The Glowing and the Green 12/20/2020

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

This year I have taken the hanging of the green more seriously than I ever have before.  Don’t get me wrong I have always been madly in love with the idea of decorating for Christmas.  As far as I am concerned, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment that it is the most wonderful time of the year.  It is undeniable that whether you feel so inclined as to embrace it, there is palpable magic in the air. Yes, I understand that it won’t be so necessarily enchanted for everyone. There are any number of reasons why humbug will rear its ugly head. I mean for the love of Pete if ever there was a year of humbug justification in the history of years, this may very well be said year with said justification.  But, I am thankful to report, that as for me, and I suppose that’s all any of us can really truly report for, as I draped greenery over every surface that I could successfully drape it upon, the enchantment is still there and it is as dazzling and potent as ever.

Bringing greenery into the home certainly isn’t a new concept.  You can go very far back into the extremely distant past and find evergreen foliage being brought into the home. As a lover of all things historical I can’t deny that this may add just a touch of charm for me personally.  For me, the fact that this tradition is so very deep rooted gives it that much more significance.  If you go very far back, it doesn’t even matter if it were a Christian home celebrating Advent or if it were a pagan home celebrating Yuletide or if it was just the most generic celebration of Midwinter the greenery was brought into the house symbolizing the hope of coming life.  I find it fascinating that, almost as if by Divine design, it all fits together so well. At the darkest of days and the longest of nights we all need that reminder of growth and life and it was brought into the home even to the point of a full tree decorated in a prominent spot. Now, I am the unabashed lover of symbolism and now that I think about it my love for tradition and symbolism may be a very good reason why I cannot get enough of this holiday.  But the symbolism serves its purpose so well! The festooning of green all around the home serves to invoke that hope. This distinctive adornment is a visual portent of encouragement. Though things seem dead, or at the very least dormant right now in shades of dull grey and brown, green is going to return. New life is coming. Hold fast.

Another spellbinding thing that happens more at this time of year than any other are lights. It still boggles my mind that enrobing the most average inanimate objects in large quantities of tiny bulbs can, come nightfall, have such a moving impact! Houses and lawns that would not merit a second glance on any given day, turn into glowing scenes of wonderment. A very bare and lonesome looking tree when wrapped in lights becomes a totem of frost sprites and ice fairies once dusk falls.  We seek out the most glorious displays and watch in wonder at the awe that strategically placed electrical current provides us. It doesn’t have to even be electricity providing the magic however. Yet another favorite element of mine (you can really see why I love all of this so very much) would be candlelight. If you have ever attended a candlelight Christmas service or even any form of candlelight event you know the captivating ambience that a simple flame on taper can produce. Light is thoroughly embraced this season more than any other.  Even with snowfall a once dark and shadowed landscape becomes aglow with brilliant white nature-provided illumination.

Light is synonymous with Christmas and yet again the symbolism is dripping. The darkness of the winter is pierced by all these lights. The cold and gloom are no longer dominant once brilliance penetrates the scene. Faith and hope strive to banish all that disheartens just as a roaring fire drives away winter’s chill.  Even when the night is the longest, light comes to loosen its grip. Christmas celebrates the Light of the world coming to vanquish sin and death from humanity. How appropriate is our fascination with lights this holiday!  The promise of deliverance from the grasp of cold winter and the hope of redemption eternal beams out of every bulb and wick.  Hope is on its way. Keep watch for light in the darkness.

I don’t think I have ever thought as much about the emblems of the season and their meaning as I do now. Most of us have always loved the decorations and the lights for their sheer aesthetic beauty and maybe we left it at that. There is certainly nothing wrong with appreciating such loveliness.  But maybe this holiday we could look deeper still. I like to imagine the sound of bells from the towers of cathedrals at the stroke of midnight on Christmas and envision the way those bells peal though the air hour after hour as the day arrives to each zone of time. Think of the full day of ceaseless chimes singing in uplifting hope and joy as glorious dawn broke bright and sparkling making its way around the globe. I can almost hear them and the message they bring. The day of anticipation has arrived. Let us look to the Light and know the darkness no longer has hold on us. Let us look to the greenery and know that Hope is coming if we stand firm in faith.  The simplest of ornamentations are saying so much more.  They are crying out to a world with an outlandish amount of dark and night if we will simply look and see.