From our family to yours,

we wish you Happy Holidays!

It’s the time of year when many cultures celebrate special dates both religious and secular. There are many festivals and traditions celebrated around the world in December and we, here at Dr. Dennis Dunne’s office, wish your family a very happy celebration, whatever tradition you call your own. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A brief summary of some of the traditions celebrated in December.

CHRISTMAS – December 25th

Christmas Day is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25th as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world’s nations and is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people.

The celebratory customs associated with Christmas have a mix of Christian and secular themes. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, completing an Advent calendar, Christmas music and caroling, an exchange of Christmas cards, church services, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, Santa Claus is associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore.

Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle and simply “Santa”, is a figure with legendary, historical and folkloric origins who brings gifts to the homes of the good children on 24 December, the night before Christmas Day.

HANUKKAH – December 24th ~ January 1st (2017)

Hanukkah, or Chanukah, also known as the Festival of Lights, Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is observed by the lighting of the lights of a unique candelabrum, the nine-branched menorah or hanukiah, one additional light on each night of the holiday, progressing to eight on the final night. The typical menorah consists of eight branches with an additional visually distinct branch. The extra light is called a shamash and is given a distinct location, usually above or below the rest. The purpose of the shamash is to have a light available for practical use, as using the Hanukkah lights themselves.

KWANZAA – December 26th ~ January 1st

Kwanzaa is a week-long celebration held in the United States and also celebrated in the Western African Diaspora in other nations of the Americas. The celebration honors African heritage in African-American culture, and is observed from December 26 to January 1, culminating in a feast and gift-giving. Kwanzaa has seven core principles. It was created by Maulana Karenga, and was first celebrated in 1966–67. Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1965 as the first specifically African-American holiday. According to Karenga, the name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase matunda ya kwanza, meaning “first fruits of the harvest”. The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960s, although most East African nations were not involved in the Atlantic slave trade that brought African people to America.

Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, as follows:

Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination): To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
Kwanzaa symbols include a decorative mat on which other symbols are placed, corn and other crops, a candle holder with seven candles, a communal cup for pouring libation, gifts, a poster of the seven principles, and a black, red, and green flag. The symbols were designed to convey the seven principles.

SOLSTICE – December 21st

Winter solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Winter solstice occurs for the Northern Hemisphere in December and for the Southern Hemisphere in June. Many people around the world celebrate this event with feasts and festivals.

Here’s wishing you and your family a very merry holiday celebration, whatever you celebrate this time of year!