Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/1512171
| LIFE IN SOLERA | DECEMBER 2023 | 15 This & That Submitted by e Solera Ghostwriter May loneliness leave your life, sad thoughts become happy memories and help make our world be better place for all to share. This Holiday Season, may you find love, peace, kindness and tolerance to all who cross your path. Happy Holidays, from the Solera Ghostwriter. Is it okay to kiss someone under mistletoe? OF COURSE! For centuries many of our forebear's believed mistletoe has special powers, probably because mistletoe seemed to appear magically in the upper branches of trees. The Druids believed that the plant was sacred, and other ancient Britons thought it could cure sterility and act as antidote for poisons. The Romans made mistletoe a part of their Saturnalia, an ancient feast in honor of the god Saturn held around Dec. 17 to celebrate the winter solstice and the completion of the year's agricultural work. During this festival there was feasting, unrestrained revelry, and a temporary disregard for all rules of conduct. Enemies were treated as friends, slaves were served by their masters, and all lines of propriety were ignored. The attitude during the Saturnalia was "anything goes," and this came to be symbolized by the mistletoe. When the Christians began using mistletoe to decorate their churches during the Christmas season, some of its Saturnalian reputation caused problems. Among other things, it emboldened young men to steal kisses from young ladies when they were near mistletoe. Eventually it was banned from the sanctuary, but it then moved to the halls and chambers in other parts of the church where it continued to cast its charms. Did you know Christmas was once banned? WHAT? In the mid-17th century, the Puritan-led English Parliament banned Christmas celebrations in favor of a day of fasting. Furthermore, the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday was Alabama in 1836. The last state was Oklahoma in 1890. Kwanzaa was created in the 1960s. Maulana Karenga, a Black nationalist who later became a college professor, created Kwanzaa as a way of uniting and empowering the African American community in the aftermath of the deadly Watts Rebellion. Having modeled his holiday on traditional African harvest festivals, he took the name "Kwanzaa" from the Swahili phrase, "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruit." The extra "a" was added, Karenga has said, simply to accommodate seven children at the first-ever Kwanzaa celebration in 1966, each of whom wanted to represent a letter. Happy Hanukkah! Hanukkah commemorates the triumph of a band of rebel Jews (known as the Maccabees) in reclaiming the Temple of Jerusalem from the Greek-Syrians. Their victory is documented in the First and Second Books of Maccabees, Hanukkah, therefore, celebrates freedom from oppression. After the Maccabee victory, they cleansed and rededicated the temple – as the story goes, they required a holy light to burn inside at all times, but the Jews had only enough oil for one night. Incredibly, the light burned for eight days.