"The dictionary definition of Halcyon Days is a fourteen-day period around the winter solstice, around 21st December, supposedly when the Halcyon(Kingfisher) is brooding. It commonly means a period of peace and calm and can also be used as a term to harken back to an earlier time remembered as idyllic.
Halcyon is also a genus of tree kingfisher, a term derived from the myth."
"The Halcyon Daysencompass the fourteen-day period centered on the Winter Solstice when the sea is commanded to be calm and the wind light by none other than Aeolus, keeper of the winds and one of the lesser Greek deities. In the Mediterranean region where this belief originated, the weather is typically calm around the time of the Winter Solstice." Now, we in North America generally do not think of this two-week period around Christmas as particularly fair weather-prone. Indeed, we wish for just that one storm to bring us a white Christmas, but we fear periods of storminess will upset our holiday travel plans. The Halcyon Days are not only associated with a stretch of calm seas and good weather but also with the kingfisher, a bird from an avian family found around the world. (In Australia, the family tree includes the kookaburra, famous for its laughing cry.) The kingfisher species of interest here is the European kingfisher, an unmistakable bird with brilliant plumage and a long, dagger-like bill. A solitary bird about 16 cm (six inches) in length, the European kingfisher can be found near water, feeding mostly mainly on small fish. In the breeding season which occurs around the winter solstice, the European kingfisher pair digs a tunnel in waterside banks that widens at its end into a nesting chamber. The ancients, however, had a very different notion as to its nesting habits. They believed kingfishers built floating nests made of fish bones on the sea. Further, wherever a nest carrying a female and her eggs drifted, the sea and winds would be becalmed. Thus, the ancient mariner held kingfishers extremely sacred, and a dried kingfisher body was often carried as a talisman against lightning."
Meryl Streep as Donna
"The bird's classic name - the halcyon or alcyon - derives from Alcyone or Halcyone who, in Greek mythology, was the daughter of Aeolus."
My sync-head friend David Charles Plate made a massive sync film(which I haven't been able to upload) linking a lot of stuff to the band ABBAand their music. You can hear David talk about ABBA in the You Tube above when he was on 'The Bridge with Kira' podcast.
A competition to find a suitable name for the group was held in a Gothenburg newspaper and it was officially announced in the summer that the group were to be known as "ABBA."
The group negotiated with the canners for the rights to the name."
The next movie Meryl starred in after 'Postcards from the Edge' was a movie called 'Defending Your Life' starring alongside Albert Brooks, who also wrote the movie.
Eddie Fisher's song "That's the Chance You Take" is used in the movie 'Carol'.
"The Halcyon Days encompass the fourteen-day period centered on the Winter Solstice when the sea is commanded to be calm and the wind light by none other than Aeolus, keeper of the winds and one of the lesser Greek deities. 
"Abba is also the name of a well-known fish-canning company in Sweden, and itself an acronym. However, since the fish-canners were unknown outside Sweden, Anderson came to believe the name would work in international markets. 
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