Wheel of the Year the last month of the old year and the first month of the new year and is followed by eleven days of extended celebration. In Roman traditions additional festivities take place during the six days leading up to Midwinter. As the first cross-quarter day following Midwinter this day falls on the first of February and traditionally marks the first stirrings of spring. It aligns with the contemporary observance of Groundhog Day. It is time for purification and spring cleaning in anticipation of the year's new life. In Rome, it was historically a shepherd's holiday, while the Celts associated it with
Joan S. Valentine Joan S. Valentine Joan Selverstone Valentine (born 1945) is a biological inorganic chemist and biochemist. Valentine's current work examines the role of transition metals, metalloenzymes, and oxidative stress in health. Her foremost expertise is superoxide anion and its functional enzyme superoxide dismutase. Valentine has been a member of the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles since 1980, she has served as Editor-in-Chief of "Accounts of Chemical Research" since 1994, and she was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. In 1967, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Smith College and a Ph.D.