It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. - Eleanor Roosevelt

 

The cold temperatures and short daylight hours of December remind me that we are approaching our final weeks of the calendar year. While I find it hard to believe how quickly that has happened, there is (fortunately) no stopping the Earth’s revolution around the Sun. I may be particularly aware of this with the 4:45 p.m. sunset these days, and while I am tempted to “curse the darkness,” instead I think about all the different traditions our community celebrates and their shared symbol of light.

 

The menorah symbolizes the miracle of lights during Hanukkah, Diwali’s festival of lights celebrates driving out spiritual darkness, and the seven kinara candles represent the principles of Kwanzaa. Christmas lights remind us to bring hope and good into the world, while the lanterns used during Lunar New Year symbolize a bright and prosperous future, and the Fanous marks the beginning of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan. Even solstice rituals that pre-date our modern-day religions and cultures remind us that the life-giving sun will return.

 

I am sure there are other winter festivals that I haven’t yet learned about, but whether our celebrations are cultural or religious, they compel us to bring light into world, to give thanks for our blessings, to have hope that our children will live in a more enlightened society and to strive for wisdom over ignorance. These are values we all share at Bryn Mawr, and our common desire to make the world a better place unites us. The word “community” reminds us to focus on what we have in common rather than what differentiates us. The Bryn Mawr community is a gift to celebrate all year long.

 

Learning from each other’s traditions is one of the benefits a diverse community provides. I appreciate all the families who share their traditions with their children’s classmates over the course of the year. I have enjoyed seeing many cultures and religions represented in the libraries, classrooms and lobbies of the school for two reasons. First, I believe it’s important for children to bring their full selves to school, and seeing representation of their traditions is important to developing a strong and proud identity. I also believe that learning about the different ways people celebrate and worship makes us better thinkers and more thoughtful individuals.

 

For many of us, these next few weeks offer time to reflect, to be with family and to celebrate our traditions. To those of you who celebrate holidays in the upcoming weeks, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa. To all our wonderful families, I wish you joy and peace in the New Year.