The Americans have just kicked off their “Daylight Saving Time” routine – summarized by their doggerel, “Spring forward; fall backwards” – which reminds them that, in Fall (autumn), they turn their clocks backwards one hour. What it’s all about is – as winter approaches and the nights get increasingly longer – they kid themselves that by “losing” an hour in the morning, which they pick up in the afternoon, they get more work done!! Well, that is THEIR ritual, just as other cultures originating in the northern hemisphere thousands of years ago have theirs to deal with the lengthening darkness.
In Europe, the “Pagans” would burn logs – “yule logs” – to mark this day!! It wasn’t too long before the propitiating lights to remove the physical “darkness” became metaphorical pleas to remove the “darkness” from human affairs. On what we now call the “winter solstice” – which falls this year on Dec 21 – the nights would start to get longer, and the deal was sealed!!
After they converted to Christianity, the Church leaders just couldn’t get them to stop with the burning of the Yule logs, and so decided to join then by stipulating that Jesus was born on this day – to remove darkness and bring light into the world. And “Christmas was born”!!
That custom with the fir trees came from the German pagans, who’d put them up to show they’d survived the lengthening nights!!
The Jews had Hanukah, while in India, they started burning bonfires when the darkness increased – in hope that the powers that be would take the cue and made it decrease!! And lo and behold, it actually seemed to work – and the festival of Diwali was born!! Excepting they lit small fires in earthen “diyas”!!
Over time, specific events occurring around that time, which actually removed major negativity, were also commemorated as justification for the practice. Diwali became the festival celebrating the “victory of light over darkness – good over bad”.
For the Indians arriving from North India as indentured servants, they’d connected Diwali with the return of Sri Ram to his home with his wife Mother Sita, who’d been abducted by a lusting King Ravan. Ram defeated him in battle, and maybe this has a lesson for us today as we confront Mad Maduro and Venezuela, who wanna snatch two-thirds of our national territory!! In addition to SYMBOLICALLY celebrating “good over evil”, we ought to take an example from Sri Ram.
Realizing that Ravan was very powerful, Sri Ram cultivated allies who amassed an army that could take on – and take out – Ravan and his army. Now’s the time to winnow out fair-weather friends!!
A hint to Beneba mek Kwashiba tek notice!!
…for rattling sabres??
As your Eyewitness scans the headlines on his world news feed, it appears that rather than entering a season of joy, we’re gonna be mired in a season of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Over in Europe, if our supposedly “advanced” and “civilized” erstwhile ruling colonials are wrecking their economies to battle the Ruskies to the last Ukrainian, what can we expect from the hoi polloi countries in the rest of the globe??
In Africa, we’ve had four coups in three years, as four ex-French colonies purportedly try to remove their neo-colonial yokes. Trouble is, the rescuers seem bent on their own aggrandizement than anything else. Then, of course, there’re the Israelis reprising their God’s commandment about the Canaanite with Palestinians: “You shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.”
Bleak, eh??
