light and darkness.

• Bodhi Day is the Day of Enlightenment, celebrating the day that the historical Buddha experienced enlightenment.
• Chahar Shanbeh Suri is the Iranian Festival of Fire. It marks the importance of the light over the darkness, and arrival of spring and revival of nature.
• Diwali is a Hindu holiday that celebrates the vicorty of good over evil.
• Dong zhi is the Winter solstice in China.
• Festival of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun was celebrated in the late Roman Empire.
• Hanukkah is an eight day festival commemorating the miracle of oil lasting longer than it should have, to light the darkness.
• Karachun is the ancient Slav polytheistic winter solstice festival
• Modranect (or Mothers' Night) is the Saxon winter solstice festival.
• Sadeh is a mid-winter feast to honor fire and to "defeat the forces of darkness, frost and cold".
• Saturnalia was the Roman winter Solstice festival
• Yalda Persia's "turning point" marking the end of the longest night of the year (Darkness), and beginning of growing of the days (Lights). A celebration of Good over Evil.
• Yule the Germanic winter solstice festival

Each in it's own way marks a new beginning.

How will you celebrate a new beginning?

I will welcome my father to our home- for the third time in two years. Bless his heart... he is 85 and still kicking. He wasn't the greatest of dads--but he probably wasn't the worst, however hard that may have been for my teen self to believe. I am going to celebrate that my daughter has been on earth four years. She is wise, hysterically silly and learns new ways to defeat my will every day! (Needless to say: I love her more than life.) and My cousin, the only other relative I have on this coast, will join us for dinner and we will remember those who have gone on before us. My mom. Her mom/my dad's Sister. Dad's other siblings and their spouses--my aunts and uncles. We will probably talk about my daughter's future and how bright it is. I'll probably make a few of my mom's specialties--lasagna, ricotta pie, and maybe eggplant parmigiana.

I hope to see the new year with optimism and health. With joy and determination. With purpose.

Resolutions? I haven't made any specific ones. I'll have to get back on that. But, I expect that it will include keeping the light on, and fending my tiny family from the dark.