1953

Why is it that we light candles at Christmas and take joy in
their splendor? Whatever the historical causes for this custom,
they are no longer effective for us. But does this mean, then,
that the splendor of the Christmas lights has become merely
a festal ornament that somehow belongs to the joyous mood of
the holiday? Is it dear to us because as we look at it memories
are awakened -- memories that reach all the way back to our
childhood and are at once sad and happy? Certainly this is so.
But is this the only reason or the decisive one?

Whoever is asked why we light candles at Christmas will
surely say, if he reflects on it, that the answer is not far to
seek; the lights that we kindle are a symbol of the Light -- the
Light that is spoken of in these lines:

The eternal Light there enters the world,
And gives it a new appearance.
It shines brightly in the middle of the night
And makes all of us children of light. ^{● ●}

In that case, however, the splendor of the light not only
makes us happy in an aesthetic and sentimental sense, but
rather, as a symbol, has something to say to us -- is, so to
speak, a word addressed to us. But what is it that this world
would tell us? Just this, that "the eternal Light" wants to
shine into our dark world.

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