Thanksgiving is behind us and we have just celebrated the first Sunday of Advent, the time leading up to Christmas day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. In today’s secularized world, much is made of the Christmas season by merchants, anxious to sell their wares, and it seems as if Christmas trees and ornaments begin popping up in stores earlier each year. In Paris, Illinois, where we live, Twin Lakes Park is festooned with lights as businesses, churches, organizations, individual families, and the city itself put up displays and Christmas greetings. Depending on the source of the display, some have a religious theme and others may be a Santa Claus, Ice Skaters, or a simple Merry Christmas greeting on a sign. But the one thing they all have in common, the one things that makes the park from Thanksgiving eve onward a wonderland of beauty, is the lights.
Houses, parks, city squares and plazas all over the United States glow with millions of lights during this season. Everyone expects the displays and everyone but the worst Scrooges revel in them. But where does the idea of Christmas lights come from? The origin of the Christmas tree is disputed, but most likely began in Tallinn, Estonia in 1441 or in Riga, Latvia in 1510. In both cases, the decorated, but not lit trees, were erected in the town squares. In wasn’t until Germany adopted the custom that Christmas trees were brought into the individual homes of Christians who looked upon the evergreen tree as a symbol of eternal life. The first recorded trees were in Strasbourg, France (then a part of Germany). They were decorated with paper roses, apples, sugar, and lit candles. Candles were also placed in the windows to make the houses look pretty.
But candles gradually took on more importance. In Great Britain, after the English Reformation and the banning of Catholicism, a candle in the window let a priest who was in hiding know that he could quietly enter that house to celebrate Christmas Mass with the family. That custom was brought to America by Irish immigrants, although candles in the window had also been used in the colonies to let travelers know they had a safe place to stay. Thus, candles in the window have been used for centuries to demonstrate faith, welcome, and safety.
Candles play an important part in the celebration of both Christian and Jewish holidays during December. From December 10 through December 18, Jews celebrate Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights. In the second century BC, the Syrian-Greek empire took over the Holy Land and outlawed Jewish religious practices such as the reading of the Torah (which may refer to the first five books of the Christian Old Testament or all the books running from Genesis through Chronicles) and the observance of Shabbat (the seventh day of the week, the equivalent of the Christian Sunday). Many Jews began to assimilate into the Greek culture, gradually accepting the banning of their religious beliefs. But when the Greeks tried to force them to slaughter a pig and sacrifice it to a Greek god, a Jewish priest Matitiyahu and his son Judah the Maccabee gathered a group of rebels and took to the hills. For three years they fought guerilla warfare against this super power until finally, the Greeks gave in and withdrew.
The Jewish heroes, having recaptured the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, cleansed it of idols, and re-dedicated it to God on the 25th day of the Jewish month of Kislev. Hanukkah has been celebrated ever since to commemorate the rededication of the temple. The name “Festival of Lights” comes from legend that says when the Priests were going to light the Menorah, the seven-branched oil lamp stand used since the days of Moses, they could only find one tiny bottle of oil that had the seal of the High Priest and had been overlooked by the Greeks. That oil was distributed among the seven lamps and burned miraculously for eight days. Each Jewish family has a Menorah, a smaller branched candle stand that now contains nine candles, that they light, one each night, during Hanukkah.
As with the Jewish community, candles have become an important part of most Christian churches as well. Each Sunday in Advent, Christian churches around the world light one of five candles. Four of them represent hope, the hope of the Messiah; love, the love that God showed to mankind by sending us the gift of His Son; joy, the deep feeling of contentment and happiness in knowing that through Jesus Christ we can find salvation; and peace, that only truly comes through Christ to a Believer. The fifth candle, lit on Christmas Eve, is called the Christ Candle to remind Christians of the light that Jesus brings to this world of darkness.
Isaiah, prophesying about the coming Messiah, Jesus, wrote these words:
“The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.”
Thus to commemorate His birth it is only fitting that we Christians should celebrate with our own “Festival of Lights. Remember that Jesus Himself said, as recorded by Matthew (5:14-15), “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.”
We truly live in a world of increasing darkness, but as Christians, we remain the light, the only hope to guide the lost and wandering to God. As we remember to be that light from day to day, wherever we are, providing faith, welcome, and shelter to the lost, let us symbolize our mission in this world. If you haven’t already done so, this Christmas, put a candle in a window!