Indian (Hinduism/Jainism/Buddhism/Sikhism): Diwali

Deepavali (the Festival of Lights) means row of lights (deeya) which represents hope, knowledge and goodness. Just as Light removes Darkness, Deepavali teaches us to work towards removing our mental darkness. It is a five day celebration but the prerequisite for actual Deepavali is cleansing, letting go, and removing evils inside and outside. Burning Ravana (the ten-headed devil) and banging pots represent this aspect of dispelling the evil from within. The ten heads of Ravana represent ego, jealousy, greed, attachment, anger etc. inside each of us. Before lighting all of the deeyas, we light just one to remember our ancestors and the recently departed. Some honor their bodies with massages and most eat healthy food cooked in a new pot. When the deeyas are lit, we pray the goddess of prosperity along with the god of wisdom which means wealth should be used wisely. People can respect their tools (pen, guitar, chisel) because this is celebrated as a new beginning and a new year. This is also celebration of harvesting season.Time permitting, we can gamble which teaches detachment and impermanence of wealth.

Rita Pandey (Empress of the Herpes Queendom and Head of the Family)

https://sites.google.com/view/ritapandeyportfolio/festivals

Wiccan: Yule

“The date of this sabbat varies from December 20 to December 23 depending on the year in the Gregorian calendar. The winter solstice is celebrated at this time in the northern hemisphere. Yule, is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, the sun's "rebirth" was celebrated with much joy. On this night, our ancestors celebrated the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth. From this day forward, the days would become longer.

Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider. Children were escorted from house to house with gifts of clove spiked apples and oranges which were laid in baskets of evergreen boughs and wheat stalks dusted with flour. The apples and oranges represented the sun. The boughs were symbolic of immortality (evergreens were sacred to the Celts because they did not "die" thereby representing the eternal aspect of the Divine). The wheat stalks portrayed the harvest, and the flour was accomplishment of triumph, light, and life. Holly and ivy not only decorated the outside, but also the inside of homes, in hopes Nature Sprites would come and join the celebration. A sprig of Holly was kept near the door all year long as a constant invitation for good fortune to visit tthe residents. Mistletoe was also hung as decoration. It represented the seed of the Divine, and at Midwinter, the Druids would travel deep into the forest to harvest it. The ceremonial Yule log was the highlight of the Solstice festival. In accordance to tradition, the log must either have been harvested from the householder's land, or given as a gift... it must never have been bought. Once dragged into the house and placed in the fireplace it was decorated in seasonal greenery, doused with cider or ale, and dusted with flour before set ablaze by a piece of last years log, (held onto for just this purpose). A different type of Yule log, and perhaps one more suitable for modern practitioners would be the type that is used as a base to hold three candles. Many customs created around Yule are identified with Christmas today. If you decorate your home with a Yule tree, holly or candles, you are following some of these old traditions.”

Taken from: https://wicca.com/celtic/akasha/yule.htm

Kimberly Fife

Christianity: Advent

On Sunday, December 2, the Christian communities in the Roman Catholic and Protestant parts of the Christian world celebrate the First Sunday of Advent. (Orthodox Christians follow the Julian calendar and their celebration of Christmas follows a slightly different calendar.) Advent, from the Latin “coming”, is a season of four weeks of preparation for the coming of Christ which Christians commemorate on December 25. These four weeks are a time of joyful preparation for the coming of the Christ child. In many churches, there is the custom to have an Advent wreath - a wreath made of evergreens with four candles which are lighted week by week as a sign of the coming of Christmas. Four candles stand in the circle and each one represents one of the four Sundays of Advent- Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love (traditionally the joy candle is pink while the other three candles are purple). In the center of the wreath is a fifth candle (traditionally white), the Christ Candle, which is lit on Christmas Day.

Rev. Matt Carriker

Protestant Chaplain, Brandeis University

Pastor, Agape Spiritual Community Waltham www.agapewaltham.org

Judaism: Hanukkah

"Chanukkah, the Jewish festival of rededication, also known as the festival of lights, is an eight day festival beginning on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev (corresponding to December 3)

The story of Chanukkah begins in the reign of Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered Syria, Egypt and Palestine, but allowed the lands under his control to continue observing their own religions and retain a certain degree of autonomy. Under this relatively benevolent rule, many Jews assimilated much of Hellenistic culture, adopting the language, the customs and the dress of the Greeks, in much the same way that Jews in America today blend into the secular American society.

