“Heading
into the night of the winter solstice, every spiritual tradition has
some kind of festival of light. We're all just whistling in the dark,
hoping against hope that someone up there will see these little candles
and get the hint.” Lawrence Kushner
“As
it somehow always manages before the winter solstice, but never after,
the early darkness was cheerful and promising, even for those who had
nothing.” Mark Helprin
I
am extremely fortunate to be living live in the mid-Atlantic region of
the United States. Living here I get to see each season for
approximately an equal amount of time each year, and that is a delight. I
love all of the seasons, both the seasons themselves and the
transitions that lead up to them. People in this region get to fully
experience the arrival of each season, see it develop over time, and
then see and feel it fully emerge. And we get to delight in the
simultaneous ending of one season and the slow deliberate arrival of the
next. I think of all of this as the "endless cycle of the universe,"
and it has been here and continuing since time before time. I love this
cycle, in part, because it links us to all the humans who have been here
long before us and will be here long after us. And it links us all to
the earth.
Humans
have always noted, marked, responded to, and ritualized each of the
aspects of this cycle. In all parts of the world we have created
symbols, activities, images, music and more to show our deep dependence
on and connections to this cycle, whether it has been about pure
physical survival, deep emotional fear or hope, reverential worship,
and/or deep spiritual love. Doing this is one of the things that seems
to make us human; we can’t live in this world without doing it. And I
love the coming of winter because it is one of those times when this
connection between the cycle and our human need for ritual is so
obvious. In all parts of the world the approach of winter is marked by
big changes in climate and environment, and we respond. It either starts
raining more or snowing. Fog may be more prevalent. Temperatures start
to drop, trees, plants and crops go through noticeable changes, and the
length of days-the amount of sunlight- changes. This hits a climax at
the time of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the
day after, when the days start getting longer. Whether in the Northern
Hemisphere, when the winter solstice is in December, or in the Southern
Hemisphere, when it is in June, humans have met these changes repeatedly
with organized group activities-rituals. There were songs, stories,
dances, symbols, and especially fire and light. In the Scandinavian
countries Juul feasts involved bringing a Juul log (Yule log) into the
house and burning it in the hearth to honor of the god of thunder, Thor
and to acknowledge a new beginning. The ashes were kept in the house or
on one’s person as a sign of the belief in the rebirth of the world and
hope for a better and safer new year. In ancient Rome the solstice was
met by Saturnalia, a feast dedicated to Saturn, the father of the gods.
It involved a reversal of social order, symbolic fertility gifts of
fruits and dolls, and candles. It was the birth-rebirth of the sun and
the gods, and things were in chaos for a while until proper order was
returned in the days following the solstice. In the Southern Hemisphere
descendants of the Inca had the tradition Inti Ramya, a festival
welcoming the New Year and involving, among other things, animal
sacrifice and the origin story of the Inca. Shab-E-Yalda celebrated the
triumph of Mithra the sun god in Iran, parts of Turkey and parts of
Afghanistan. Gatherings featured poetry, song, bonfires and
wishes/prayers to protect the community from darkness and from evil in
the coming year. In all of these traditions there is both a mystical
connection to light and some form of symbolic rebirth. These are
universal themes of our solstice observances, for we seem to need to
meet the winter darkness with light and hope.
The
Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa celebrations with which we are familiar
are likewise about light and rebirth. Like all rituals they have
symbolic meanings for just about every phase of the observance. The
lighting of the menorah candles in Hanukkah, for example, recall the
miracle of the oil that lasted 8 days during the re-dedication of the
Second Temple in Jerusalem. It is also a rebirth story for both the
Temple and for the religion, as it honors the fact that the Jews were
able to withstand the attempt by Antiochus to destroy their religion.
The story of the Star of Bethlehem in the Christmas story is also about
light and rebirth, as Christians believe the story represents the birth
of a new “light” for the world. It is also the first part of a longer
story of re-birth that culminates with Easter. And the lights on
Christmas trees and the date of December 25th show
what happens when various cultures come together and their beliefs,
symbols and rituals intermingle. They get re-interpreted and take on new
meanings. Likewise, Kwanzaa with its candle,s affirms a reverence for
the rebirth of links between people of African descent and the continent
of Africa. It is intended to represent the birth of a new awareness of
African origins; the daily candle lighting, similar to Hanukkah,
represent a re-dedication to communal African values. So even if we may
not be aware of it, all of these celebrations affirm our continual links
to that cycle of the earth and our deep connections to humans from
earlier times and places. We may think of ourselves as more “modern” or
“advanced” than our ancestors, but scratch the surface of so much of
what we do, and the links between them and us are there.
So
however you observe the reality of the solstice, know that by doing so
you are joining with thousands of years of human history to acknowledge
our connection to and reverence for the cycle. It is one of the things
it means to be a human animal;
one of the things that mark us as different from other living things.
Do have a wonderful season of contemplation joy, re-dedication, gift
giving and good food. And do stop every now and then to notice the
beauty and power of the lights against the darkness. For we are still
working to meet the darkness with light.
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