“How did it get so late so soon? Its night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? “
Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss
Clearly the minutes and hours and days and seconds of calculated time are unchanging. A minute is exactly as many beats/seconds at all times, every time. And I’m sure there are always sixty of them each time. And yet . . . how DID it get so late so soon?! It appears that the experience of time and the calculation of time have little to do with each other. The calculation is for keeping appointments and having sensible conversations. The experience is impossible to put into words because it defies calculation and is unique to every being. By all calculations it is December. For me, experientially, it is maybe mid-September. I don’t know why. It just feels like it. I am mid-September in a mid-December world. Ah well . . . there could be worse things! And I believe that one of the purposes/benefits of Christmas, Hannuka, and all the communal celebrations at this time of year is that they catch everybody up finally before the new round of calculations start again in January. Because we all share these big events, we become united in time and awareness. They allow us to synchronise our internal ticking time pieces and we are enabled to begin again as one. . . . . .
. . . . maybe.
“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it's compulsory, like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together."
~ Garrison Keillor
“God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.”
James M. Barrie
James M. Barrie
(That quote is really about memory, not so much December, but I love it so much, I sneaked it in.)
December is Holiday month and the holidays are Big Ones. They ARE what December is about for many of us. I’ve listed them below.
SATURNALIA: December 17
The Lord of Misrule - December 17th. This is the first day of the Roman festival of Saturnalia. It was a period of great feasting and festivity, with a lot of drinking and eating. Slaves would become masters for the festival, and everything was turned upside down. This part of the Roman festival survived into the 17th Century."
- Customs and Folktales for December
Shakespeare made use of the topsy-turvy, excess-to-satiation aspect of this festival in his play, “Twelfth Night.”
Hanukkah: December 20th-28th
Hanukkah, which is the Hebrew word for dedication, honors the victory of the Jews over the Greek Syrians in 165 BC. After their victory, the Maccabees, sons of the family that led the revolt, entered the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and dedicated it to the service of their God. When the Maccabees entered the temple, they found only enough lamp oil to last one night, but the oil somehow managed to burn for the whole eight days it took to go in search for more oil. Therefore, Hanukkah is observed over eight days
Winter Solstice: December 22nd
Winter solstice is the beginning of winter. It's also the shortest day of the year. Because of the earth's tilt, the Northern Hemisphere is as far away from the sun as it can be. Therefore, the first day of winter has the shortest amount of sunlight.
Christmas Day: December 25th
Christmas is a Christian holiday that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. No one knows the exact date of Christ's birth but in the 4th Century, Pope Julius I chose December 25th as the day of celebration.
Boxing Day: December 26th
The first Boxing Day is believed to have started in the Middle Ages. This is just a guess because the exact date isn't known. How Boxing Day started is a question as well. Some say it started with the giving of Christmas boxes, while others think it was named after the tradition of opening charity boxes placed in churches during the Christmas season. Either way, it's now known as one of the biggest shopping days of the year.
Kwanzaa: December 26th
Although some people believe this holiday is a substitute for Christmas, it is not a religious holiday. It is celebrated every year on December 26th. Kwanzaa, which means "first fruit of the harvest" in Swahili, is a time to focus on the traditional African values of family. It is based upon the celebration of seven principles or beliefs called the Nguzo Saba and was created by Ron Karenga in 1966 to celebrate African-American heritage.
New Year's Eve: December 31st
The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4,000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23rd, although they had no written calendar. It wasn't until 153 BC that the Roman senate declared January 1st to be the beginning of the new year.
I resonate most deeply with the ideas of Solstice and Christmas. Christmas because of how I was brought up and Solstice because of some deep inner connection to the legends and practices surrounding it.
"Yule, is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb. Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider."- Yule Lore
I like to think of darkness and fear transforming to lightness and hope. In fact, I think there is nothing dearer to my heart than that concept. I wrote this poem, meant to be set to music and sung by children, celebrating it. (I strongly suggest you don’t worry about trying to understand the words. I think it will be easier to get if you just let them speak for themselves. It’s good to say them aloud.)
Onsha pona longa teeple
Longa teeple way,
Dee days were longa allbetime,
Allottadeetimeaday.
And alladee dinder
“Ha Ha Ha,”
Alladee digalong day.
But then dee days
Got digalongless
And dee nights got digalonglonger.
Dee dinder had dey pliffels plotzed
And, “Ha, ha, ha’d,” no longer.
Then alladee dinder
“Woe, woe, woe,”
Alladee digalong night and long.
And alladee dinder
“Woe, woe, woe”
Alladee digawee day.
Still dinjey deep and scowlering
Dee days and nights carooned.
Dee dinder tremmeled fearfully
For dee bright had turned to gloom.
Dee dinder wimpled, snuffed, and skreeked.
Dee fleet and hid in mounds,
And, “Oh’d!” and “Woe’d” and “Nomeeno’d!”
And other tremmelish sounds.
Yet dee scowlering howled
And did not stop
And dee dinje dewalloped dee land.
“Oh, albelost and mortled are we!”
And dee dinder wringled dey hands.
“Oh, allbelost and mortled are we!”
And dee dinder wringled dey hands.
And still dee dinjey deep and deep
And deep and deeper still.
Dee dinder shut dey glubs and prayed
And dey hearts were ice and chill.
So teeple passed and passed again.
It seemed a trillion longa.
When belast, belast one freeling day
Dee days seemed sumpa longer.
“Can deebeso?” one dinder carked.
“Can deebeso?” another.
And pair by pair dee dinder skept
Outside to worp dee weather.
“Dee bright recumbs, dee dinje resneeks!”
Dee cried with huplish voices.
“We’re unbelost and mortlefree!”
And dee dinder felt rejoiceth!
Dee dinder felt rejoiceth!
“We’re unbelost and mortlefree!”
And dee dinder felt rejoiceth!
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive,
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - Listen!!
All the long echoes sing the same delight,
This shortest day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, fest, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!!"
- Susan Cooper, The Shortest Day
I think the Druids’ story of this time of year is particularly beautiful:
"The Holly King, represents the Death aspect of the God at this time of year; and the Oak King, represents the opposite aspect of Rebirth (these roles are reversed at Midsummer). This can be likened to the Divine Child's birth. The myth of the Holly King/Oak King probably originated from the Druids to whom these two trees were highly sacred. The Oak King (God of the Waxing Year) kills the Holly King (God of the Waning Year) at Yule (the Winter Solstice). The Oak King then reigns supreme until Litha (the Summer Solstice) when the two battle again, this time with the Holly King victorious. Examples of the Holly King's image can be seen in our
modern Santa Claus."
- Yule and Its Lore
And Christmas . . . . . I love Christmas because I was fortunate to have parents who loved it. My German mother made everything beautiful and there were always rituals that made the time special and fun and even magical. It brought us together and made us happy.
~ Hamilton Wright Mabie
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” - Laura Ingalls Wilder
“Christmas renews our youth by stirring our wonder. The capacity for wonder has been called our most pregnant human faculty, for in it are born our art, our science, our religion." .~ Ralph Sockman
May this final month of 2011, whether and however you choose to experience it, bring you and all of us into a closer sense of community, a deeper sense of connected-ness and hearts that are strong in courage and hope
“I heard a bird sing
In the night of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
In the night of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.
"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.
Oliver Herford
I hope your holidays are happy ones and may,“God bless us, every one!”
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