Celebrate!
December is, of course, the midwinter time (in the Northern Hemisphere) full of festivals of light. Christmas, Chanukah, Yule, Kwanzaa—this month gives us lots of opportunities for lighting candles and hanging lights, for presents and feasting and singing and celebrating. You can click on the links below for information, activities, ways to celebrate and more. Or start out with a website that's got so much great December stuff it won't fit in one category.
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We Honor… |
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| Dr. Charles Follen, a Unitarian minister who is credited with bringing the idea of the Christmas tree to the United States. A German-born professor at Harvard University, Follen wanted his young son and family to experience the magic of the glowing Christmas trees of his childhood. One year he surprised them with a fully decorated and lighted tree. The Follen family invited neighbors to gather round their indoor tree.
The event took place in December 1832. That is the date of a description by Harriet Martineau, an English Unitarian and journalist who was visiting Boston at the time. Follen went out into the woods near his home and cut down a small fir. The tree was set in a tub and its branches hung with small dolls, gilded eggshells, and paper cornucopias filled with candied fruit. The tree glowed with many candles.
Martineau describes the unveiling of the tree at the Follens' Christmas party: "It really looked beautiful; the room seemed in a blaze, and the ornaments were so well hung on that no accident happened, except that one doll's petticoat caught fire. There was a sponge tied to the end of a stick to put out any supernumerary blaze, and no harm ensued. I mounted the steps behind the tree to see the effect of opening the doors. It was delightful. The children poured in, but in a moment every voice was hushed. Their faces were upturned to the blaze, all eyes wide open, all lips parted, all steps arrested."
Harriet's description caught the imaginations of those who read about the Christmas tree, and a New England tradition was born. Charles Follen later became a Unitarian minister and an outspoken opponent of slavery. The Follen Community Church in Lexington, Massachusetts, known to some as "The Christmas Tree Church," is named after its first minister, Charles Follen.
Read about Follen in more detail. |
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Act!
The winter holidays are known as the season of giving. But all too often we think about this time as the season of getting. Now, getting presents is certainly fun (as is giving them), but this is also a good time of year to think about how we can give back to the world. Perhaps this year you'd like to ask a relative who would ordinarily give you a present to give the money they were going to spend on you to a cause you care about.
There are countless great organizations that help people, animals and the planet. For instance, you can look at www.heifer.org to learn about how you can make life better for a family or a whole village through the gift of farm animals from chickens to water buffalo. Or check out www.nature.org to find out how the Nature Conservancy is working to preserve natural places. And, of course, there is still tremendous need to help out the families devastated by the earthquake in Pakistan, and UNICEF helps out children in that area and around the world. The list of great organization goes on and on, and you may want to choose something in your own community to put your helping closer to home. |
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Nurturing Your Spirit
Some of the greatest things about December are all the ways that we find to celebrate light in the time of darkness. I like to take evening walks to look at the Christmas lights in my neighborhood, but there are even more special spiritual practices associated with the December festivals of light.
Please, please remember that while lighting and meditating on candles can be a wonderful spiritual practice, there should ALWAYS be an adult involved.
That said, this December, perhaps your family would like to try the spiritual practice of an Advent wreath. An Advent wreath has four candles, and each Sunday of December you light one more, taking the time to think about the four principles associated with the four candles: hope, peace, joy and love. You can find information from a more traditional Christian perspective, or a UU version.
This year, Chanukah starts the evening of December 25th. So late this month you might want to think about lighting the candles of the Chanukah menorah for the eight days of Chanukah. Watching these candles burn provides a chance to think about the ways our own light can go on when it seems like we have no light left, and to think about the ways that we choose to stand up for our own beliefs. Learn more about lighting a menorah and what it means.
Or, you can light candles for the season in the Kwanzaa kinara, taking time each evening to talk about the principle each candle stands for and how it might apply in your family (whether or not you are African-American). You can find out more about lighting the Kwanzaa kinara. |
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Practicing the Principles
Our third UU Principle is "Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations." It's not hard to figure out what "acceptance of one another" means—Unitarian Universalists welcome each person just as they are. But "encouragement to spiritual growth" is trickier. We can measure if a person grows taller, but how do you know if a person has grown spiritually? I would say that when people grow spiritually, they become kinder, and more aware of how they are connected to all of the other living beings on our planet. I would also say that when people grow spiritually they become calmer, and more comfortable with their place in the world. Finally, I would say that as people grow spiritually they become more committed to making choices that are good for the rest of the world and not just convenient for themselves.
So how do people grow spiritually? Religions around the world have different spiritual practices. You can click on the "Archives" link to try out the spiritual practice from previous months. These include for 2005:
- March—lighting a virtual candle of gratitude
- April—meditation
- May—chanting
- June—labyrinth walk or walking meditation
- July—bells and Tibetan singing bowls
- August—Tibetan prayer flags
- September—yoga
- October—guided meditation about animals
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
I would like to know reasons that we celebrate Veterans Day.
—Cassie
Hi Cassie,
I'm guessing you maybe noticed our veterans theme in last month's KidTalk. One answer to your question has to do with history. The end of the First World War happened on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, and the celebration of the end of that terrible war, known at the time as "the War to End All Wars", was called Armistice Day. Unfortunately, as we well know, wars continued to happen. So rather than celebrating Armistice Day, in the 1950s that 11th day of the 11th month became a day to honor all soldiers. (You can find a link to more details on this history under Veterans' Day in the Celebrate! section of the November KidTalk).
But maybe what you are asking is why we would have a day to celebrate people who have served as soldiers when war is such a terrible thing. Certainly in many cases soldiers have to do terrible things, like shooting at or bombing people, sometimes during wars that many of us think should not have been started in the first place. However, I think it is worth remembering that most soldiers sign up for what can be a terrible, dangerous job because they see they need to protect their country. And some soldiers have served in times when there was a draft, and they had no choice about whether to serve. Either way, brave men and women do their best to help the rest of us be safe and free.
So, if you feel that a war, like the current war in Iraq, is wrong, then I would encourage you to join a peace protest, write a letter to the President, write a letter to the editor or do whatever you can think of to make your voice heard. But you can still honor the soldiers who did not choose to start this war, and the many who have died or been injured trying to make the world a safer place.
—CLiF
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