As I write, it’s a week before Thanksgiving 2014 yet already Christmas lights can be seen hanging from eaves as well as decorated trees twinkling in windows. Each year as I witness the compression of the holidays from Labor Day to New Year’s Day, I muse: Is it due to a joyful anticipation of things to come? Is it perhaps a gratification that can’t be delayed? Or is it a race to be the first on the block to have those holiday decorations up? Perhaps it’s just a matter of practicality in these northern climes to hang the lights early in order to avoid frostbite. The heavy holiday marketing seems to start earlier each year. I suspect people feel the pressure. I have received notifications from three different retailers that I am invited to their special “Pre-Black-Friday” shopping events so I can get a jump on the after-Thanksgiving sales. Honestly, do we rush any other time of year so? Why don’t we let the season be brief and therefore special? Why can’t we let it be about that brief time when the human spirit lights up the darkest days of the year? The winter solstice itself lasts only a moment. Let us embrace that moment and appreciate what it means in the cyclical nature of our existence.
Let us recognize the holiness of these few weeks of long nights and the cultural importance of midwinter lest we trivialize it. By rushing the season, we disconnect ourselves from the natural world of which we are a part. There is a reason for the season and I suspect it is why the Christian tradition chose the shortest day of the year to commemorate Jesus’ birthday: because it is a time of turning from dark to light, it is a time of hope in the darkest hour, it is a time of faith that the sun will return to warm the ground beneath our feet and bring yet another cycle of life in all its abundance. I hope it may be so for you.
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