In the Northern hemisphere of the Planet, the winters were harsh. The sun was gone, food was scarce, it was cold outside, and people huddled in their shelters waiting for the Sun to return. It wasn’t a good time to be a kid, cooped up inside with parents. So primitive societies were pretty well organized around the return of the Sun and went to great lengths to build clocks that told the very day when the Sun would start coming back – clocks like the Stonehenge. The midwinter eqinox is that very day – the days when the nights shorten and the warmth comes back to the earth. Today marks the beginning of that return.
And so long before the Hebrew celebrations of the escape from Babylon or the Christian celebration of the birth of Christ, human beings were celebrating their faith in the future by marking the middle of the winter with a celebration of lights. The Sun and all it brings is coming back! Burn candles, decorate the trees [the evergreens that don’t go away], add color to the bleak world, treat the bored children with gifts and fantasies, and feel the hope that the returning Sun will bring. No matter how gloomy it seems, feel hope, because it will be okay again. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Joy to the World, Peace on Earth, Goodwill to men.
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