Merry Christmas, Lamictal Community!

You may wonder why a Unitarian Universalist Pagan celebrates Christmas.  There are actually a lot of reasons. 

The first is that I see it as a continuation of Solstice festivities.  Many Christmas traditions derive from earlier Pagan traditions.  Like the tree.  And the gift-giving.  The all night vigil that has become midnight services.  Christmas, like Hanukkah, is at its core about light in darkness.  Hope and miracles.  Lamp oil that lasts for eight days instead of one.  A child born in a barn, but born healthy (and mom comes through herself with flying colors).

The second is that it was always an important holiday in my family.  In spite of our severe dysfunction, my mother managed to impose a truce on the household, and my father didn't yell at us for nearly a whole week.  My mother was really into the decorations, the music, the presents; in her own dysfunctional family, her father dressed up as Santa every Christmas to hand out the gifts he himself had wrapped with great care.

The third is the music.  Oh, the music.  Whether the music is a grand oratorio like the Messiah or the Weihnachts-Oratorium, or folk songs like The Coventry Carol,  it's some of the most beautiful music out there.  The metaphors are often fascinating as well.  Mary, wandering through a barren wood and causing flowers to spring up where nothing has grown for seven years.  The cherry tree bowing down to her.  Mary as a "rose of virtue".  These metaphors refer to her powers as a goddess-like being, her power as a pregnant woman.  

This is a tough time of year for people with mood disorders.  May all of you find the light in this time of darkness.  Have yourselves a merry little Christmas, y'all.