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December 7, 2024
Ahhh - December: The Month Of Mirth, Of Celebration, Of Wrecking Our Fragile Personal Economic Situations, Of Family, Friends And Frivolity And Joy, If We Can Stay Out Of A Nuclear War
Ahhh – December. Fresh off of Thanksgiving just a few days ago we are officially into the season of holidays, of Holy Days. The month of mirth, of celebration, of wrecking our fragile personal economic situations, of family, friends and frivolity and joy. I love December.
Astronomical Winter officially begins on December 21st as that is the day of the winter Solstice or the shortest day of the year with celebrations galore in various cultures as the celebration of the now increasing day length will then become six months later the longest day of the year, or Summer Solstice. Worthy of great admirations indeed, December is the month we all love.
December, the month named for the tenth month of the Gregorian form of the Roman year, where we pushed it into the twelfth position. OK, so it is not named correctly now but still - December, the month where we can revisit the fun of having a good time and forget the previous eleven months of worry, strife and pains.
Speaking of the Romans, they had many celebrations in December as well including Agonia where Sol Indiges, one of the two Roman sun gods, was honored on December 11th. The Seven Hills of Rome were celebrated at the same time and was called Septimontium while other December celebrations included Dies Natalis (birthday) in the temple of Tellus which represented the personification of the earth on December 13. To celebrate the harvest they held Consualia on December 15th and Saturnalia for the planet Saturn, or rather, one of their gods named Saturn which the planet represented from December 17-23 with Opiconsivia as another one celebrating Plenty (Opis) of harvested grains on the 19th and Civalia on the 21st, Larentalia on the 23rd and finally Sol Invictus which was the main Sun god of the Romans on December 25th. Wow, that is a lot of celebrations to consider. Bring on the wine and the women!
We modern Americans are not left out in the cold however (really, that was not intended as a winter time pun – really) as we have a myriad of celebrations in December as well, and in this column I would like to mention the top few and perhaps how I may celebrate each of them.
As the Anglo-Saxons referred to December (and part of January in reality) as Ġēolamonaþor Yule month, we might mention that December is officially National Egg Nog Month and National Fruit Cake Month and yes, my Beautiful Bride made her annual fruit cakes and please, do not confuse that sweet moist delicacy with being me; I am just her husband.
If we try to get these things in somewhat of an orderly manner, let’s start off with the Islamic celebration of December 3rd which is Jumada al-Akhirah, the Islamic calendars first day of the sixth month. Nothing special here and we missed it anyway and I do not celebrate that, so let’s move on to the next one.
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December 8th is the Bhuddist Bodhi Day which commemorates the day that Gautama Buddha (Shakyamuni) is said to have attained enlightenment.According to tradition, Siddhartha had recently “forsaken years of extreme ascetic practices and resolved to sit under a peepal tree” (Ficus religiosa), and simply meditate until he found the root of suffering, and how to liberate oneself from it.Well, if I just think about celebrating it, will that count as meditating?
The Feast of Questions, or the Feast of Masá'il in the Baha'I faith begins their 19 day feast beginning on December 10th. As that faith is a fairly new one, started in the late1800’s, I suppose I will be feasting on those days. But then, isn’t December a month of feasting anyway? Sorry to bring up that Question, but it seems so fitting for the celebration.
Then on the 29th we have another Baha'I one, the Feast of Sharaf where we honor stuff. Let’s use one of their big quotes to better figure this one out. The idea is that “There is no honour for anyone in the next life unless he has attained to the presence of his Lord and spread abroad his messages and detached himself from all but him, so far as he was able.” So I suppose that could pertain to most religions? I need to work on that, but my own God may not be the one they speak of.
Next up on December 11th is the Hindu Geeta Jayanti, the “sacred day on which Lord Krishna imparted the timeless teachings of the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra.” That sounds like a line out of a Star Trek episode but it actually refers to honoring the profound wisdom encapsulated in the Gita, which guides dharma (righteousness), karma (duty), and spirituality. I believe this year I will forgo standing in the airport in an orange robe trying to sell little paper flowers, but maybe next year. And since “pilgrims flock to Kurukshetra to take ritual baths in holy ponds. For many, Gita Jayanti is a day of introspection and recommitment to living a life of integrity and spiritual purpose” I will likely take a ‘holy water’ bath to honor it.