More than a century later, a successor of Alexander, Antiochus IV was in control of the region. He began to oppress the Jews severely, placing a Hellenistic priest in the Temple, massacring Jews, prohibiting the practice of the Jewish religion, and desecrating the Temple by requiring the sacrifice of pigs (a non-kosher animal) on the altar. Two groups opposed Antiochus: a basically nationalistic group led by Mattathias the Hasmonean and his son Judah Maccabee, and a religious traditionalist group known as the Chasidim, the forerunners of the Pharisees (no direct connection to the modern movement known as Chasidism). They joined forces in a revolt against both the assimilation of the Hellenistic Jews and oppression by the Seleucid Greek government. The revolution succeeded and the Temple was rededicated.

According to tradition as recorded in the Talmud, at the time of the rededication, there was very little oil left that had not been defiled by the Greeks. Oil was needed for the menorah (candelabrum) in the Temple, which was supposed to burn throughout the night every night. There was only enough oil to burn for one day, yet miraculously, it burned for eight days, the time needed to prepare a fresh supply of oil for the menorah. An eight day festival was declared to commemorate this miracle. Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory: Jews do not glorify war.

The only religious observance related to the holiday is the lighting of candles. The candles are arranged in a candelabrum called a menorah (or sometimes called a chanukkiah) that holds nine candles: one for each night, plus a shammus (servant) at a different height. On the first night, one candle is placed at the far right. The shammus candle is lit and three berakhot (blessings) are recited: l'hadlik neir (a general prayer over candles), she-asah nisim (a prayer thanking G-d for performing miracles for our ancestors at this time), and she-hekhianu (a general prayer thanking G-d for allowing us to reach this time of year). See Chanukkah Candle Lighting Blessings for the full text of these blessings. After reciting the blessings, the first candle is then lit using the shammus candle, and the shammus candle is placed in its holder. Candles can be lit any time after dark but before midnight. The candles are normally allowed to burn out on their own after a minimum of 1/2 hour, but if necessary they can be blown out at any time after that 1/2 hour.

Each night, another candle is added from right to left (like the Hebrew language). Candles are lit from left to right (because you pay honor to the newer thing first). On the eighth night, all nine candles (the 8 Chanukkah candles and the shammus) are lit. See animation at right for the candlelighting procedure. On nights after the first, only the first two blessings are recited; the third blessing, she-hekhianu is only recited on the first night of holidays.

Why the shammus candle? The Chanukkah candles are for pleasure only; we are not allowed to use them for any productive purpose. We keep an extra one around (the shammus), so that if we need to do something useful with a candle, we don't accidentally use the Chanukkah candles. The shammus candle is at a different height so that it is easily identified as the shammus.

It is traditional to eat fried foods on Chanukkah because of the significance of oil to the holiday. Among AshkenazicJews, this usually includes latkes pronounced "lot-kuhs" or "lot-keys" depending on where your grandmother comes from." (Excerpt from Ben Cohen).

Masha Traber

Stephen Kaye

New Mexico: Luminarias.

I can bring several luminarias to light your home entrance path for healing/love to come to your space. Traditionally the luminarias are used to light the path for Jesus to come to the home during Christmas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminaria.

Tibetan Buddhism

This one is a combination of a quiet, personal practice I've done from time to time over the years, and a tibetan buddhist practice (below). The hybrid would be to light several candles in an outdoor area, and share our personal gratitude collectively, and then direct our gratitude energy with all our love for earth, water, air, fire, and space. In the process, we can include natural offerings that relate to each life force.

"During Losar, the Tibetan celebration of the new year, we did not drink champagne to celebrate. Instead, we went to the local spring to perform a ritual of gratitude. We made offerings to the nagas, the water spirits who activated the water element in the area. We made smoke offerings to the local spirits associated with the natural world around us. Beliefs and behaviors like ours evolved long ago and are often seen as primitive in the West. But they are not only projections of human fears onto the natural world, as some anthropologists and historians suggest. Our way of relating to the elements originated in the direct experiences by our sages and common people of the sacred nature of the external and internal elements. We call these elements earth, water, fire, air, and space.[11]"

Ingrid Pabon

USA: Thanksgiving

The event was held on the weekend of Thanksgiving, to include the ideas of giving gratitude, of eating with friends and family, and of creating an American Identity. However, it was also included to discuss the genocide of the Native Americans and how we need to think hard about those sins of America as we discuss and create the American Identity.