(Here’s an art-mail from 2013.)
December, 2003
It’s December - actually my all-time favorite month in the year for all its spiritual feast days. (September is my favorite month for the seasons, because my birthday is in September and the weather changes as well as the leaves, here in upper New England.)
I’m sure I’ll forget some of these holy-holidays, but I’ll try to remember all of them!
For me, the First Sunday of Advent is always full of “inner anticipation.” The prayer in monasteries is “Drop down, ye Dew from Heaven…” Isn’t that a beautiful idea? Advent goes on for the four Sundays before Christmas.
In 1956, when I was trying to be a monk at Weston Priory in Weston, Vermont, one of my jobs as artist-monk was to help Brother Basil (Jack Schanhaar) “build” an Advent wreath for the chapel. There were four candles and greens on an old wooden wheel that hung from the ceiling. Now, tradition says that the first two candles are purple, the third is rose or pink and the last is also purple. All we had were fat white beeswax candles, so I came up with the idea of making the ribbons that held up the wheel the different colors. It worked just fine!
But, let me get back to all the other great holy-holidays in December.
December 6 is the Feast of St. Nicholas - the saint who became Santa Claus.
In Holland especially, St. Nicholas come on his horse, dressed in a red Bishop’s robe to bring gold coins to children. The gold coins are gold foil wrapped wonderful chocolate coins.
On December 12 is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. She is the Empress of the Americas. I could write pages and pages about her. But, I won’t. If you get Galavision or another Mexican TV channel on cable or dish, you can see the HUGE celebration in Mexico City on the night of December 11. It’s wonderful!
Then comes the Feast of St. Lucy or Santa Lucia. In Sweden, and I guess in other Scandinavian countries, the oldest daughter dresses in a white robe with a crown of lit candles on her head. The other children in the family dress as angels. They bring mama and papa breakfast in bed. There are hot coffee or chocolate and special rolls called Lucy Cats!
My friend and fellow artist, Trina Schart Hyman, told me that she along with some friends did a St. Lucy breakfast in front of Tiffany’s in New York City. That must have been the best “Breakfast at Tiffany’s!”
Well, we’re certainly getting close to Christmas in my house. I love Christmas. I always have.
One year, when I lived in San Francisco, I had 72 Christmas trees in my flat. OK, OK, most of them were small and didn’t have lights or decorations on them, but I did have one beautiful tree decorated with lights and stuff!
Here in New Hampshire, I have a tall 10’/12’ tree in my living room. My assistant and friend, Bob Hechtel, decorates it every year. It has tiny white lights and hundreds of folk art ornaments on it AND beautiful tissue paper roses that some friends, especially Amanda, and I made. I’ve had paper roses on my Christmas trees since 1957! (Of course, I have to make new ones all the time.)
Candles fill the house and the windows. And that brings me to Chanukah or Hanukkah (It’s spelled different ways!).
Chanukah is at a different time every December. You light a candle each night in a special candleholder called a Menorah. Bev and Danny Wolf gave me a beautiful one several years ago. Every night you light another candle for eight nights. I really love my Menorah because it looks like a Dove of Peace.
My goodness, I’ve really filled up these pages about December.
One thing more, I always hope for a WHITE CHRISTMAS.
I hope you’ll all enjoy December as I do.
And Happy Holy-Holidays!
Enough for now.