Mama Says Om - Tradition

Votive candles, tealights, salt lamps, candelabra, luminaria and tall tapers on the old oak table in the dining room - it is astonishing how many of our traditions here seem to involve candles, and that may be due in some measure to the fact that we are northern dwellers - thoughts about light and warmth are never far from minds living this far north, and I suspect that the further north one lives, the more likely this is to be the case.

There are a lot of candles burned in the little blue house in the village during any given calendar year, and the candles we burn vary in size from tiny golden tealights which fit nicely into a Himalayan salt lamp to Pheylonian pillars almost a foot in diameter and standing several inches high.

It all comes down to light, community and sharing. Some of our best loved clan traditions relate to Yuletide, and I cherish one with particular fondness - a family tradition established years ago in which we assemble on the Winter Solstice to celebrate the return of the sun. Lights in the little blue house are turned off, and we sit together in the darkness for a few moments before lighting a big Solstice pillar candle in a crystal hurricane candle holder. Then each of us of us in turn lights a smaller candle in a home made luminaria from the big one and recites a favorite poem, story or prayer. When the lights go on again, there is food, music and song, more tales for the little ones and the exchanging of small gifts - last night's most popular tale by far was the mythical Japanese tale of the sun goddess, Amaterasu. I so wish I could bottle up the happiness of last evening's festivities and partake of it all year.

Winter Solstice Candle 2006