Ashlar, I'm sorry you think I'm making some sort of attack on you. Really, I'm not. Lodges do go dark, so obviously there is some reason for it, and I don't think it needs to be any more esoteric than the reason for Moon Lodges. What you're giving is the conventional wisdom. But the conventional wisdom has been wrong before, and I have reason to believe it may be in this case as well.
I was 41 when I became a Mason. And until the summer following that, I had never heard the term "go dark". I had to have someone explain it to me. I'd been a joiner all my life, belonged to many organizations, and none of them ever closed down in the summer. Not Toastmasters. Not Lions. Not theater groups. Not special interest clubs. Not churches. Not businesses and not bureaucracies. The only ones that closed were schools and legislatures, and the latter because that was the time they campaigned for re-election, nothing to do with vacations or air conditioning. And neither schools nor legislatures had that distinctive terminology of "going dark" to describe their summer hiatuses.
I want to find out where both the term and the tradition "going dark" come from. When did it start? Do Australian and European Lodges "go dark"? If air conditioning is behind it, why does Georgia, a state that probably gets warm in the summer, forbid their Lodges from going dark? (And what other states or provinces do, too?) Is there a connection to the business term "going dark," meaning not revealing company dealings to the public? Why don't we "go dark" in the dark of the year, when winter weather makes traveling to and from Lodge downright dangerous?
My wife suggests maybe it was to avoid conflict with Grand Lodge sessions, and expanded over time. Could this be a possibility?
Assumptions based on today's conditions about practices in the 18th century are risky.
No problem . Ky. also forbids lodges from going dark .
But back on the subjectof A/C and what not . Each state does things differently . One of my mentors has been a Mason going on 60 years . He comes from a state that allows their lodges to go dark before he demitted a few years ago to become a Ky. Freemason . I called him the other night and asked him why his old lodge went dark and this was the reason he gave ,"it was just too hot back in those early days so we opted to go dark in the summer" . This man knows more about Masonry than any man I have met ,so I'll take his word for it .
And according to Masons from the United Kingdom that are members over on mastermason.com forums , they too go dark in the Summer . So it not only goes on in the US .
I've been told this was one of the main reasons many other lodges went dark . So seeing how Ky. lodges do not go dark ,hence my Lodge does not go dark and other states Grand Lodges do allow this , I can not question them or tell them they are wrong or I state that I don't believe their reasons for going dark . If another Brother Mason tells me his Lodge goes dark because it's to hot in the summer , then I will take his words as truth , it's their lodges so they should know , and seeing how it's not my lodge or my GL it's really none of my buisness . By denying or saying one doesn't believe their reasons other Masons have stated for their lodges going dark is nothing more than calling them liars , and I am not willing to call any brother a liar .
By using other clubs ,schools , churches and buisnesses as examples to prove a point serves no purpose , as they are not Freemasons . Of course they wouldn't use the term "Going Dark" as we do, that's how we use that term and if they do not take summer breaks that's their buisness . I'm not a joiner though I am in the Lions also , I was roped into it by my wife and do not attend their meetings and functions , and our Lions club meet in the local steakhouse and have dinner and cold drinks while they are conducting their meeting , not in the second floor of an 80 year old lodge building dressed in suits and lodge regalia and besides Lodges also go dark so the Brothers can be with their families , and family should always come before the Lodge .
"Assumptions based on today's conditions about practices in the 18th century are risky"
Who said we were talking about the 18th century .I am not assuming anything , but going by reasons given to me by men who were Masons long before us . My lodge did not have A/C until the late 70's and many have told me that they wished that the GL would have let them go dark back then , so they held their meetings in the dinning room on the first floor .Many still do want to go dark in the summer but for other reasons . Last time I checked the 1970's , or the 1920's , 30's , 40's or 50's for that matter , was not the 18th century . I was not even talking about Masons from the 18th century . I am talking about what I have been told by Masons from other jurisdictions , from their own time period , our time period , the 20th century . It looks to me like you are the one making the assumptions , thinking that I am basing the reasons of going dark on the 18th century .
This is nothing more than making a mountain out of a mole hill .
