12/14/2025
December is where all the stories overlap — and it always has been.
Every year, right about now, humans across cultures begin doing the same things.
We light candles.
We gather people close.
We share food.
We tell old stories.
We mark time.
We survive winter together.
Different names.
Different symbols.
Same ancient rhythm.
Hanukkah.
Yule.
Christmas.
Kwanzaa.
And long before them all — Saturnalia and winter solstice rites that existed centuries before modern calendars.
This isn’t coincidence.
It’s pattern.
I’ve always loved studying religion — not to debate belief or rank traditions, but to trace where the roots touch underground. When you look at December historically, you can see that no tradition emerged in isolation. They grew from land, seasons, survival, and the human nervous system responding to darkness, cold, and uncertainty.
Long before Christianity spread through Europe, pagan and earth-based cultures honored the winter solstice — the longest night of the year. Fires were lit to call the sun back. Evergreens were brought indoors as symbols of life enduring winter. Feasts were held because animals were slaughtered before scarcity set in. What kept people alive became sacred.
When Christianity expanded, it didn’t erase those customs — it absorbed and reinterpreted them. December 25th wasn’t chosen at random; it aligned with existing solstice celebrations so new converts could recognize familiar rhythms through a new theological story.
Same timing.
New narrative.
That’s how culture evolves — not by deletion, but by layering.
Food played a central role too. Winter feasts weren’t indulgence; they were practical and communal. The pig shows up repeatedly in European winter traditions 🐖 not as a joke, but as a symbol of abundance and survival. One animal could feed many through the cold months. Later religious meanings shifted — some traditions embraced it, others abstained — yet both responses reflect relationship to life, restraint, reverence, and care.
Hanukkah follows a different lineage entirely — rooted in Jewish history, resistance, remembrance, and perseverance. It’s lunar-based, not tied to the solstice, yet it centers on light in darkness and continuity. That parallel isn’t theft — it’s humanity arriving at the same need through different history.
Kwanzaa, much newer, was intentionally created to honor African heritage, communal values, and cultural continuity — unity, purpose, self-determination — during a season when reflection and gathering already live in the body.
Different origins.
Shared season.
Shared nervous-system wisdom.
For me, this isn’t theoretical.
I was raised Roman Catholic.
I celebrated Hanukkah for over 20 years with my ex-husband’s family.
Now I celebrate Yule for myself — and Christmas for my mom.
Not because I’m confused.
Because I’m relational.
Because honoring someone else’s tradition never erased my own.
Because meaning can layer without canceling what came before.
Because love doesn’t require sameness.
Add this layer and everything makes sense:
I’m triple Sagittarius, born December 19, 1976, in the Year of the Fire Dragon.
Fire.
Faith.
Story.
Tradition.
Love.
December has always been magical to me — not because of spectacle, but because it carries memory, warmth, and meaning. This month lives in my bones. It’s why I’m drawn to ritual, to lineage, to hearth-keeping instead of hierarchy.
This is the work I do — not as a theologian, but as a
clairsentient translator and hearth-keeper, working through land, lineage, and nervous-system wisdom.
I notice where stories overlap.
Where rituals calm the body.
Where light returns because humans need it to.
And this is where I’m clear now:
I’m done with the performance era of my life.
Done making holidays work for everyone else.
Done with the pressure, the stress, the proving.
We’ve drifted so far from love — trading presence for presents, depth for discounts, connection for consumption. Black Friday doesn’t speak to my soul. A candle in the dark does.
So I’m choosing to do holidays my way now.
With intention.
With rest.
With truth.
With love at the center — not obligation.
That’s why December looks like this every year:
🕯️ Hanukkah — sundown December 14–22, 2025
🌲 Yule / Winter Solstice — December 21, 2025
🎄 Christmas — December 25, 2025
🖤 Saturnalia — December 17–23 (ancient Roman)
🕯️ Kwanzaa — December 26 – January 1
Different candles.
Same fire.
December keeps reminding me that beneath theology, politics, commerce, and history…
we are all just people trying to get through winter with light, food, story, and each other.
That’s what I choose to celebrate. ✨
