Summary:
It’s that season again. Jews observe Hanukkah as a celebration
of their victory over tyranny and persecution, while Christians celebrate the
birth of Christ and the salvation from sin that Christ embodies. At the same
time, both of these festivals have elements connected to the winter solstice when
the least amount of daylight is experienced in the northern hemisphere. But the
marking of time for humans is always connected to the configuration of
celestial bodies, and the discovery of a 10,000-year-old calendar in Scotland
is testimony to that connection. The sacredness of time is established as a
human response to the cosmic order evident in the configuration of celestial bodies
and a translation of that cosmic order into the flow of human events.
The full text:
Many of us bemoan the fact that Christmas seems to begin
earlier and earlier as the commercial forces in western civilization seem
determined to celebrate Friedrich Nietzsche’s declaration of the death of God.
At the same time, the correspondence of Thanksgiving with the beginning of
Hanukkah may actually be an appropriate occasion to begin thinking about what
Americans now call—much to Sarah Palin’s chagrin—“the holiday season.”
That Hanukkah and Christmas both contain elements of a
winter solstice holiday is generally understood. They both fall on the 25th
day of the month that marks the winter solstice when the least amount of
daylight is experienced in the northern hemisphere. That they are not
celebrated on the same actual day is simply a feature of the different calendars
in use by the two communities—the lunar/solar calendar used by Jews and the
Gregorian reformed solar calendar used by Christians and in our secular world.
The ancient world was filled with ceremonies celebrating the winter solstice,
and many have suggested that Christmas celebrated on the 25th of
December is a Christianization of the Roman festival of Natalis Solis Invicti,
the birthday of the invincible Sun, which could explain the custom of lighting lights,
as it could for Hanukkah, as well.
However, my preoccupation with
solstices and light actually began several months ago, during the dog-days of
July. At the time, what with wars and revolutions taking place around
the world combined with scandals, show-trials and charges of espionage here in
America, it was no wonder that the discovery of a 10,000 year old “calendar” of
sorts didn’t make the front page of the paper or the headline news from CNN.
But as I sat in synagogue on the eve of Tisha Be’av, the Jewish observance that
marks the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and contemplating the Ma’ariv
(evening) prayers ahead of the lament that was about to accompany this deep
summer display of mourning, I was struck by the correlation between my evening
prayer—its poetic expression of the movement of the celestial bodies and the
flow of time—and the calendrical marking of time by these most ancient prehistoric
human ancestors.
According to a report posted on the website of National
Geographic, the calendar discovered in Aberdeen, Scotland, is comprised of a
series of pits dug into the soil designed to represent the phases of the moon
with a special pit dug to align with the position of the sun—would you believe it—at
the winter solstice. Apparently, the pits were periodically adjusted to
compensate for the fact that the lunar year is shorter than the solar year,
something which the Hebrew calendar accomplishes by intercalating an extra
month seven times in a nineteen year cycle.
Naturally, western analysts like the writers and researchers
at National Geographic tend to focus on the “cultural and economic” significance
of the calendar. But my guess is these ancient time keepers were expressing something
more than “the perceived power of shamans,” or “knowing when… the salmon begin
their run up the Dee River.”
So much of the ritual life of religious worshipers is time
centered. But there is a piece of this time centeredness that is often missed.
Time for us humans is celestial time. It emerges almost entirely from our
observation of the movement of heavenly bodies. The heavens, for us, represent
a cosmic time piece, and so it has been for at least 10,000 years. Yes, it is
utilitarian. Jewish festivals are harvest festivals, but they are also lunar
festivals. Passover and Sukkot fall on the full moon of the spring and fall
equinoxes respectively. Hanukkah celebrates not only the miracle of Maccabean
victory and the tiny cruse of oil, but also the winter solstice. Christmas not
only celebrates the birth of Christ, but the birth of the sun, as well.
In fact, it is the inclusion of Sabbaths and New Moons in
the biblical recitations of the ritual calendar alongside the agricultural
festivals that points to the cosmic, celestial significance of these
observances above the mere utilitarian agricultural dimension. Sabbaths and New
Moons have no particular utilitarian purpose; they are pure expressions of a
connection to celestial time. The ancient Babylonian account of creation, the Enuma Elish, describes the cosmic
ordering undertaken by the victorious god Marduk following his defeat of
primordial chaos envisioned as the roiling sea goddess Tiamat. After cleaving
the sea monster in half and establishing the two parts as heaven and earth, the
newly proclaimed king of the gods establishes celestial time by specifically mentioning
the sixth day, the day of the crescent moon, alongside shabbatu, the 15th day, the day of the full moon. It
would seem that New Moons and Sabbaths are included in these ritual calendars with
no utilitarian purpose except an acknowledgement of the appearance of the moon
and its four major phases, a display of cosmic order.
Psalm 19 is perhaps the most profound statement of ancient
biblical acknowledgement of the significance of the celestial bodies as the
embodiment of divine presence in the world and in the very heart and soul of
this worshiper. “The heavens recount God’s presence,” the poet proclaims, “and
the sky conveys [God’s] handiwork.” This stargazing poet goes on to declare the
purifying, enlightening truth and beauty of God’s Torah, laws and instructions.
“Indeed Your servant shines brightly by them.” Through God’s Torah, the mystic
poet becomes one with the bright lights of the cosmos he contemplates. The
cosmic order observed in the heavenly sphere corresponds or translates to world
order expressed in one’s alignment with the divine will as revealed in Torah.
This celestial order of light and dark, day and night, waxing
and waning merges with our human experience of chaos and order, persecution and
redemption, sin and salvation. Our lives resonate with the cosmic order that we
see emanating from the luminous celestial orbs as this order is then translated
and embodied in our experience of the world--the historical process and the process
of daily life that unfold in it.
Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and a joyous Festivus to
George Castanza and his family.
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