Queens Gazette

Holidays Bring Light To December




The holiday season started early this year and, depending on who is celebrating what, lasts all month long. This year, Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, came especially early, coinciding with Thanksgiving, on November 28, and today, a month later, Christians celebrate the birth of the one they call Messiah. Kwanzaa, a week-long, African American holiday based on various elements of the first harvest celebrations widely celebrated in Africa, is held from December 26 to January 1. For those who put themselves outside the more widely recognized celebratory activities, there’s “Festivus”, an imaginary holiday from the TV sitcom Seinfeld, meaning “a festival for the rest of us”.

The traditions, old and new alike, demonstrate that despite our urban, artificially lit lives, we are still connected to primal forces of nature that govern life on this planet. This Saturday, December 21, at 12:11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, the sun shone directly over the Tropic of Capricorn and winter began in the Northern Hemisphere.

For most of us, this went without saying. Much of the United States is in the grip of a cold snap and many areas have been digging out from blankets of snow. As if the weather were not enough, we can be harder on ourselves than any outside force. We search in vain for the gift that was everywhere last July and was now nowhere to be found since inexplicably zooming to the top of everyone’s “must have” list. No matter how well we thought we planned the holidays in advance, suddenly there was too much to do and not nearly enough time to do it. Deadlines crowd in on us from all sides.

In the midst of the occasionally unpleasant aspects of nature and the thin veneer of “civilization” atop it, some might feel the smartest thing to do would be to hibernate from the end of October through April. Since this is not always practical, we turn to the next best thing— a reason to celebrate the promise of the coming of spring. A festival of some sort, be it the Roman Saturnalia, Jewish Chanukah, Christian Christmas or the Buddhist Bodhi Day (December 8, the day that enlightenment came to the Buddha) helps get us through the grayness of winter. Celebrations differ from religion to religion and person to person. Some faiths hold religious services, others hold festivals that extend over days. Some people go to services in their particular houses of worship, others throw parties. Whatever people call the holiday, and however they celebrate it, all are honoring the promise of renewal and rebirth implicit in the winter solstice. Ironically, starting on the first day of winter, December 21, the days will get longer and the temperature gradually warmer. The earth will tilt on its axis so that the Northern Hemisphere, where we live, will gain an extra minute of sunshine each day, setting up our growing season and the prospect, however distant it may seem, of the arrival of summer. It is fitting that we consider this yearly miracle the foremost of all the gifts bestowed upon us during this holiday season.

As is the case every year, this holiday season gives us a reason for hope and belief in brighter, better days to come. Whatever your faith, whatever your religion— if, indeed, you follow one—however you celebrate, we wish you all the joy this time of year can bring. We wish all our readers the very best of holiday seasons and a healthy and prosperous new year. You, our readers, are a year-long, lasting gift to us. We hope that you will continue to welcome each issue of this newspaper into your lives all year long as well. Whatever your faith, however you follow your beliefs, Happy Holidays to all.



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