Eleven
Candles to Celebrate the Holidays
Use different and appropriately colored candles, e.g., yellow for Sun
and green for Earth.
The
Sun
We
light the first candle for the Sun, to remind us that we are enchanted stardust–of
Nature and never removed from it.
We
affirm that the seasons turn. We are assured that our fragile, miracle life endures through the seasons and the
generations.
This
candle signifies the many festivals of the Winter Solstice. We imagine roaring bonfires that burned long ago on hilltops to coax the retreating Sun to return. We recall that this is the birthday of Natalis
Invicti, the unconquered God, Mithra
to the ancient Persians, the Sun personified at the Winter Solstice.
In
this flame is the unspoken meaning of Cosmic Creation: vast distances, subatomic and cosmic reactions and attractions, and evolution arching toward life,
consciousness, and self-consciousness.
The
Earth
We
light a second candle to honor the Earth, our home. The greenery of the season–garlands and ropes of cedar,
wreaths of balsam, fir trees–have long served as
symbols of the tenacity of Nature.
Greens graced the Roman
holiday of Saturnalia. They provided refuge
for the little people believed in by ancient Brits–sprites, elves, and brownies–who took refuge among the boughs brought indoors when the outdoors turned to
icy stone.
Always the message of
the greens is unmistakable: Life endures the harshest seasons, because the fir
tree stays evergreen, bows to the wind, and bends under the snow, but never
succumbs to Winter.
Hanukkah
We
light a third candle to acknowledge
Hanukkah and a Jewish heritage
that is a wellspring of Western Civilization. The Hanukkah flame is not the Sun symbolized, a reenactment of ancient Solstice rites. This is a flame of human
faith and of unswerving conviction. It recalls an ageless
struggle against all forces that oppress
the human soul. It is a yearning for
justice. It is the freedom that stirs in every human heart, especially the freedom to worship as each of us wishes.
It signifies a
faith that we are sustained-miraculously,-if we live reverently and courageously, devoted to that which
is beautiful, good, and
true. With such a mind, nothing can dissuade us from our faith. Its heat anneals us to tradition
and principle.
Festivals
of Mid-Winter
We light a fourth
candle in memory of the Ancient and
Modern Festivals of Mid-Winter that compel us to joy, so rich and wide
that not even the fabled Twelve Days of Christmas can contain them: Babylonian
Zagmuk, Roman Saturnalia, North Europe's Yule, the Angli's Mother Night, Medieval Noel,
Victorian Christmas, the Christmases of our childhood.
Through this flame, let
us see that it is good to be generous, to seek the company and bonhomie of
family and friends, to feast, generally be merry, to suspend reality, be
childlike, and loving–above all loving.
The
Nativity Story
We
light a fifth candle for the Nativity Story: of the love of a mother as she carried her child in her body, bearing
a mother's knowledge that this child was conceived by a love
so immense that this child will be the promised child. Of a
tiring journey met with such indifference that a woman about to give birth and her worried husband had to take shelter in
a manger. Of the ordinary birth of a child whose compassion,
wisdom, and sense of justice changed the course of
civilization. Of humble shepherds and great seers alike, sharing
the knowledge that eluded a King. This is a story of Incarnation–the Divine, the Spirit within Creation seeking
human form, a story taking place in the birth of every child. Always, we wonder
will this child be the child to save
our troubled world?
The
Meek
We
light a sixth candle not to forget the
Meek, who, a wise man
enigmatically declared, "will inherit the earth.” While the exalted Magi sought the child by following a
star, the revelation was first given to humble shepherds, who,
we imagine, were most receptive and, curiously, most
deserving. It was to humble parents that
the Christ child was born.
So
Christmas reminds us of the humble, the innocent, and the young. It points to the oppressed. In this season, we
are pierced
by the plights of the homeless, the hungry, the impoverished, the abused, the oppressed, the ill, as we are at no other
season. We respond with acts of compassion, charity, and justice.
Gifts
We light a seventh
candle for Gifts. It is like a
dance, this giving and receiving at the Holidays. It is an allegory of what we
human beings do for one another throughout the year. We represent the
gift-giver as a Wise Elder,–Befana and Saint Nicholas,–because gift giving is
human wisdom. Gift-giving unites us, often across thousands of miles during the
Holidays. Because the gifts we give are carefully chosen and eagerly
anticipated, they take on ritual significance.
Really, the greatest gifts of the Season are the simplest, humblest gifts, the sort that can't be
wrapped, ribboned, and bowed.
These are the gifts of song, of grace, of beauty, of joy, and, of course, of love.
Love
of Children
We
light an eighth candle in love of
Children. They are our generational
solstice,
our hope and confidence that not just our being, the personal life we love, but all
that we declare to be precious
in our world, will renew, survive, and even grow greater in our children that it has lived
in us.
Humankind
is born anew with every child. A child's eyes see for the first time. All is fresh, innocent, and wondering; so all appears to children as it really is–a miracle!
Children
respond to the Holidays spontaneously, that is, naturally. Adults need only remember to recapture the child-like within them to receive the blessings of the season.
We
praise childlikeness, proclaiming this is the spirit in which
to experience the season-accepting, expecting, wondering, marveling.
Peace
on Earth
We
light a ninth candle in hope of Peace on
Earth, the mythic Angel Song.
We wish peace of self, that each of us, if only
for the season, will be free of self-doubt and inner torment. We wish peace between one another, feeling, if only for the season, the friendliness, the kinship, and fellow
feeling that makes us glad and sustain our spirits. We wish peace among people everywhere–among nations, cultures, and ethnic groups. Fears, resentments, angers, hurts, envies,
jealousies, all petty annoyances have
no place among us in this season. Remember
that peace on earth is conditioned by goodwill. Peace begins with you and me.
Family
We
light a tenth candle for Family.
There are many different kinds of
families-all bound by love, need, and nurture.
There
are the families we choose, including our beloved friends. And there is our Great Family, all of humanity, where all races, all nations, all creeds, all superficial
differences dissolve into One
Heart, One Mind, One Soul, One Humanity. Every family is the Holy Family.
Memories
And
we light an eleventh candle to keep and
build Memories: For memories of Holidays past,
with all their ambivalences, but
mostly in the subdued light that time casts, weaving days gone by in soft golden threads. We remember old friends and family members now departed.
And for the Holidays
now and memories we are making, not just for self alone, but for those whose
lives touch our lives, we light this final candle. May the magic of the season
transform our lives through the Love that was always, is now, and will never
end.
Look
at the burning candles. They symbolize all that comes together in this Season:
ancient festivals, Hanukkah, Christmas, but more, something in the human heart
that needs and finds–a coming home to a truer self and a reality that in its
dream-likeness is a vision that guides us through the year until the holidays
come again.
