I hope everybody had a Happy Solstice.
We had a solstice celebration at my church tonight, I helped set up.
We had a labyrinth in the parking lot, the path was defined by brown paper lunch bags, weighted down with gravel and with tea-lights inside for illumination. the plan was to shut off the lightposts, so just the light of 200 candles would guide us.
Once we got the borders well defined, Scott had to go get more gravel, and I had to go eat dinner, and get some chocolate chip biscotti for the desert potluck. My sister in law eats them alot, and they have chocolate in them, so I eat them too, when I'm over there. While at the grocery store, I ran into both our Director of Religious Education, and our Administrator. I guess this might be normal church/community interaction, but since I live about 13 miles and twelve tax brakets away from my church, I'm not used to it at all.
Unfortunately it was windy. The candle we were using to light the tea-lights kept going out, and even the some of the tea-lights were going out in the bags. We only ended up with a quarter of them lit.
The labyrinth walk went well anyway though, we left the light post on. We each took a pebble from a glass at the entrance, and carried it through the labyrinth thinking of something we wanted to be rid of. When we reached the center we dropped in into a chalice, and took a sparkler. We lit the sparkler from one of the nearby tea-lights, since the chalice would not stay lit. Then we walked back out thinking of something we wanted for the new year.
The labyrinth did it job, in that even after spending over two hours setting it up, and being well aware of the layout, I got lost. Tammy played the flute while we marched, and I remembered I forgot my drum in the Emerson Room. I decided I liked the walk better without a drumbeat, the lone flute sounded more magical.
nonetheless, when I got out I went and got my drum, and once most of us were out of the labyrinth, Tammy and I let the procession back into the woods. (have I mentioned that my church has about 10 acres of nature preserve?)
We circled around the fire pit, and we all got small candles, those ones with the cardboard circles so you don't get wax on your hands. It was a trial to keep them all lit, so we skipped the symbology of using our individual goals and efforts to light the community fire, and went with the symbology of constantly lighting each others' candles, which I think is neater anyway.
I fell in love with, and consequently ate, 9 chocolate fondue marshmallows. I recommended them to others as 'glorious'.
I also became an arms dealer, showing the children how to make proper snowballs. I also tried to explain to them the implications of the Geneva Convetions, but this was less well recieved.
We sang "Christmas" carols, including 'God rest ye, Unitarians':
To the tune of "God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen":
Gods rest ye, Unitarians, let nothing you dismay;
Remember there's no evidence there was a Christmas Day;
When Christ was born is just not known, no matter what they say,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
Our current Christmas Customs come from Persia and from Greece,
From solstice celebrations of the ancient Middle East.
This whole darn Christmas spiel is just another pagan feast,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact.
There was no star of Bethlehem, there was no angels' song;
There couldn't have been wise men for the trip would take too long.
The stories in the Bible are historically wrong,
O, Tidings of reason and fact, reason and fact,
Glad tidings of reason and fact!
