Friday, December 17, 2010

Cold and dark

Even chillier tonight. It's supposed to be a cold day tomorrow. I guess it is winter. My office building had a Christmas lunch today for the tenants. Very nice. Still had some work to get done in the afternoon. In a lawyer's office there are always things you have to do today and tomorrow or Monday will be too late. But now I'm headed into a slow couple of weeks, 1/2 days and days off, and co-workers gone out of town. Just a few days now until the shortest day.

Christmas, you know, was once on solstice, back in the Julian calendar. The symbolism of celebrating Christ's birth on that day (since no one knows on what day he actually was born) was that Christ comes into the world at its darkest moment, and immediately the light begins to increase. Summer solstice, which was back then June 24, was celebrated as the Feast of St. John the Baptist--the day the light decreases, because when people began to follow Jesus instead of John, John, recognizing that Jesus was the Messiah, said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

I like the symbolism in both those celebrations.

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