Welcoming back the Sun and Finding our Holiday

Since the beginning of this holiday season I've been having a crisis of conscience. As you know from last year's post I have decided not to do the whole Santa thing and we're not Christians so going to church and celebrating Jesus doesn't apply to our celebrations. That lead me to think about why I would even do Christmas.  So I did what I normal do in times of crisis, lots and lots of research. I've spent the last two weeks reading every night about the winter celebrations of various cultures. What I've come to find out is that it is all about light and welcoming the sun back.

Ancient cultures believed that sun would slowly roll away from the earth and that on winter solstice (longest night of the year) celebrating light would help to bring the sun back to earth.  We know now that the sun doesn't go away, but the night does become very long. This wikipedia article is really excellent for explaining all the different versions of light celebration from all different religions and cultures. I also picked up these two books . This site as well has a great article about how to celebrate solstice. Daniele likes to call it "Frankenfest" because all the celebrations are monstrously intermingled. Once you do a little reading on the history of winter celebrations you see why it's hard to pick out just one; at their core they all have the same focus.

A celebration of light is something that I can get behind and teach my children about. It feels earthy and good (to my inner farmer). The thought of it warms me as light should.  After all this research I've come to the conclusion that we will celebrate the 12 days of Yule. Which starts with the winter solstice and runs through the first of the year. Solstice for us will be about family, joy, reflection and welcoming back of longer days. As well as food and a small gift exchange. I think we will still celebrate on Christmas as I love to cook traditional Italian meals for Christmas and we like to go look at the lights in our neighborhood on Christmas Eve, but it won't be our main celebration anymore.

So, why am I telling you all of this? I think because it's new and exciting and I feel really good about it. I finally understand why I am celebrating, and there is more solidity to it then just consumerism. Daniele would quote Socrates: "The unexamined life is not worth living"; of course Daniele doesn't care one bit about holidays, he just wants something good to eat. So really, I'm figuring all this out now so that my girls can have some sense of childhood tradition, one that I and they can feel good about.

Do you know why you celebrate?