The return of Light approaches.
I was raised atheist, and that's how my father died, whereas my mother is very slowly returning to her Jewish roots two generations back. However, we celebrated every holiday that came along, including, I kid you not, Groundhog Day (dinner was "groundhog" stew or chili). It was fun: we made cookies and so forth, decorated with hearts, shamrocks, Easter eggs and bunnies, flags, witches and cats, cornucopias and turkeys, and finally a Christmas blowout that started with the first Sunday of Advent.
German children get candy in their slippers, which are left outside their bedroom door the night before the Sundays of Advent; so did we (and so does my daughter Lydia and my brother's kids, although in these flush times for us I include a small gift, price limit $5, usually something I would have bought for her anyway). We made about a dozen kinds of cookies, a white fruitcake that includes candied pineapple (recipes available upon request), and eggnog made with a custard cooked slowly in a double boiler. Christmas Eve was celebrated in the German way, with gifts from our German relatives and our beloved Nonie, my surrogate grandmother, who always sent a box of a gazillion small gifts she had accumulated over the course of the year; we ate a traditional candle-lit meal of a cold spread of cold cuts, cheese, and a horrible concoction called herring salad, which my mother recently admitted that she hates after enduring it at her parents' home and ours for 80 years because my dad loved it. After dinner we lit the candles on the tree (perfectly safe if you know all the rules and have a bucket of water handy; directions available upon request) and sung Christmas carols. Christmas day was celebrated the American way, with presents in the morning, some from Santa, colored lights on the same tree, and a festive dinner that in our family centered around steak cooked outside on the grill (in Pennsylvania!). Our Jewish friends the Bergmans (more surrogate grandparents) often joined our atheist feasts.
So although they called themselves atheists, it was really a Pagan upbringing and I found my way to that path in my 20s ("You've fallen off the deep end," said my ex-husband, also an atheist). I respect Jesus as a philosopher just as I respect the genius of da Vinci. But I feel in my heart the voice of the Deity, and consider myself lucky that Christmas falls so near Yule so I can celebrate with everyone else.
I don't usually conflicted about the Christian aspect of the season, although recently my hackles were raised by the inclusion of the song "Oh Happy Day" ("When Jesus washed my sins away") in the usual mix of carols and secular seasonal music in a store I was shopping in. You can bet that I am sending a letter to someone high in corporate management about that one! And, someone said, axial tilt is the reason for the season (that needs to be made into a button), so almost every religion is celebrating something due to the primal need to be hopeful about the return of the sun and long, fruitful days.
So I'm enjoying the Christmas atmosphere and am baking cookies. wrapping presents, and getting ready to decorate our scheffeleria and a two-foot live tree that I bought. Although I have lots of energy these days, I don't have the time or inclination to put up a big tree that only we three and a couple of friends will see. Next year I hope to be caught up enough and have cleaned and decluttered the house enough to have a big party. Then the place will be decorated to the gunnels and the cookies will be abundant and the eggnog will flow freely. I hope you can join us.
German children get candy in their slippers, which are left outside their bedroom door the night before the Sundays of Advent; so did we (and so does my daughter Lydia and my brother's kids, although in these flush times for us I include a small gift, price limit $5, usually something I would have bought for her anyway). We made about a dozen kinds of cookies, a white fruitcake that includes candied pineapple (recipes available upon request), and eggnog made with a custard cooked slowly in a double boiler. Christmas Eve was celebrated in the German way, with gifts from our German relatives and our beloved Nonie, my surrogate grandmother, who always sent a box of a gazillion small gifts she had accumulated over the course of the year; we ate a traditional candle-lit meal of a cold spread of cold cuts, cheese, and a horrible concoction called herring salad, which my mother recently admitted that she hates after enduring it at her parents' home and ours for 80 years because my dad loved it. After dinner we lit the candles on the tree (perfectly safe if you know all the rules and have a bucket of water handy; directions available upon request) and sung Christmas carols. Christmas day was celebrated the American way, with presents in the morning, some from Santa, colored lights on the same tree, and a festive dinner that in our family centered around steak cooked outside on the grill (in Pennsylvania!). Our Jewish friends the Bergmans (more surrogate grandparents) often joined our atheist feasts.
So although they called themselves atheists, it was really a Pagan upbringing and I found my way to that path in my 20s ("You've fallen off the deep end," said my ex-husband, also an atheist). I respect Jesus as a philosopher just as I respect the genius of da Vinci. But I feel in my heart the voice of the Deity, and consider myself lucky that Christmas falls so near Yule so I can celebrate with everyone else.
I don't usually conflicted about the Christian aspect of the season, although recently my hackles were raised by the inclusion of the song "Oh Happy Day" ("When Jesus washed my sins away") in the usual mix of carols and secular seasonal music in a store I was shopping in. You can bet that I am sending a letter to someone high in corporate management about that one! And, someone said, axial tilt is the reason for the season (that needs to be made into a button), so almost every religion is celebrating something due to the primal need to be hopeful about the return of the sun and long, fruitful days.
So I'm enjoying the Christmas atmosphere and am baking cookies. wrapping presents, and getting ready to decorate our scheffeleria and a two-foot live tree that I bought. Although I have lots of energy these days, I don't have the time or inclination to put up a big tree that only we three and a couple of friends will see. Next year I hope to be caught up enough and have cleaned and decluttered the house enough to have a big party. Then the place will be decorated to the gunnels and the cookies will be abundant and the eggnog will flow freely. I hope you can join us.