Getting ready for the holidays
Dec. 14th, 2024 10:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lizdamnitI'm actually looking forward to this year's holidays. I'm in the US and with all the everything going on, I think we need a little joy. I'm not saying a frenzy, but a quiet, homespun Christmas will be a good thing. We need the light in the dark more than ever.
When I was young, I was raised Roman Catholic. I used to love the Advent season, the dark 4 weeks before Christmas, when we were supposed to be quietly anticipating the birth of Christ. Gee, wonder why a period of time devoted to decking the house with evergreens, lighting candles, saying special prayers, and anticipating the return of light appealed to me so much. No clue why that could possibly appeal to me.
Anyhow, lately, I've been thinking more about Yule and how it obliged us to joyously anticipate the light and it doesn't rush. Sabbats aren't really celebrated in the one-day-and-done model we currently use with holidays. Heck, even Christmas wasn't traditionally done in a day. We took the time. I'm finding this purposeful taking of time to be so healing.
It's probably easier for me to do this since I don't have kids, I don't have much family. But it's something I think we all need to do, especially now. Take time away from shopping, from doomscrolling, from noise, from frenzy. Frenzy can be fun once in a while, but it can't hold off the dark.
So aside from taking time, the other idea I've been thinking of is how moving the light is. When I was a practicing Catholic, I knew I was supposed to put more emphasis on the Resurrection as the central miracle of Christianity. But as lovely as the flowers and the hymns were, the story of the moved stone, the return of the Lord....what always moved me was the light in the middle of winter.
I always picked up on the dark and spooky implications of winter, especially pre-Christmas. I was a kid that ate myth and folklore so the ghosts and spirits of winter, the battle of dark and light, were all as real to me as KayBee toys and mall santas. I would haunt my own house at night and stare at the lit tree, or the various creches set up. There was always something about a warm light in the dark. In the house I loved in when I was small, we had big windows facing the woods. Of course I loved to watch the trees at night with our various decorations lit or a fire going inside. I felt so moved when Mom would light candles for advent and we would sing carols that were sung for hundreds of years.
Now that I'm an adult, I'm still doing the same thing. But this time with a pagan mindset. I take the time to observe the natural world, to watch the woods, the sky, to watch the dark come in. I take the time to tend to my home, I light candles as I clean, I put up green things, I put lamps on at night. I don't want the only light to be from screens. As an adult, I'm also aware of the metaphor at the heart of the light. I try to do small kindnesses, small donations, I try to be the light to someone else. This is not just for winter....there is so much darkness right now, so much pain and suffering. There is no way I can fix it in a grand gesture. But I can be one light in the dark, joining other lights. And isn't that a blessing? To be one little glowing candle is a blessing.
So have a Blessed Yule, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Kwanzaa. Have Happy Holidays. Take the time, be a light.
When I was young, I was raised Roman Catholic. I used to love the Advent season, the dark 4 weeks before Christmas, when we were supposed to be quietly anticipating the birth of Christ. Gee, wonder why a period of time devoted to decking the house with evergreens, lighting candles, saying special prayers, and anticipating the return of light appealed to me so much. No clue why that could possibly appeal to me.
Anyhow, lately, I've been thinking more about Yule and how it obliged us to joyously anticipate the light and it doesn't rush. Sabbats aren't really celebrated in the one-day-and-done model we currently use with holidays. Heck, even Christmas wasn't traditionally done in a day. We took the time. I'm finding this purposeful taking of time to be so healing.
It's probably easier for me to do this since I don't have kids, I don't have much family. But it's something I think we all need to do, especially now. Take time away from shopping, from doomscrolling, from noise, from frenzy. Frenzy can be fun once in a while, but it can't hold off the dark.
So aside from taking time, the other idea I've been thinking of is how moving the light is. When I was a practicing Catholic, I knew I was supposed to put more emphasis on the Resurrection as the central miracle of Christianity. But as lovely as the flowers and the hymns were, the story of the moved stone, the return of the Lord....what always moved me was the light in the middle of winter.
I always picked up on the dark and spooky implications of winter, especially pre-Christmas. I was a kid that ate myth and folklore so the ghosts and spirits of winter, the battle of dark and light, were all as real to me as KayBee toys and mall santas. I would haunt my own house at night and stare at the lit tree, or the various creches set up. There was always something about a warm light in the dark. In the house I loved in when I was small, we had big windows facing the woods. Of course I loved to watch the trees at night with our various decorations lit or a fire going inside. I felt so moved when Mom would light candles for advent and we would sing carols that were sung for hundreds of years.
Now that I'm an adult, I'm still doing the same thing. But this time with a pagan mindset. I take the time to observe the natural world, to watch the woods, the sky, to watch the dark come in. I take the time to tend to my home, I light candles as I clean, I put up green things, I put lamps on at night. I don't want the only light to be from screens. As an adult, I'm also aware of the metaphor at the heart of the light. I try to do small kindnesses, small donations, I try to be the light to someone else. This is not just for winter....there is so much darkness right now, so much pain and suffering. There is no way I can fix it in a grand gesture. But I can be one light in the dark, joining other lights. And isn't that a blessing? To be one little glowing candle is a blessing.
So have a Blessed Yule, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Joyous Kwanzaa. Have Happy Holidays. Take the time, be a light.
