Month of December

December is without doubt connected to Christmas and the solstice and the druids and Stonehenge and much more.

We are probably all well-versed in this, so let us look at something else.

Scotland: It has to be different – and it is! Hogmanay! This is a celebration of the last day of the year. Scotland has not always celebrated Christmas (regarded as too papist) but Hogmanay is the one. It goes back to Norse and Gaelic times (and probably more). Nobody knows the origins and the way of celebrating is very much local.

The carrying element is to celebrate the ‘first-foot’. The first visitor who crosses the doorstep after midnight 31 December.

The visitor will typically bring gifts for the household. Gifts in Scotland is a bag of salt or some coal or a ‘black bun’ which is some sort of cake. All good practical things for any household.

The visitor will then be seated and given gifts, typically food.

The ‘first-foot’ is supposed to bring good luck for the year and that is why (oh my Wiki says so) ‘first-foot’ is preferred to be tall, dark-haired men!

HumanLIght Day: The background is a bit different. What about people who do not celebrate Christmas or Hannakuh or any other (religious) festive day? Would such people not also like to have something to celebrate? Without being associated with other things?

So, here comes the idea – in 2001 – why not have something called HumanLIghts Day – 23 December.

It is a humanistic holiday and the idea was (Wiki): “HumanLight is a secular holiday that focuses on the “positive, secular human values of reason, compassion, humanity and hope”.

The inaugural event occurred at the Verona Park Boathouse in Verona, New Jersey on December 23, 2001, and was attended by nearly 100 people, including prominent Humanist Paul Kurtz.

What did they do? have a communal meal and enjoying entertainments and art. It has evolved and now includes exchange of gifts and so on.

It is now spreading across the globe and the form is very much up to any organisation or group of people. There is no real central organisation setting the format.

The only thing the first organisers prescribe is that any celebration should take into account promoting the positive values of Humanism, avoiding negative messages related to religions, and keeping it family and children-friendly.