A World of Inspiration for Artful Living
If you happened to read our post in October about making ofrendas, you know that a good friend of mine, Harrison Yocum passed away this year. He is greatly missed by many, and this wonderful poem will give you an idea of just why he was so loved. I can’t think of a more fitting post for today…
Merry Christmas everyone!
Harrison Yocum
On Christmas Eve in 1966, the president of WPIX-TV in New York, Fred Thrower did the unthinkable. For three hours—commercial free—he aired footage of a fire burning in a fireplace. He didn’t have much good programming on tap anyway, so he made the decision to show a close up of a cheery fireplace, complete with Christmas stockings and a flaming Yule log as a “Christmas card” to his viewers, and particularly those apartment dwelling New Yorkers with no fireplaces of their own.
The 17-second segment, shot at Gracie Mansion, was repeated continuously via a looping process, and was accompanied by Christmas music (shown in video clip above, but with new music). It was, according to The New York Times, “the television industry’s first experiment in non-programming.” It was also an immediate hit. [Read more...]
Is there light at the end of the tunnel? When we’re trying to make our way out of a long, dark space, that’s what we all want to know, isn’t it? And that, in essence, is what the tradition of the Yule log is all about…
On the longest night of the year—the Winter Solstice—ancient people celebrated the return of the sun god. The darkest time of the year was past; now the days would begin getting longer. The festival known as Yuletide involved burning a log on the eve of the Solstice (which occurs on either December 20 or 21 each year in the Northern Hemisphere).
Although the name Yule comes from the Norse words “Yul” or “Jul,” the ritual burning of a special log during the Winter Solstice took place in such far-flung places as Ireland, Greece, and Siberia. The earliest burning of a Yule-type log was in ancient Egypt around 5000 BCE in honor of the sun god, Horus.
The Celtic Druids decorated their logs with holly and pinecones. The remnants of the burned logs, believed to protect the homes from evil and lightning, were traditionally kept to start the fire the following year as a symbol of the cycle of seasons, the annual death and rebirth of the sun, and the triumph of good against evil. Ashes from the Yule log were spread around homes and gardens as added protection. [Read more...]
Have you heard the story about the origin of candy canes? It goes something like this: a candy maker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that represented his Christian faith, so he started with a piece of pure, white hard candy—white to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the purity of Jesus. He formed the candy into a “J” for Jesus. The shape also represented the staff of the “Good Shepherd,” who used it to retrieve members of his flock when they went astray. Then, because the candy maker thought the candy looked kind of plain, he added three red stripes to symbolize the blood of Christ.
This account has been repeated by some religious leaders, has occasionally appeared in the press as the authoritative answer to readers’ queries, and was even the subject of several books, including a children’s book, The “J” is for Jesus, by Alice Joyce Davidson (1998). It’s a nice story, but the thing is, according to Snopes.com (an online fact checker of urban legends), it isn’t true. [Read more...]
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