~Norman Vincent Peale
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| Photo: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/victor/hereandthere/2008/12/christmas-eve-in-albuquerque.html |
Christmas is such a magical time of year. As a child, it was a day filled with anticipation - what would be waiting for me under the Christmas tree? As a Father, it is the joy of watching my children scream with glee as they open each present. Christmas is a day of happiness and peace, as if the world stops, if only for a day. Even Walmart closes...
But Christmas is more than just a day. It is a season, a magical season. It is a season that has expanded throughout the years - when my parents were children, everything seemed to happen on Christmas Eve. That progressed to the week before Christmas, then two. Now it seems like the Christmas season starts right after Halloween, if not before in some retail stores. Me? It begins the day after Thanksgiving, when the trees are put up and the decorating begins. And we do it all - the lights, the ornaments, the wreaths, inside and out. While I don't go all out like some people, I do love to have some lights and decorations outside to celebrate the season.
And some people DO go all out! When I lived in Columbia, SC, there was one street where everyone, I mean everyone, had their entire yards decorated with lights. Every night there was a line of cars going up and down the road taking in each display. I had even heard that when people moved off the street, they left the Christmas lights behind for the next homeowner to use. I also remember a church in Tallahassee FL, right next to the Florida State University campus, where they put up an amazing light display in their parking lot, along with loudspeakers playing Christmas hymns.
Nowadays, people not only put up lights, but synchronize them to music. And the lights have gone from the old big bulbs to the miniature bulbs to now LEDs that are brighter and more vibrant. And I really do love them all...
...but sometimes, real Christmas magic lies in the simplicity of a candle, inside a bag weighed down by sand...and a stick of gum...
The tradition of luminarias began centuries ago. The Spanish tradition was to light little bonfires, or luminarias, on the roads and in churchyards to guide people into midnight Mass on the final night of the celebration of Las Posadas. The celebration of Las Posadas (the Spanish word for lodging or inn) commemorates Mary and Joseph's search for an inn to stay at on the eve of Christ's birth in Bethlehem. The Spanish missionaries brought this tradition to Mexico. Over time, the bonfires were replaced by farolitos, the little paper bags filled with sand containing a lit candle, or what we know today as luminarias. But the tradition of lighting them on the last day of Las Posadas, or Christmas Eve, continues. And while most associate this tradition with the Southwest, especially New Mexico (like the picture from Olde Town Albuquerque above), it has also migrated to other parts of the United States, including a little neighborhood I lived in as a child...
I have talked before about the wonderful neighborhood where I lived in Allison Park, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh. I posted earlier this year about our 4th of July block parties, and the Heatherton Heights Musical Mob. But in the winter, at Christmas, there was another wonderful tradition where most everyone in ther neighborhood took part - the luminarias. Every family received their farolitos, and on Christmas Eve, each family would line them on the curb in front of their house. At dusk, the farolitos were lit, bathing the neighborhood streets in their soft light. It was a magical display, far more beautiful to me than any Christmas light display I have ever seen. Everyone in the neighborhood walked the streets, laughing, singing Christmas Carols. and sharing Christmas cheer. It was happiness. It was peace. It was joy.
And maybe it was that soft light, the feeling of happiness and peace, and the joyful feeling, that on a particular Christmas Eve led one to ask another for a stick of gum. A simple question. An innocent request...
Which kindled the flame within two hearts.
Which a short time later led to those two hearts becoming united as one.
In 2011, my sister and my brother-in-law celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary. Shortly after they were married, they moved to Albuquerque, where they saw the farolitos lining the streets in the Olde Town firsthand.
But it all began in a little neighborhood in a suburb of Pittsbugh PA, one Christmas Eve, bathed by the soft and beautiful luminaria light. It was that night when Christmas waved it's magic wand, and a lifetime of love was born.
With a little help from a stick of gum.
Happy Holidays everyone, from the GFCF Experience.
1 comments:
Beautiful Tom!
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