We seemed to have skipped over Thanksgiving into a mad rush to buy things for Christmas. This time of year is not actually Christmas. The twelve days of Christmas start on December 25th and end on January 6th at the feast of the three kings.
I haven’t been Catholic or even Christian for many years, but this year I brought out my advent wreath. I couldn’t find purple and pink candles, so I tied colored paper to white candles. I loved advent when I was a kid, and this year I feel the need to honor the going down into the darkness of the winter. The first two weeks purple candles are lit to symbolize the silence, prayer and waiting of the season. The third week the pink candle is lit as a reminder of the joy that the turn of the dark to light is almost upon us. Then one more week of waiting until Christmas.
Every year as the days get shorter and darkness increases I find myself becoming more introspective and wanting to move into quiet. This attention to darkness and waiting for light was part of the rituals of this time of year long before Christianity. The characters in my book let me play out my struggle with longing for my deep, pre-Christian roots through their blending of Christian and pagan traditions. Their experiences are both historically accurate and speak to my own longings for deep real roots.
Be First to Comment