Seasonal observances

[chanaleh]

I resist Christmas festivity on principle, but reframing it as solstice/Yule gratifies my secret pagan streak: marking the turning of the seasons, the waxing and waning of the light. Judaism incorporates the rhythms of sun and moon and earth, to a degree, but it pleases me that even Chanukah -- historical paean against religious assimilation, the righteous Israelites routing the decadent Hellenizers -- is at once so thinly veiled a solstice festival. Light increases in the world.

Anyway, so here it is December.

Last month, in Freeport with ablock, at the British-goods store, I saw some Christmas teas from Taylors of Harrogate. I didn't buy any, but then the thought of them stayed with me, so I stopped into Cardullo's the week before Thanksgiving and picked up some Christmas Earl Grey (spiced with orange, lemon, and clove). It doesn't taste that different to me from their regular Earl Grey, but it smells wonderful. I took it to my office, where I've been drinking it nearly every day since.

Despite the "preview" snowfall we got at the end of October, and despite the balmy Thanksgiving, as warm here as it was for me in northern California -- yesterday, suddenly, was the first snow that felt like winter (and ice that tied up the highways for hours). I neglected to dress for the weather, but I did go and splurge on an Eggnog Latte at lunchtime. Usually one of those a year is enough for me, but it's fun.

Today I broke out my longjohns and remembered to wear my hat, and life was much better.

I also (God help me) bought the December issue of Martha Stewart Living -- but having read it over tonight, in a mercifully quiet evening at home, I'm somehow relieved to say I didn't find that much in it to inspire me. I don't have a holiday table to spread nor to decorate.

It would be nice if I could clean up the house, though. One of the things I always take away from visiting Mom's is an appreciation for the cleanness of it -- free not merely of clutter but of the grime and dust that I almost forget to notice accumulating here. (It helps that they now have someone in to clean every other week. A miraculous intervention. Plus it's so much easier to see someone else's dirt than your own. I need to arrange for some guests, to force me to tackle the house with my "company" eyes on.) Cleaning isn't, of course, just for spring. If we're to be relegated indoors, it should be as pleasant a space as possible.

Speaking of decluttering -- time to winnow out those donations for the clothing drive (for those less fortunate, whose apartments are not heated to a cozy 80 degrees all winter, as mine is).

Comments

[avram]

I’ve realized in recent years that I identify more with the decadent Hellenizers and Babylonians of the biblical narratives than I do with the children of Israel depicted therein.

taking issue

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

...so thinly veiled a solstice festival.

I heard this once (of all places, in S's conversion classes, from the Reform rabbi) and I must say that I don't really buy it. Chanukah is all over the place on a solar calendar and not necessarily near the solstice. (And since we are -- today! -- adding v'tal umatar to the morning Amidah, it's by way of saying that they could coordinate with the solar calendar when they felt like it.) And we have so many historical sources that never mention this aspect. It's as if, years from now, people concluded that July 4 was actually an American summer solstice festival. But we know that's not true!

Re: taking issue

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

It's as if, years from now, people concluded that July 4 was actually an American summer solstice festival.

You know, I can't quite agree with the analogy. If the celebration of July 4 came to be marked with customs that drew on the sun metaphor, the dying year taking its hold (and I note that the regime change this festival actually invokes is much the opposite) -- I would have to argue that yes, it was an expression of something more primal than the U.S. Declaration of Independence. But at this point in our cultural history, I don't think it is. (Do barbeques count? Fireworks? Maybe I'll write an essay exploring the possible connections. ;-)

Re: taking issue

[laurens10.livejournal.com]

Hannukah might be a little bit of both.

It falls on the darkest part of the year -- approximately. Overlapping with the darkest time of the month.

We burn candles, eat fatty foods. Sure, it's about oil and about history. But it's comforting for that time of year. And the holiday itself is about hope and light.

Its creation may be about historical reality, but its longevity might have something to do with more primal needs. In the Talmud, the rabbis are really blunt and ask "What is Hannukah?" That might have something to do with their discomfort about nationalist movements -- some people suggest. I also wonder if there's also some confusion about why this particular holiday survived... but I don't know enough to say or to check.

Re: taking issue

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

I dunno that the lights are really solistice related. I mean, it's one aspect of the holiday. It's there, but there are lights for every Jewish holiday, and there was a menorah in the Temple, etc. (And it's not as though the climate changes that much in that part of the world in wintertime. Spring and fall are the big harvesting moments, so that's where the Canaanite holidays got absorbed into the Jewish calendar.) I'm just saying that if we just made an assumption that the holiday was related to the time of year, without anything else, who knows where that would lead.

Now, with Christmas, we know for a fact that this is a Roman solstice holiday, and we know that Easter was also a Roman festival. But for Hanukkah, you've got the books of Maccabees and a whole trove of rabbinic commentary, and none of them mention this. Maybe it's the positivist historian in me, but surely we'd have a source if the relation was there.

OK, I will leave off before I beat this into the ground...

Re: taking issue

[melissaagray.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't think the point is what the holiday was *supposed* to mean, as much as what it *ends up* meaning to the people practicing it. Of course we all know what Hanukka is supposed to be about, but there are a ton of miraculos events that could have (and did have)hoidays attached to them, why did this one stick? Just because Hanukkah was *suppose* to be celebrating a historic event doesn't mean the common people didn't find an affinity with the light symbolism and cling to the holiday as a whole because of it. Rabbis can write commentaries 100 pages long on anything and still not alter the common Jews response to or attachment to it, esspecially if we're talking things like primal senses and superstitions.

The best example of this would be the Catholic worship of Mary. According to the priest and the Christian Bible, Mary is by no means a diety and should only be seen as a symbol of purity / faith and maybe a mother figure, to be prayed to on an occassion as a advocate for your prayers to G-d. However in practice, Catholics for centuries have prayed to her as a goddess figure, often more regularly than they pray to God directly. Never what was intended, but what ended up "speaking" to the common people's primal needs anyway!

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

80 degrees! Ugh. I'd die. Our house is set to a nice cozy 64, and on really cold days I turn it down to 60.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

I love Solstice, both for the pagan and the practical aspects.(Finally, the days start getting longer!) However, in terms of sense-memory and tradition, it seems to mostly get run over by Christmas. The smells, tastes, and traditional decorations of the holiday have been co-opted such that it's going to take a concentrated effort to create Solstice memories that are unique to the holiday. Time to revive the mummers plays, the Lords of Misrule, mistletoe, and the storytelling around the fire, I think. :)

[skreeky]

I read recently that decorated evergreens at solstice originated in Germany. I'd like it to be true - there's got to be more to my heritage than thick beer and sweet wine. Um, and liversausage. Liversausage is good too. Leiderhosen, not so much.

[infinitehotel.livejournal.com]

How about a nice schweinhocken? :)