Regenerative Holidays?
What might it mean for the holiday season to be regenerative?
Here’s a few options.
Experience being with their loved ones (rather than rushing through the experience in order to get to the next thing). This is mostly about being present. Often, it means slowing down.
Actively ensuring one’s consumption is in line with one’s values (ie: are there places where you can cut down plastic? Recycle and Upcycle your wrapping paper? Use candles instead of electrical lights to reduce electricity usage? Cut your own tree at a tree farm instead of buying a plastic one? Bring reusable containers with you to holiday parties to cut down on plastic and food waste? Make a gift instead of buying one?)
Asking: what will give you and your family – and your team – regeneration? Is it alone time? Time with a river? Time with candles? Time with children? There are lots of environmental gatherings around the holidays that you can participate in with your students or family members, such as holiday bird counts!
Receive. Give. Receive. Give. Notice how this connects to the breath: In. Out.
Honesty and intention. What do you actually need? If that family member is really impossible, what do you need for yourself? For your family? If you are gift-giving, is it from a place of authenticity? Generosity? Or guilt? Social Pressure? These are hard questions.
Land-care. Maybe that’s watching the sunrise on Solstice.
Attending to the earth-honoring aspects of this season.
On that last topic, it’s often worth thinking about some of the folk practices and traditions that are embedded in Christmas.
Often in folk tradition there is deep wisdom about how to live with the land in community: a core question for those keen on engaging in regeneration.
These are some of the main European folk (aka pre-Christian) elements in the traditions we tend to associate with Christmas:
The Yule Log - Anglo/Anglo-Saxon - it is a big log (traditionally decorated) that burns for a long time, symbolizing the return of the light.
The Christmas Tree – Germanic, brought to England and then to America by Prince Albert during the Victorian Age – The evergreen tree often symbolizes everlasting light. Bringing an evergreen tree into the home is a pre-Christian symbol.
Gift giving – throughout celebrations of winter solstice in Europe, sometimes these were in-kind gifts (a meat pie gifted and homemade bread received); sometimes this was a time when the lord/leader of a region might offer a feast for his tenants/subjects/supporters
Wassailing (drinking/toasting to health), including toasting to the trees, often associated with loud drunkenness – common throughout Europe, from ancient Rome to the Nordic regions.
Caroling – a longstanding tradition in Britain and other parts of Europe during the winter solstice season
Crafting – not just for giving gifts, but because coming into winter is a precious and phenomenal time to craft!
Santa Claus – there are various versions in old Catholic and pre-Christian traditions, often associated with the figure we now know as St Nick
A lot of candles – of course this is throughout the winter, but celebrations that entail candles at this season
Gathering – feasting, celebrations, fires, parties – the harvest is in, and making merry is a critical way of helping us be with the dark. We need to see one another.
Attention to the miniature (toys, nutcrackers, ornaments) - the world is being brought into the home. In the longer days, the world is often outside of the home/house. In winter, the world is being brought inside, in miniature. It is a way for the cosmovision of the solarsystem to focus less on the sun – which is scant – and more on the fire in the hearth, which is strong.
In all of these, we see the attention towards the ecosystem and to the music, dance, and various forms of social lubrication that can keep individuals, families, and cultures strong. Some of this we see in the Scandinavian notion of “hygge” which has gained greater popularity outside of Scandinavia in recent years.
So perhaps regeneration includes some variation of these kinds of practices – regardless of if you celebrate Christmas or not.
Indeed, much of what is listed above, which tends to be associated with Christmas, has been abhorred by various Christian communities at different times. This includes the Puritans, who were trying to purify Catholicism and found no Biblical evidence for any kind of a Christmas celebration (Jesus never told people to celebrate it). Of course, today Christmas is a beloved holiday for many Christians and Catholics around the world.
We hope you find some time for song. And perhaps as well, for quiet. For this is also a season when we are invited inwards. Into the inner landscape.
More on the inner landscape in a future substack!
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