🎄 TREE 312: Solstice
Christmas throwback – TREE 66
One.
Nobody knows when Jesus was born. The best research I’ve seen puts his birth sometime in October, although a spring birth is a possibility too. So why do we celebrate on 25 December?
A common answer is that Christians in Europe wanted to get the upper hand on older religions by hijacking solstice and Yule celebrations. There’s probably some truth in that.
There’s another answer that I really like. Christmas comes four days after the shortest day of the year.1 It’s just enough time to notice that the days are getting a little longer. We celebrate Christmas as soon as we can see light returning to our world. (This is a big deal if you live a long way from the equator.)
It’s easy to spot the darkness, to see
the things that are messed up and broken.
The true gift is to see the light,
the hope, the revolutionary idea
when it is barely visible.
Practice recognising new light.
It will give you more joy in life,
and a competitive edge in business.
You will become one of the people
who inspire hope and improve the world.
Two.
This week I’m drawing things that are not in the Christmas story. Three-humped stripy stripy camels are not in the bible’s stories of Jesus’s birth. Neither are regular camels. Neither is a donkey (!!!).
Three.
You know what feels solsticey to me? This Cornish synthpop song asking for some cheese.
This week we are making an effort to create a good and productive space for conversations. My friend Denelle has written a conversation prompt for each day. She and Skyler and I will all be checking in on the comments section. We’d love for you to join us with your thoughts.
Today Denelle is asking…
What does new light look like to you?  It’s certainly positive and hopeful. Is there any new light illuminating you now?
Happy solstice
Jeff
There’s some retconning going on here. The 25th was the date of the solstice under the Julian calendar. The switch to the Gregorian put the solstice on the 21st. Christmas stayed on the 25th.
I got an email on the first day of November that seems to have brought new light to my life :D It has brought new opportunities, new friends, new motivations, new ideas…the list goes on!
Finding light is much like your strategy to find motivation. The way you suggested we break up tasks to smaller tasks until we get to something we can handle depending on our mood. Even if nothing is starkly luminous right now, there is something smaller shining that just needs an adjustment of focus to find.
I'm always looking at and for light as an artist. Even in its literal sense light brings me pure joy. On bitter cold days the radiant warmth of light can make me pause and sigh happy sighs.