'Tis The Season
'Tis The Season!
But which season? What we celebrate this time of year depends on our belief structure. Christmas is celebrated in a general way (much to the delight of the retail sector) and we often forget that it is a holy day for many. We've attempted to list the various holidays being celebrated this month. If we have missed yours, please let us know. The information here was taken from a variety of sources, including Encyclopedia Britannica. I have included links to sites with additional information
Ramadan - 11/27
In Islam, the holy month of fasting, the ninth month of the Muslim year, in which "the Qur'an was sent down as a guidance for the people" (Qur'an 2:185).
In its religious function, the month constitutes a period of atonement; Ramadan, however, is seen less as atonement and more as an obedient response to a command from God. Muslim ordinance prescribes abstention from food, drink, and sexual intercourse from dawn until dusk throughout the month. The beginning and end of Ramadan are announced when one trustworthy witness testifies before the authorities that the new moon has been sighted; a cloudy sky may, therefore, delay or prolong the fast.
In the Qur'an, the development of the Ramadan fast, which is one of the five Pillars, or basic institutions, of Islam, may be traced from the injunction to fast on 'Ashura', the 10th of Muharram. This injunction was abrogated by a command to fast during Ramadan (2:184).
For the past several years, Ramadan has fallen in December, however November 27th was the start of the celebration in 2000.
See Ramadan
Other Links:
Visit Santa Claus for some interactive fun
Santa Lucia Day - 12/13
Italian Santa Lucia, virgin and martyr who was one of the earliest Christian saints to achieve popularity, having a widespread following before the 5th century. She is the patron saint of the city of Syracuse (Sicily).
d. 304, Syracuse, Sicily; feast day December 13
Because of various traditions associating her name with light, she came to be thought of as the patron of sight and was depicted by medieval artists carrying a dish containing her eyes.
According to apocryphal texts, Lucy came from a wealthy Sicilian family. Spurning marriage and worldly goods, however, she vowed to remain a virgin in the tradition of St. Agatha. An angry suitor reported her to the local Roman authorities, who sentenced her to be removed to a brothel and forced into prostitution. This order was thwarted, according to legend, by divine intervention; Lucy became immovable and could not be carried away. She was next condemned to death by fire, but she proved impervious to the flames. Finally, her neck was pierced by a sword and she died.
In actuality, Lucy was probably a victim of the wave of persecution of Christians that occurred late in the reign of the Roman emperor Diocletian. References to her are found in early Roman sacramentaries and, at Syracuse, in an inscription dating from AD 400. As evidence of her early fame, two churches are known to have been dedicated to her in Britain before the 8th century, at a time when the land was largely pagan.
One of the patron saints of virgins, St. Lucy is venerated on her feast day, December 13, by a variety of ceremonies. In Sweden, St. Lucia's Day marks the beginning of the Christmas celebration. On that day the eldest daughter of the family traditionally dresses in a white robe and wears as a crown an evergreen wreath studded with candles.
See Santa
Lucia
Solstice/Yule - 12/21
Winter Solstice has been celebrated in cultures the world over for thousands of years. This start of the solar year is a celebration of Light and the rebirth of the Sun. In old Europe, it was known as Yule, from the Norse, Jul, meaning wheel.
Winter Solstice celebrations are held on the eve of the shortest day of the year. During the first millennium in what is today Scotland, the Druids celebrated Winter Solstice honoring the Sun God and rejoicing his return as the days got longer, signaling the coming of spring. Also called Yule, this tradition still lives today in Wiccan traditions and in many cultures around the world.
Solstice traditions vary, but often include a Yule Log. A huge log ... the Yule Log is brought into an outdoor clearing and becomes part of a great bonfire. Participants may sing and dance, but sometimes instrumentalists would surround the circle of merry makers playing their instruments . All the noise and great excitement is said to awaken the Sun from his long winter sleep, hurrying spring on its way as the cycle begins once again and the days grow longer than the nights.
See Winter Solstice or Winter Solstice or Candlegrove
Hanukkah - 12/22
Hanukkah is Hebrew for "dedication". (Also spelled Hanukka, Chanukah or Chanukkah) Also called Feast Of Dedication, Feast Of Lights, Or Feast Of The Maccabees, a Jewish observance commemorating the rededication (164 BC) of the Second Temple of Jerusalem after its desecration three years earlier by order of Antiochus IV Epiphanes; the Syrian king was thus frustrated in his attempt to extirpate the Jewish faith. Though modern Israel tends to emphasize the military victory of Judas Maccabeus, the distinctive rite of lighting the menorah also recalls the Talmud story of how the small supply of nondesecrated oil,enough for one day, miraculously burned in the Temple for eight full days until new oil could be obtained.
