Beyond savouring the pleasures of sleigh bells ringing, reindeer prancing, crooners crooning, and carollers carolling, it is good to consider that our rich western tradition of Christmas rubs shoulders with other, ever more ancient, communal festivals that occur this approximate time of year. Each festival has its own influential place in human history as hugely significant human inventions and expressions of art and architecture; each has at its core a human necessity – a primal need to seek refuge from the unseen, from the “dark”. As social animals, (perhaps, even as unwitting pack animals) we also seek illumining interactions with each other as the days grow shorter. From earliest of times humans have created extraordinary ways to replace fear with awe and wonder, or, in more modern times, most convincingly, to camouflage their dormant primal responses in cosy comforting conventions like Christmas cards and carols.
Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, irrefutable, cyclical, and metaphysical events may well have stimulated the invention of the earliest religious or spiritual practices. The earliest ‘temples’ built may well have been in direct response to the extraordinary conditions and abundant mysteries prehistoric men and women and their children awoke to every morning. Light or the absence thereof would have been a constant predicament to those with no means to extend their day with lamps in every corner. Ironically, the shortest day of the year, though dreaded by most, in reality, marks the ‘Return of the Light’ after a six-month stretch of imperceptibly declining daylight. We are happy to join those hearty souls of thousands of years ago with our own Inscape winter festival celebrating the promise of both personal and global enlightenment and peace, as we too welcome the return of the sun’s daily light in our Northern Hemisphere.
We, too, experience these momentous transitions in a variety of ways, some serious, some approaching the absurd. Perhaps, as the clocks go back in autumn, so do we. We wonder if our hirsute ancestors, three thousand years ago – gathered together, perhaps, on Salisbury Plain- so longed for the lengthening of light that followed the Solstice, they brilliantly worked out how to “catch” the light, momentarily observing the moment the day begins its ascent. To this day light from the sun is a matter of physical safety, even of mental survival.
Perhaps, in November and December, as we, like the trees and the grasses, shed our foliage and shrink back down to the earth, we share something of their fear. We retreat into a kind of hibernation, hiding from the pervasive darkness, and reach for the fire and many candles, just as our ancestors would have lit torches against the darkness. Sweden has its St Lucia’s Day, when light blonde girls illumine the rooms with candle crowns. Denmark has its Yuletide. In Norway they hide their brooms to prevent witches from riding on them. Germany has its evergreen trees and honey-sweetened lebkuchen. Holland has its St Nicholas’ Day. The Philippines parade their giant lantern. In Venezuela entire towns are lit by candles. Washington DC has a nine-metre high Hannukah menorah on the White House lawn, alongside an equally impressive brilliantly lit Christmas tree.
We need the fire of the candles and the hearth, not just for their warmth, not even just for their light, but for their life. The magical way that, from a mere match, fire laps at bark, kindling or wax, and then bursts into a flickering, reaching, exulting song. Perhaps at this time of year we should emulate the fire built in the darkness of the cave, all the while building on sparks of life till we hear the uplifting independent music of the flames. Then, on or about the 21 December, what revelation! At its dawn the sun peeks above the horizon at a point very very slightly to the north, lengthening its daily journey, extending the light. We rejoice, and, even in the depths of winter, feel the trees stirring and see the pink bloom on the grasses in the field. The afternoons lengthen, just a little, even with snow on the ground. Buds appear through the frosty fog. It is a time of joy.
With this annual Inscape programme of Winter celebrations, we offer a series of joyous, uplifting sounds and pictures, mellifluous words and ideas, in celebration, not just of the christian and secular celebrations of Christmas, but of all the midwinter and New Year festivals of which Christmas is but One. We pursue an unusual take on Christmas, setting it in the context of those earlier celebrations, when people watched the return of the sun at an ancient temple site or came together nightly for eight days to light the candles of the Chanukah menorah. Indeed it would appear the birthday of Jesus was chosen to coincide with such festivals, just as, when Pope Gregory sent Augustine to these islands in the early 6c, he insisted Augustine should preach in places of pagan worship, as that was where people were used to going. As a midwinter festival, Christmas could be seen as a festival of great antiquity. Its traditions, whether of light, of holly and ivy, the yule log, or the evergreen tree long predate the birth of Jesus. We explore how Christmas has been the inspiration, not just for Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Britten’s Ceremony of Carols in their huge originality and emotional magnificence, but for the memories of childhood Christmases of Dylan Thomas and Laurie Lee. We round off our eight days of Christmas and Chanukah with the poems, paintings and toasts of New Year’s Eve. We then move on to the feast of the Epiphany, with the paintings and poetry of the Magi and the story of Janus. We conclude our festival with a voluntary round of ‘Auld Lang Syne’, to say farewell to the past year and welcome in the nascent New along with the regeneration of our hopes and dreams! We look forward to everyone’s pleasure and participation in this course.
Booking Information:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
This online course via Zoom will be presented by Nicholas Friend, Co-Founder, Managing Director of Inscape. It is held on Mondays and Fridays (with one Saturday). It begins on Monday 13 December 2022 at 5 pm, and ends on Friday 6 January 2023 at 5pm.
You may choose to attend individual sessions or all eight, in which case there is a discount! If you would like to attend but cannot manage a particular date, then be assured we will be sending recordings of sessions to all participants. Each session meets from 20 minutes before the advertised time of the lecture, and each lecture lasts roughly one hour, with around 15 minutes discussion.
Cost: £360 members or £440 non-members for the course of 8 sessions or £45 members or £55 non-members per individual session. All sessions are limited to 21 participants to permit discussion.
Due to the coronavirus cheques are not a viable option at this time. Instead, please make your payment to Friend&Friend Ltd by bank transfer to our account with Metrobank, bank sort code 23-05-80, account number 13291721 or via PayPal to nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk, or credit/debit card by phone to Henrietta on 07940 719397. She is available Tuesdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm or Thursdays 10-12 and 2-5 pm. Do get in touch if you would like extra support learning how to use Zoom.
How to Set Up a PayPal account::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Click on this link: https://www.paypal.com/uk/home
In the upper right-hand corner of the screen, click “Sign up.”
On the following screen choose “Personal account” and click “Next.”
On the next page, you’ll be asked to enter your name, email address and to create and confirm a password. When finished, click “Next.”
Click “Agree and create account” and your PayPal account will be created.
How to Connect your Bank Account to your PayPal account:::::::::::::::::::::::
Log on to your account and click the “Wallet” option in the menu bar running along the top of the screen.
On the menu running down the left side of the screen, click the “Link a credit or debit card”.
Enter the card information you wish to link to your PayPal account and click “Link card” for debit card.
How to Send Money::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Log on to your account. Click Send & Request.
Enter the email address of the person you wish to send money to: nicholas@inscapetours.co.uk
Type in the amount you wish to send, click continue then press ‘Send Money Now’.
INSCAPE CULTURAL STUDY SOCIETY 