The Lowcountry may still be immersed in the COVID-19 pandemic, but the inaugural Beaufort Oyster Festival must go on.

Conceived and hosted by the Beaufort Area Hospitality Association, the Beaufort Oyster Festival will be an 11-day festival (Thursday, Jan. 7-Sunday, Jan. 17) coinciding with Tides to Tables, in conjunction with South Carolina Restaurant Week, and culminating in a weekend of mini festival events throughout Northern Beaufort County. 

The ACE Basin is to the north and east of Beaufort, just on the other side of the Coosaw River. ACE is an acronym for the names of three fresh water rivers in that area: Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto. They flow into the salt waters of the Coosaw River, St. Helena Sound and the Atlantic Ocean.

Like many another scion of Celtic forebears, I celebrate the arrival of the Winter Solstice; like many another gardener, I rejoice in the coming of the coldest, darkest days of the year. To be sure, I complain about the cold, lament the lack of sunlight, and crave the warm sunny days of summer still to come. I, too, succumb to the impulse to start fresh, begin the New Year with great intentions . . . all of which I fully intend to begin once the spring warmth arrives.

By the time this column appears in Lowcountry Weekly, the ball will have dropped in Times Square, New Year’s Eve champagne glasses will have been clinked and washed, hoppin’ john will have been gobbled down for good luck, and we’ll be already rockin’ into 2021. The Presidential election is history, a Covid vaccination awaits in the not-too-distant, Beaufort has a new mayor, Lowcountry nature still spreads its gorgeous wings daily, and life itsownself rolls onward. No doubt this will be the most-anticipated beginning of a year in recent memory.