It’s my impression that the years increasingly seem to fly by a little quicker than they used to. It’s hard to believe that Christmas will be celebrated in just a few days, and that the start of a new year is already less than two weeks away.
Yet it makes perfect sense when you think about it. As you get older, each year represents a smaller and smaller percentage of your overall life. For a 5-year-old child, one year is a huge portion of their life, whereas for a 50-year-old one year is a much smaller portion of their life (contributing to the feeling that it went by quickly). In spite of making sense, the speed at which the year has drawn to a close still manages to feel like a bit of a shock.
Many people around the world will also celebrate the end of the year with holidays that tend to emphasise gratitude, hope, and renewal. For example, Christmas, and talk about the spirit of Christmas, tends to evoke images of festive cheer, generosity, warmth, and togetherness.
The end of the year also provides a neat point by which to mark the passage of time – and the approach of a new year brings with it the promise of a fresh start. This naturally prompts a somewhat reflective mindset. In looking back at what has happened, and thinking about what is yet to come, lots of people will formulate resolutions for the new year.
One of the most iconic Christmas stories written: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens also involves some spirits of sorts (and gestures toward self-reflection and the importance of living well). Most people are probably at least vaguely familiar with the story, as it has managed to successfully permeate popular culture in a range of guises. Very (very!) briefly, for those who aren’t familiar, it’s a story about three spirits (the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future) who, over the course of a few nights leading up to Christmas Day, visit a wealthy but miserable and stingy old man, Ebenezer Scrooge. During their visits they encourage Scrooge to reflect on his life, guiding him through memories and visions that ultimately cause him to change his ways.
The word “spirits” can also refer to something more tangible: whisky.
And whisky also has the ability to summon up memories and stir emotions. It does so particularly through the aromas you smell. When you nose a whisky – really take the time to smell it – it can trigger vivid recollections. Many of us will have experienced how a particular smell can suddenly bring back memories of a specific event or place or object. For example, there’s a certain herbal and lemony aroma that always reminds me of a campground I once stayed at in 2012 where I used a particular lemon-scented soap. A distinct aroma might remind you of a moment from childhood, a familiar location, or a special holiday. Why this happens seems to be due to the architecture of the brain.
Bill Bryson, after meeting with Gary Beauchamp, one of the world’s most eminent sensory scientists, makes the following observation in his book, The Body: A Guide for Occupants:
“An interesting and important curiosity of our sense of smell is that it is the only one of the five senses that is not mediated by the hypothalamus. When we smell something, the information, for reasons unknown, goes straight to the olfactory cortex, which is nestled close to the hippocampus, where memories are shaped, and it is thought by some neuroscientists that this may explain why certain odours are so powerfully evocative of memories for us.”
Because smell is directly processed by the olfactory cortex, which is right next to the amygdala and hippocampus (the parts of the brain responsible for emotion and memory), this could be why smells are particularly good at evoking vivid and poignant memories.
In addition to Bryson’s observation, there’s also an interesting study that was conducted in 2004 which found that a group women showed more brain activity when smelling a perfume they associated with a positive memory than when they smelled a perfume they had never smelled before. Moreover, their brain activity from actually smelling the memorable perfume was also greater than their brain activity when they were just given visual cues, such as seeing the bottle of perfume.
As a result, the aroma of baking spices in a whisky might take you back to a kitchen filled with the smells of freshly baked cookies or Christmas pudding. An aromatic wood note may remind you of a piece of furniture in your grandparent’s home. Or the faint scent of peat smoke could remind you of an evening spent by the fireside with family and friends, and a hint of salinity bring back memories from a seaside holiday.
This connection between smell and memory is part of what makes whisky such a wonderful drink. This is especially the case as the year draws to a close and one might wish to take the opportunity to pause and to reflect and to reminisce.
