The Holiday Season: Today

Today many of us yearn to make the holiday season
more meaningful, more loving, perhaps more spiritual.

Candlegrove traces the winter holiday season daily from Thanksgiving through Epiphany.

`December 28, 2007`

It is the final day of Halcyon Days — the seven days preceding and following winter solstice.

It's the third day of Kwanzaa, the seven-day African-American holiday celebration. Today's principle is UJIMA — collective work and responsibility.

It's also Holy Innocents Day, or Childermas, which commemorates the massacre of children in Bethlehem ordered by King Herod who wanted to destroy the newborn King.

`Tips for the day`

Perhaps if you are planning year-end charitable giving, in honor of the day you could find a way to support organizations seeking to prevent child abuse.

If your holiday celebration depends on knowing sunrise and/or sunset times for winter solstice or any other day in your location, find it online at the U.S. Naval Observatory. The database covers 22,000 US locations. For world locations, you'll need your latitude and longitude.

This site also lists solstices and equinoxes through 2020. You'll need to convert to your time zone from Universal Time.

Wassail

Everything you could possibly want to know about one ancient holiday tradition, gathered together in one jolly Web site The Web's Wassail Epicenter!

Kwanzaa Links

The Official Kwanzaa Website
Some beautiful Kwanzaa cybercards
Kwanzaa recipes

Inner Christmas

From counselor and writer Lynn Jericho, ideas for Inner Christmas — a meaningful and enriching process of self-reflection from December 25 to January 6. Sign up for daily emails at her site.