Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Luca Van Worden on November 9, 2009 at 11:48am

I would like to do it this year. I'm convinced we need to cultivate social bonds. I think we should be creative, improve Humanlight, introduce local traditions.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on November 12, 2009 at 9:16am

I agree! I especially like the introduction of local traditions.

Permalink Reply by Jim Mo. on November 26, 2009 at 5:17pm

I attended a Humanlight with the Humanist group in my state. I don't know if they connected with the humanlight org. I am part of an atheist group and we will have a social around Dec 20. Right now it is just a social potluck. No plans to emphasize a positive secular vision for the future.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on November 26, 2009 at 5:23pm

I think even an atheist group getting together for a potluck is a secular vision for the future.

Permalink Reply by Hiram on November 27, 2009 at 5:57pm

I think this is a great idea, I don't know about the name "Humanlight", but the general idea is great. I just discovered this holiday and am gonna inquire about this when I network with others. I already emailed the beliefnet.com people to respectfully ask them to please include Humanlight among the list of late december festivities that they feature on their website, just to make sure that there's a VISIBLE presence of Humanists and Atheists on beliefnet.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 8, 2009 at 10:50pm

What name would you give such an observance?

That's great that you are emailing the Beliefnet people... I'd love to hear how that goes.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 22, 2009 at 5:38pm

Have you seen the Humanlight.org website, Deb?

Permalink Reply by Eric on December 21, 2009 at 4:46pm

I decided to join the Facebook page for HumanLight this afternoon. If you go to their website, there's a link to take you to their Facebook application.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 22, 2009 at 3:47pm

Good on ya! Tell the Facebook-challenged among us how that goes.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 23, 2009 at 4:40pm

Happy Humanlight ya'll! Have a reasonable day.

Permalink Reply by Shoe on December 29, 2009 at 4:56pm

Update:

I did celebrate as planned with a friend. We jogged about 1.5 miles through my neighborhood in the snow, wearing (between the two of us) a red velvet smoking jacket, a purple top hat, a snow-flake headress, and tinsel. A lot of folks were out shoveling their driveways when we passed and greetings were exchanged, so it felt communal even though it was just the two of us celebrating.

I dropped off about 6 cubic feet of stuff at the thrift store, stuffed our faces, lit candles, and played a new (to me) cooperative board game called "Ghost Stories", which I rate as fun but not as fun as "Shadows Over Camelot", and better designed than "Pandemic" but also duller than "Pandemic"...but I digress.



Re-posted from a "Water Cooler" thread I posted before I found this group:

Happy Humanlight, folks!

Do you celebrate Humanlight? What do you do for festivities?

Here's my plan. (Re-posted from my FaceBook note...)

I just heard about Humanlight for the first time. Maybe every person I know will laugh at me for this, but I like it, and I'm going to celebrate it. Like many holidays, including Christmas and Chanukah, Humanlight adopts some traditions, symbolism, and the date (roughly) of older holidays, but has its own unique raison d'etre. Humanlight is December 23, shortly after the Solstice, when light is first re-gaining dominance over darkness (in minutes per day). The theme is hope, with the obvious symbolism... literal light represents metaphorical light just starting to show evidence of gaining ground in the struggle with metaphorical darkness. The purpose is to celebrate humanist values - reason, hope, compassion, and faith in the potential of human endeavors to improve the human experience. The establishment of a holiday with traditions and rituals and symbolism and festivities recognizes the important role that these things have in the human psyche, without the need for a supernatural justification.

Ideally, Humanlight is celebrated with family, friends, and community, but if I'm to celebrate it alone this year, this is what I have in mind, so far:

1a) Big Haul Salvation Army Drop-off.
In a time of plenty, this amounts to a cleansing ritual; removing clutter from one's physical surroundings as a means to clear one's mind... physically and mentally preparing for renewal. Giving the items away rather than throwing them away is important to me because of the natural resources used, modified, and polluted in the manufacture of the items; hopefully someone has a (re)use for them. Plus, the Salvation Army (or other worthy charity) might be able to make a few bucks by selling them.*

1b) Food Pantry Drop-Off
Same idea. Plus, its timely for food pantries stocking up for holiday meals and winter.

2) Costumed Run through the Neighborhood
Fun, festive, memorable (aka cold), and a good counter-balance to holiday stuffing-one's-face. In the future, I hope to add singing and interval dances, which one might reasonably expect to degenerate into snowball fights.

3) Stuffing One's Face
A holiday isn't a holiday without stuffing one's face. Or, y'know, fasting. Traditional family Humanlight dishes TBD.

4) Candle lighting
Symbolic, pretty...blatantly stolen from Jewish tradition. Rabbi Wine claims that the tradition of lighting more candles each night for several consecutive nights actually pre-dates Chanukah in Jewish tradition, and was associated with the growing light of mid-winter.**

5) Cooperative strategy games
What can I say? ...I'm a gamer. Besides, problem solving and cooperation are humanist values.

6) Nesting in the Living Room
When I was a kid, my sister and I and the neighbor kids would occasionally build a big "nest" out of blankets in the living room, and sleep in a haphazard heap. It was the kind of thing that wouldn't have been any fun if we'd done it often, but doing it once in a while, rarely, it was inexplicably great fun. I think that will make it an ideal Humanlight holiday tradition.


* I didn't include monetary donations to charities because I do that regularly anyways, and I find it too business-y to be a holiday tradition. This may be a relic of being raised in a tradition where handling money is forbidden on holy days (or just Sabbath? I don't know.)

** I have a design in mind for a mirrored sun-shaped candle-holder, with human figures (see also: stick figures) circling the central candle. I have an idea of how I would build it, but realistically, this won't happen probably ever, and certainly not by the 23rd. But if I do make one, I would call it a Sun Bouncer.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on December 29, 2009 at 10:54pm

a red velvet smoking jacket, a purple top hat, a snow-flake headress, and tinsel.

No wonder the neighbors were looking. Next time, more clothes might be in order. Or not. Depends on where you live. There's a town in southern Vermont where public nudity is legal. At least, it was last time I checked. I think the law changes from time to time.

The candle holder sounds great. If you are inclined to sell things at all, I'm sure there would be a market. I'd buy one, if it weren't made of solid gold.

Thanks for the update. I am so adding some of your suggestions to next year.