BUT MAKE YOUR OWN FUN!

These are old ideas and ancient traditions, but find some significance in your own holidays you can apply to the Twelve Days: foods, feasts, games, songs, community service. Our current common name for the holiday is from the Christian tradition--- but when Chanukah falls within the Twelve Days, why not include it? Kwaanza with its daily focus on principles and ritual is beautiful---the Hindu festival Diwali comes about the same time of year, its a festival involving lights and rebirth. This is truly a planetary celebration.

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The Winter Solstice is on December 21: make a worldwide circle of light to follow the sun---check to see when the sun sets in your neighborhood on December 21. At that moment, light a candle for one hour before blowing it out. At the end of an hour, the people in the next time zone will be lighting their candles and the wave of sparkling light will move west around the world! Be part of a global event.

You could light many candles, torches, or even outdoor bonfires, if you can: make it a community event with food, and singing and hot drinks just for that hour: a worldwide party.

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Make a Twelve Days Calendar with special windows that open for each day: or a Twelve Days Box with secret compartments for candies, jokes, stories or gifts for each of the days.

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Light is especially meaningful at the Twelve Days: at midsummer we rely on natural sunlight often lasting all night in some northern latitudes. But by midwinter the sun needs our help: the Twelve Days takes place in the dark, only dimly visible by stars and moonlight. Its beautiful, mysterious and even threatening--- and the most important light is hand-made from candles, bonfires or fireplaces, or reflected from a light source with shny ornaments or mirrors. This is our light: the persistence of the human spirit in the face of all consuming dark and cold.

The light at this time of year is made by us, in one way or another, sometimes exchanged as gifts, and used as decoration, but for serious purpose. Its our ackowledgement of faith in the universe that the dawn will come; its the season of rebirth, when the sun and our hope for the future is reborn in the middle of a cold dark night.

So let light be your theme: candles, sparkling ornaments, bonfires, lamps, mirrors, lights---let the universe know we're here! We're alive! We are not giving up!

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Make your Christmas tree more meaningful: many people use living trees that can then donated to local parks after the holiday. The tree could be your own personal or family Tree of Life decorated with lights and small items from your past, and wishes for the future, photos, and memories of those who have gone on---items that have some kind of meaning for you rather than just decoration. The Christmas tree is also a sign of life in the cold midwinter, a sign of hope brought into the house: it could be any kind of tree or plant that suits you, as long as its alive.

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Its true that some people drift into depression during this time of year, perhaps because of the declining light which can have an effect on brain chemistry, or maybe sad memories of past holidays or missing loved ones---it should not surprise you that this is not a modern phenomenon: Dickens was perfectly right---this is a time of year haunted by spirits.

In ancient times this whole end of the year from Michaelmas (September 29) until Twelfth Night (January 6) was said to be a time of fairies, devils spirits and even ghosts, at various times. Its full of mystery, old memories come to haunt, old ghosts from deep in our hearts come to say good bye at the end of the year when it gets dark and cold---many European homes put up charms against demons during the Twelve Days: they knew what they were talking about.

So be prepared, there's no need to fear. These feelings and ghosts are all part of the festival, they have always been. Welcome them in---lay a place at the table: dare them to enter---make noise! Fill the house with sweet aromas! Laugh! Sing out loud in the dark! Create your own defenses, create prayers, and rituals to render them harmless. Its all part of the scene.

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Have your own Christmas revel: gather neighbors and family to go caroling---dress warmly and go strolling through your neighborhood singing carols. Take a musical instrument or two: a recorder or a tambourine, a drum or some bells will do, and sing out---a gift for your neighbors! You may be invited in for refreshments, or you may want to have a gathering after.

The Revels
http://www.revels.org/

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There is plenty of room for your own special touches, even if you just take the time to slow down, think about whats important, remember your year and think ahead to the coming year and rest. Its your time. Its our time as a community.
Share your ideas, and I can add them to this calendar for everybody to see:
phbp@webtv.net