The next one appears to be December 15th for the Hindu Dhanu Sankranti which means that the sun crosses over (sankranti) to the zodiac sign of Sagittarius, or Dhanu Rashi. Since I am not into astrology (but I am into Astronomy) the normal method of worship is to offer flowers and water to the sun god, I will defer that until it is warm outside when the flowers are in bloom and take the obligatory bath in holy water. That should suffice I suppose.
The next bit has many celebrations coming rapidly, so we may be very busy as it is, remember, also Advent time throughout this month of celebrations.
We already mentioned December 21st as the Pagan and the Wiccan celebration of the Winter Solstice and the rebirth of the sun, and I will celebrate by acknowledging that from this time forth the days will lengthen with the hope of a beautiful Spring arriving. No prancing and dancing about in the forest in the nude for me, it will be freezing and likely snowing outside but I may enjoy a nip of eggnog or such as sufficient for the soul.
Next up on our calendar is Festivus on December 23rd. Perhaps the most modern of our celebrations (vying with Kwanza) Festivus is the creation of author “Daniel O'Keefe, Festivus entered popular culture after it was made the focus of the 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike", which O'Keefe's son, Dan O'Keefe, co-wrote” first broadcast on December 18, 1997. Although not a religious holiday but a secular one, it has taken on some aspects of a religion by how well it has been included in calendars for December and how it offers so many outlets to the frustrations of our commercialization of the once holy day of Christmas. Perhaps my best way to celebrate will be to paint some candy stripes on my Festivus pole and wrestle with myself as the Feat of Strength and call it good.
Next up is the day we celebrate Christmas on, December 25th. Although this is the continuation of another Roman holiday dressed up for the Christians in the Empire as proclaimed by the Emperor to try to keep the Christians from getting so angry about being under such harsh conditions and outright Holocaustic annihilation that they had hereto been subject by the Roman emperors, this attempt to pacify them came to be accepted by the masses. Obviously NOT occurring on that date, the real birth of the Savior seems to be in either the spring or the fall as evidenced by the sheep being out in the fields for lambing rather than in the folds for safety. Personally I suspect in spring as that is when the Romans had the people go to their city of birth for the census and correlated with the Hebrew celebration of Passover when the populace did that anyway for religious reasons. It just makes sense to me.
This is to be celebrated in the normal manner that we should all be accustomed to already, and I do love the real Christmas music that is played, not necessarily the pagan garbage ones made for commercial exploitation with all of the Santa’s and Grinch’s and elves and red noses and the like.
We then come to having two holidays starting on the same day, December 26th this year. Lets mention Kwanza first; the fabricated celebration of Africa assembled by politicians to quell the anxieties of the American black peoples while in reality it only confirms the hatred by the government for our black friends by exposing the shallowness of it all. It is supposed to be celebrated by lighting candles, seven of them on consecutive days and talking about some fabricated mumbo jumbo about how great Africa is. Those candles are three red ones, a black one, then three green ones which seems idiotic to me, but then I am not a radical leftist nor black mafia man so whatever. I will celebrate as I always have for this one by completely ignoring its existence.
The other one is Chanukah or Hanukkah which is the Jewish Festival of Lights, and goes through January 2nd this year. The festival lasts for eight nights where a candle is lit every night on a Menorah hence being given the name the Festival of Lights. Sometimes, unlike Kwanza, white candles indicating purity, holiness and goodness are used, but olive oil lamps are the preferred method of lighting the Menorah.
Although not one of the seven High Holy Feast days, Hanukkah is still one of their great holy days that celebrate the recovery of Jerusalem and the rededication of the Second Temple. Feasting, lighting of the candles, one each night, spinning tops or better stated playing with dreidels fills out the celebration of Hanukkah, which actually means to dedicate as in the Temple dedication.
I believe I will celebrate by feasting, which I do anyway during December, and I will look to see if I have a top to spin.
The final one of the year in December is New Years Eve. I am not going to tell you which day that is on as it would be cheating you out of your research to figure it out for yourself. To be celebrated by the normal rites as of late; going to bed early as I find it harder and harder to stay up for something that doesn’t really interest me all that much anyway. Perhaps one final feast and watching some good movie is in store for that evening.
That seems to be December this year if we can stay out of a nuclear world war and seems to be a far better alternative to such.
May God bless us all.
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