Musical Musings -- Let There Be Light!

Hanukkah is an 8-day festival that celebrates a miracle of light during a dark time of opposition. This year Hanukkah began on December 7^th and will conclude on the 15^th.  The first night of Hanukkah represents the day over 2000 years ago when the Jews reclaimed the temple of Jerusalem after it had been desecrated by the invading Syrians. There was only enough consecrated oil to light the candelabra for one day, and the miracle was that it stayed lit for 8 days while they cleansed and rededicated the temple. And so, each night of the festival, another candle is lit in remembrance.

In addition to the Jewish holiday, long before people started putting up lights in their yards, and long before the first Christmas, some winter festivals included some form of light.

“In Pagan times, the celebration was called “Yule” in honor of the Goddess Moon energy, the day she would give birth to the sun. It is also when the days begin to grow longer, and pagan custom was to burn Yule logs as a symbolic way of welcoming back the light.” (from https://tinyurl.com/PaganLights)

So many other holiday traditions have ancient roots, but all are to bring light into the darkness, whether physically or spiritually…

As the days continue to grow shorter this week and next, we are all longing for the light, the longer days, the warmth of the sun… And speaking of sun, our sunroom now has light! The electrician finished hooking everything up and the inspection was passed this morning. It’s ridiculous how much joy it brought us to step out into the sunroom at night and turn on all the lights!

We’ve also painted the wall that is the back wall of the house, and we’re ready for the next step – flooring and window shades. (Yay!)

The cycle of  light and dark continues to make its way into my creative thoughts – I had already posted my song Persephone’s Art last December, but if you missed it, here it is: https://tinyurl.com/spotifyPersephone  This is about the seasons, and light and dark, on several levels…

But recently, I got to thinking about a song I had composed about twilight, and the end of the day marking a change of pace. I wrote a four-part a capella arrangement and recorded it with my sister and two dear friends. Here’s a video I made for the song:

Here's the link: https://youtu.be/GsuIernV9hQ

And while it is an old-fashioned concept that twilight should mean that the day’s work is done – because, well, electric lights… We were faced with the issue of the earlier sunset time when Celtic Moon performed in November outside Wheelhouse from 4:30 – 7:30. The sun set at 4:59, so we didn’t even have a full half hour of sun. So, yesterday, we opted to perform inside the Wheelhouse, which provided warmth and light, but a very echoey room.  Here are videos of both the November outside-in-the-dark performance and the December 10^th indoor performance.

November performance: https://youtu.be/RoJwlDXpWB4 

December performance: https://youtu.be/8vAGyqHEiS0

For more videos, visit our website: https://www.celticmoonduo.com/videos.html. Or visit our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CelticMoonDuo and watch videos on YouTube. Leave comments and click the thumbs up if you feel so inclined. That helps boost the visibility of our videos!

I would love to hear about your experiences with the longer nights and how you are coping with the darkness. Are you decorating your home or workspace with lights? Do you have a tradition you follow?

Love and Light to all, no matter why and how you are celebrating!