite of him. 



Over time, the old gods of winter changed to new humanizing of the seasons including Old Man Winter.

This next description makes more sense.

Boreas (the purple winged-god) of the north wind who swept down from the cold mountains of Thrake (Thrace) was the Greek god of the north wind, and chilled the air with his icy breath. Depicted in ancient art as an old man, he was considered the bringer of winter and the cold. The old gods riding across lands on icy winds transformed to the more modern adaptations, such as Old Man Winter, or Russia's Father Frost.

We understand it's his frozen clutches grasping at anything just so he can rule over our winter-wonder-land and our only choice is to retaliate against him. 

"It's bad enough that Old Man Winter makes his bed

with sheets of ice and blankets of snow

But why do we all have to crawl in there with him?"

Susan Gale

A lovely Old Man Winter song here.

If one would carve Old Man Winter out of frozen snow this would be it.

"Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night."
Virginia Woolf

Luckily not a peep out of Old Man Winter to spoil this winter evening.

"Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake."
Sara Raasch

"Snow was falling so much like stars
filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more
than prettiness. "
Mary Oliver

"Old Man Winter" original song by Kathleen Healy


"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."
Victor Hugo

Honestly, I believe Old Man Winter derived from a comparison of the harshness of winter with that of a harsh personality, often severe in nature.