CELEBRATIONS It’s Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa Let There Be
CELEBRATIONS It's Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa Let There Be
CELEBRATIONS: It’s Solstice, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa: Let There Be Light!
Today at 3:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, the northern hemisphere reaches its farthest tilt away from the sun, marking the winter solstice. Many New Jerseyans, even amidst their Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa preparations, will pause to observe this moment over the weekend.
Richard Clarkson,
a 53-year-old delivery-service manager, plans to stand in a field in Landing, Morris County, with others from the Center for Spiritual Enfoldment. Lillian Mulligan, a 23-year member of a Camden mission church, will host friends at her Mullica Hill home. She and her husband will turn off all the lights, go outside, and pray for the light’s return. Sister Miriam MacGillis, a Dominican nun, will lead a private ceremony at Genesis Farm, an ecological learning center in Blairstown. Chief Standing Bear of the American Cherokee Confederacy will join a fire circle at noon with other Native Americans.
“It will be almost like a welcoming party,” said Chief Standing Bear. “We light a fire so the sun knows where to come.”
Early humans found their first deities in nature’s rhythms,
marking times for hunting, planting, and harvesting. Today, we turn to the calendar. Jews light the first candle of Hanukkah on the 25th day of Kislev (beginning at sundown on Dec. 23 this year). Christians celebrate the star of Bethlehem on December 25th. African-Americans light candles for the first day of Kwanzaa on the 26th.
These celebrations are partly why the candle business is booming. The National Candle Association reports annual retail sales growth of 25%, expecting to reach about $2 billion this year, with over a third of those sales occurring during the holiday season.
Why do we peg celebrations to the waxing and waning of light?
Part of the answer is its predictability. Despite changing climates and seasons, the day length remains a consistent rhythm that life has danced to for billions of years. Dr. Thomas Wehr, a research psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health, explains that life forms, from mammals to algae, have clocks that respond to daily and seasonal changes in light.
The study of light’s
effects has grown since the identification of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) in the 1980s, a condition more prevalent among women. Scientists are exploring if this could be linked to the fact that one in three women, compared to one in eight men, have a brain clock regulating melatonin production to match the length of the day, regardless of artificial light exposure.
Clifford Geertz,
an anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, notes that human physical and social evolution are closely tied. It’s no wonder that our bodies’ cycles of light and dark are also reflected in many religious traditions.
Before it was Christmas,
December 25th was the Birthday of the Inconquerable Sun, Natalis Solis Invicti, honoring Mithras, a Persian deity. Romans also celebrated Saturnalia at the winter solstice. Christianity later absorbed these traditions, adopting the light and dark symbolism. Popes often admonished the faithful to abandon rites that seemed too pagan, leading to the 17th-century English Puritans outlawing Christmas for 12 years. Even today, some Catholic holidays have pagan roots, such as Montclair’s annual celebration of St. Lucia’s Day on December 13, originally a Scandinavian solstice rite.
Rabbi Eliezer Diamond at the Jewish Theological Seminary suggests that Hanukkah likely builds on a previous solstice celebration, with its story of a miraculous lamp burning for eight days during the Maccabees’ revolt against the Greek-Syrian occupiers.
Dr. Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966,
following the ancient tradition of adding new holidays. The seven-day celebration for African Americans emphasizes unity, self-determination, collective work, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith through candle lighting.
The interpretations of fire and light this season are endless. Chief Standing Bear’s solstice gathering includes practical uses of fire for warmth and as a means to send prayers skyward. The solstice isn’t a major Cherokee holy day, but a time for straightforward expressions of gratitude and guidance.
For some,
like Richard Clarkson in Morris County, being outdoors is key to connecting with the divine. “We’ll find God outside, because that’s God’s creation,” he said. “A church is man’s creation.”
Lillian Mulligan’s simpler celebration this year involves turning off the lights and praying. Her son, John Hasse, once transformed their Mullica Hills home into a religious center, packing the sweat lodge with believers cleansing themselves for the new light.
Wiccans,
like Susan Blaustein, celebrate discreetly, decorating altars with symbolic objects. Bryan Perry’s druid group, Greenman Grove, honors the solstice in his Jersey City loft, often using the Statue of Liberty’s torch as a symbol of Brigid, the Celtic fire goddess. Their Yule ceremony involves inviting spirits of significant people and places, including the spirit of a parking space.
For many,
the solstice’s idea is more significant than the precise moment. The Red Oak Grove druid group in Mount Holly will start their celebration Friday evening, lighting candles at sunset, praying, singing, feasting, and extinguishing the candles until midnight. Then, they will relight them until dawn, welcoming the sun before heading to sleep.
Conclusio
These varied observances highlight the universal human connection to the cycles of light and darkness, a connection that continues to inspire celebration and reflection during this festive season.
