Divine Light
Humans in the northern hemisphere in every culture through the ages have always been attuned to the dying light of December. In prehistoric times, the pagan monument Stonehenge was carefully aligned to exactly face the sunset precisely on the winter solstice. European pagans celebrated a solstice holiday that they called “Yule” which derives from the Norse word “Jul” for “wheel”. The term was meant to indicate the “turning of the wheel” which would bring back the light of a strong sun. American Indians called the December moon, the “Long Nights Moon”.
Poets and writers also took note. The winter solstice brought the poet John Donne (writing his poem, Nocturnal On Saint Lucy’s Day, Being The Shortest Day Of The Year) to say:
I am re-begot
of absence, darkness, death: things which are not.
In his famous poem, The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe wrote:
Ah, distinctly I remember
it was in the bleak December,
and each separate dying ember
wrought its ghost upon the floor.
And, in more modern times, singer/song writer Paul Simon, in his song I Am A Rock, wrote:
A winter’s day
in a deep and dark December.
I am alone,
gazing through my window
to the streets below.
I’m a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
So, in this darkest time of year, the spirit in each of us hungers for light. It’s fitting, therefore, that our Judeo-Christian faith helps us to fill that need.
The Jewish holiday of Hanukkah celebrates the dedication of the Second Temple – but, it also celebrates the GIFT OF DIVINE LIGHT, when Temple Lamps burned mysteriously for eight days on oil enough for only one.
The Christian holiday of Christmas celebrates not only the birth of Christ – but also the GIFT OF DIVINE LIGHT in the person of Jesus. Many scholars place the actual birth date of Jesus to be in March. Be that as it may, the SYMBOLISM of His birth, in the holiday of Christmas, is placed where it SHOULD be, just AFTER the solstice, the darkest time of the year. It is said that the darkest hour is just before the dawn. And so, the darkest night is just before the coming of His light on Christmas.
So, as we celebrate Christmas, we would do well to remember, that, along with the birth of Christ, we are also celebrating the gift of His DIVINE LIGHT. A Light to banish the darkness.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!