After the excitement (and to be fair, stress of the holiday season) the next month or two of the winter can be pretty much of a downer. No special days to look forward to, no festivities, no decorations, cards, presents, special foods - just cold, and above all, DARK. The short days are enough to make anyone glum. For confirmation, just check out the suicide rates in countries like Sweden and Norway where for much of the year, the country is sunk in almost perpetual night.
That's why, to paraphrase and canibalize a popular song, what the world needs now is Mehrlicht, sweet Mehrlicht.
What, you may ask, is Mehrlicht, and why do we need it? It is an obscure German/Scandinavian folk holiday, still practiced today in some small communities, but dating back some five or six hundred years. (The illustration above is from the late 1500s and shows the sun pushing back the night, symbolized by the stars. The seven candles represent the growing light of the days of the week.)
Observed on January 21, Mehrlicht celebrates the day when the growing light becomes truly noticeable. The days grow longer from the Winter Equinox on, but at first the progress is so miniscule, it is a fact acknowledged with the intellect, but not felt with the heart. It is at the end of January that suddenly the lingering sunlight and longer days become truly noticeable, and relief and joy at turning the corner toward Spring and Summer are felt.
Traditional observances include children in the family, and sometimes even the adults (!)wearing homemade crowns ranging from simple to elaborate proclaiming Mehrlicht; lighting seven candles in the evening, with an eighth, taller candle used to light them which is then displayed as well; Mehrlicht processions, where children and adults wearing their crowns and holding lit tapers walk seven times around the town square (if there still is one!) and formally announce light's victory over darkness; and a light but festive meal featuring eggs, whose bright yellow center is seen as the sun and increasing light of day.There are other observances and customs, of course, and for those people who still observe Mehrlicht who live in a city or non-traditional town, the procession is hardly practical!
My father, who was born in a very small town in Germany in 1905, told me some wonderful stories about Mehrlicht in his childhood, mostly featuring wonderful confections given to him by visiting relatives (maple sugar sweets and also rock crystal candies). Each January 21, we would all sit down together and make crowns out of construction paper, glitter, and anything else we could put our hands on, and had a special meal lit by the eight candles. We sang some simple German songs, too, but I can't quite recall them - they teeter on the edge of my memory - tantalizingly close, but just out of reach.
Below: a Mehlicht pantomime from about 1910.
At any rate, this year I am striking a blow for the observance of Mehrlicht. I am going to make a crown, have an egg-rich meal, and light the candles. I have one of those nifty German contraptions where the heat from the candles make a paddle above them move, and a charming vignette thus revolves while the candles are burning, and I think that will be perfect. I will wish my friends a joyous Mehrlicht, and give them egg-rich pastries for a holiday treat.
After all, we always need more light in our lives, and Mehrlicht brings it to us when we are weary of the dark and longing for the new growth and hop of spring. I reluctantly remind my self, though, that darkness is important, too, alas; balance, always balance. Without the dark night of introspection, rest, and restoration, we would all sputter and burn out, like a candle. To everything there is a season. Mehrlicht celebrates the season of light.
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(By the way, for a related post, see 1/6/09. Above I quoted Ecclesiastices (in the original Hebrew, Koheles) when I wrote "to everything there is a season." This post of almost exactly a year ago shows that "There is nothing new under the sun," the word sun being especially appropriate for a discussion of Mehrlicht. Party on, dudes!)
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(By the way, for a related post, see 1/6/09. Above I quoted Ecclesiastices (in the original Hebrew, Koheles) when I wrote "to everything there is a season." This post of almost exactly a year ago shows that "There is nothing new under the sun," the word sun being especially appropriate for a discussion of Mehrlicht. Party on, dudes!)
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