Beginning on Kislev 25 (in December), Hanukka is celebrated for eight days; during this time, in addition to the lighting of the ceremonial candles, gifts are exchanged and children play holiday games.
See Hanukkah
Christmas - 12/25
Christmas (from Old English Cristes maesse, "Christ's mass"), Christian festival celebrated on December 25, commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ. It is also a popular secular holiday.
According to a Roman almanac, the Christian festival of Christmas was celebrated in Rome by AD 336. In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, however, a festival on January 6 commemorated the manifestation of God in both the birth and the baptism of Jesus, except in Jerusalem, where only the birth was celebrated. During the 4th century the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 was gradually adopted by most Eastern churches. In Jerusalem, opposition to Christmas lasted longer, but it was subsequently accepted. In the Armenian Church, a Christmas on December 25 was never accepted; Christ's birth is celebrated on January 6. After Christmas was established in the East, the baptism of Jesus was celebrated on Epiphany, January 6. In the West, however, Epiphany was the day on which the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus was celebrated.
The reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains uncertain, but many historians theorize that early Christians wished the date to coincide with the pagan Roman festival marking the "birthday of the unconquered sun" (natalis solis invicti); this festival celebrated the winter solstice, when the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky.
The traditional customs connected with Christmas have accordingly developed from several sources as a result of the coincidence of the celebration of the birth of Christ with the pagan agricultural and solar observances at midwinter. In the Roman world the Saturnalia (December 17) was a time of merrymaking and exchange of gifts. December 25 was also regarded as the birth date of the Iranian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness. On the Roman New Year (January 1), houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and gifts were given to children and the poor. To these observances were added the German and Celtic Yule rites when the Teutonic tribes penetrated into Gaul, Britain, and central Europe. Food and good fellowship, the Yule log and Yule cakes, greenery and fir trees, and gifts and greetings all commemorated different aspects of this festive season.
Fires and lights, symbols of warmth and lasting life, have always been associated with the winter festival, both pagan and Christian. Since the European Middle Ages, evergreens, as symbols of survival, have been associated with Christmas. Christmas is traditionally regarded as the festival of the family and of children, under the name of whose patron, Saint Nicholas , or Santa Claus, presents are exchanged in many countries.
See Holidays and The Birth of Jesus
New Year's Day- 1/1
Numerous religious, social, and cultural observances exist worldwide celebrating the commencement of the New Year. Such festivals, which are among the oldest and most universally observed, generally include rites and ceremonies expressive of mortification, purgation, invigoration, and jubilation over life's renewal. This renewal is the essence of the New Year. It is, to varying degrees of explicitness in world cultures, a remembrance or repetition of the creation of the cosmos on the symbolic anniversary of its creation, in order that the gods, the cosmos, and the community may be strengthened.
The earliest-known record of a New Year's festival dates from about 2000 BC in Mesopotamia, where the New Year (Akitu) commenced with the new moon nearest the spring equinox (mid-March; Babylonia) or nearest the autumn equinox (mid-September; Assyria).
Depending on your point of view, 2001 may mark the beginning of a special time. I know we were "millenniumed" to the point of saturation last year. As one of my favorite t-shirts says: "If you can count, you KNOW ... the new millennium begins January 1, 2001!"
See New Year or New Year Festivals
Epiphany or Three Kings Day - 1/6
Epiphany (from Greek epiphaneia, "manifestation"), festival celebrated on January 6; it is one of the three principal and oldest festival days of the Christian Church (including Easter and Christmas).
It commemorates the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, and the manifestation of his divinity, as it occurred at his Baptism in the Jordan River and at his first miracle at Cana in Galilee. The festival originated in the Eastern Church, where it at first included a commemoration of Christ's birth.
In Rome, by 354, Christ's birth was being celebrated on December 25, and later in the 4th century the church in Rome began celebrating Epiphany on January 6. In the Western Church the festival primarily commemorates the visit by the Magi to the infant Jesus. In the East it primarily commemorates the Baptism of Jesus. In the West the evening preceding Epiphany is called Twelfth Night. (If you begin counting with December 25th, the 12th day is January 5, hence the Twelve Days of Christmas in celebration, story and song.)
See Magi
Whatever holidays you personally celebrate, I wish you the best in the days ahead!
Peggy Erickson
12/1/00