Festive season for so many religions

–Jim Cumming

For most of the year, our home is shrouded by trees, that block the glare of street lights from our home. Even when the leaves fall in mid October, the ground and surroundings absorb most of the light. Suddenly that changes with the first snowfall, and the corner become much brighter at night.
When the Christmas lights go up throughout the neighbourhood, they bring added brightness to the neighborhood. On homes and trees across the district, Christmas lights are being turned on at night Across the northern hemispheres in December, we watch as the days grow shorter, and the nights grow darker. Yet we ward off the darkness by lighting the night with sparkling twinkling lights and candles.
This past Sunday marked the beginning of the Christian calendar. Across the district, most of the churches began the countdown to Christmas with the first Advent Sunday.
Other religions also have celebrations to mark this time of year. The early Christian believers took December 25 to coincide with the pagan festival of Saturnalia which signified the rebirth of the sun which began its return to the north.
One of the oldest religions, that of Witchcraft will celebrate Wicca on December 21 marking the winter solstice. The solstice that marks the darkest night.
Often our differences in religious celebrations are more common than we know.
Those of Buddhist faith will celebrate Bodhi Day (Rohatsu) on December 8. The day may be the most important to Buddhists in that in marks the enlightenment that Shakyamuni Buddha attained.
December 8 marks the beginning of the Jewish festival Hanukkah or Feast of Lights that concludes on December 16.
Even though we may not celebrate Hanukkah, we do celebrate the festival of light. Hanukkah, too has the sharing of gifts.
Those of the Orthodox Christian faith will begin the Advent Fast on December 12 and Christmas Eve will be celebrated on January 7. Those of the Eastern Orthodox faith will wait to January 25 to celebrate Christmas.
Kwanzaa will be celebrated from December 26 through January 1. It is the youngest of the holidays that are marked in December getting its start in 1966. Kwanzaa is a unique African American festival that focuses on African values of family, community responsibility and self-improvement. In its short time Kwanzaa has gained acceptance and today is celebrated by over 18 million people.
Many of these celebrations carry on the celebration of light. Those of the Jewish faith will light their Menorah. African Americans celebrating Kwanzaa will light the Kinara, a seven candle candelabra. Christians will light five advent candles with the last being lit on Christmas.
Christmas is celebrated with the colors of white, red, green, while those of Kwanzaa are black, red and green.
There are many similarities in these celebrations. Similarly different cultures find different ways to celebrate Christmas. We may not see all of these celebrations in the district, but they are taking place across the nation.