Both raised in the Christian tradition, and living in a society where Christmas is nearly unavoidable, my husband and I choose to join in the celebration of Jesus’ birth though to us it is more the birth of a wonderful man and peace worker than of a deity.  We will also recognize and celebrate the winter solstice as I feel most spiritually connected with rituals tied to the cycles of nature.  There is a secular elf of Indian descent who wreaks havoc around our house every night.  And though my husband’s Buddha figures don’t garner any special attention at this time of year, they remain present in their constant places of honor.

In the midst of all of that, there is one more very important holiday display to be laid out:  Chalica.

Chalica is a little known and comparatively new winter holiday that celebrates service, compassion, and respcect, but in the middle of a season already bursting at the seams with celebrations, why would anyone consider adding another holiday to the mix?

For our family, it’s because Chalica is a perfect complement to all the wonderful parts of the Yultide while also serving as an ideal counterpoint to the negative that so often accompanies this time of year (materialism, segregation of beliefs, etc.).   Chalica also offers a simplicity and flexibility enabling it to meld seamlessly into other festivities.  Seven days, seven candles, and seven principles, and from there it becomes whatever you need it to be.

Each day of Chalica calls us to light a candle and focus on a different concept, encouraging participants to think about and discuss that aspect of their lives while taking actions, small or large, to further the principle in question.

Drawn from the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism, Chalica is a celebration open to and appropriate for all faith paths.  The days and corresponding principles are as follows:

• Monday – The inherent worth and dignity of every person (or being).  Child version: Everyone is important.
• Tuesday – Justice, equality, and compassion in human relations. Child version: Be kind in all you do.
• Wednesday – Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual (or personal) growth.  Child version: Our freedom to learn together.
• Thursday – Free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Child version: We’re always searching for the truth.
• Friday – The right of conscience and use of the democratic process.  Child version:   All people need a need a voice.
• Saturday – The goal of a worldwide community of peace, liberty, and justice for all.  Child version:  Building a fair and peaceful world.
• Sunday – Respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are all a part.  Child version:  All beings share the Earth.

A traditional Chalica candle display or alter features a central Chalice and seven additional candles arranged around it.  On each night of Chalica, one of the seven candles (each representing one of the seven principles) is lit from the center chalice so that on the seventh night all eight candles are lit.

There is no single mandated standard for how the chalice or Chalica display must look.  Last year, ours was made up entirely of used candles that no longer had places in our home.  The Chalice was a big globe shaped Yule candle and the rest of the candles were tea lights and stumps.  It wasn’t the prettiest display, but that didn’t matter.  Pretty isn’t the point of Chalica – and in using old candles that might otherwise get thrown away, we were honoring the seventh principle!

Common methods for creating chalices (a fun holiday craft and great way to introduce the holiday to your family!) include decorating a champagne coupe (a wide, shallow, stemware glass) or decorating a flower pot and saucer then turning the pot upside down and gluing the saucer on top to create a chalice.  A display can consist of one chalice and seven smaller chalices, eight chalices all the same size arranged so the central chalice is offset from the others, or one chalice and seven separate candles.  Or anything else you like!  You can also purchase chalices from several sites like Flaming Chalice and UniUniques.

A Chalica celebration starts with the lighting of the candle.  This can be at any time of day that works best for you.  We prefer either lighting the candle in the morning or the night before the assigned day.  This is because the candle lighting is the time to discuss the principle of the day, its meaning, and what we will do to honor that principle on the day in question.  It is also a time to discuss how the actions of the previous day went and how we honored that principle.

On Sunday night, the night before the first day of Chalica, we will light the chalice and the first candle and discuss the inherent worth and dignity of every being.  We will talk about what exactly that phrase means and brainstorm ways we might honor that principle.  We might come up with special ways to show our loved ones how much they mean to us or seek out the positive characteristics in people (or animals) who we don’t like very much.  This is a great day for writing holiday cards (but be sure they’re sustainably sourced)!

Traditionally, Chalica starts on the first Monday in December, but for the second year in a row, our family will be celebrating Chalica starting on the second Monday in December because Mommy (that would be me) tends to forget to write Chalica on the calendar – especially when it overlaps with Daddy’s birthday…

For seven days we will continue discussing the principles and finding ways to use those principles to make the world a better place.  We even try to find ways to fit dinner to the theme every night.  The seventh night is easy, a vegan meal from local sources and a discussion of Ethical Eating and food justice.  Other nights can be more challenging.  On Friday, we might vote on what the meal will be.  On Thursday maybe we’ll discuss the meaning of religious meals in various faiths.  The only limit on Chalica is your own creativity (or that of Google…).

Chalica is not about gifts or decorations and can be celebrated across religious lines.  It does not compete with or exclude other holidays taking place at this time, and only asks that we take time to focus on how we can make a difference.  We even put Chalica activities in our Advent Calendar.

We are a young UU family, and we are building our holiday traditions and finding our individual faith paths as we go.  For us, Chalica is a perfect way to live our beliefs.  It is anything but “just another winter holiday.”

If you’re interested in learning more about Chalica, or finding ideas for how to celebrate it in your home, check out these resources:

An excellent Chalica Activity booklet geared toward children was created by Meredith Plummer, Director of Religious Education at the First Unitarian Church of Cincinnati, OH.

Chalica Facebook Page

Chalica: Parenting Beyond Belief

Navigating the Winter Holidays

The Chalica Song!

Chalica on Pinterest

The post Chalica appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

This post has been featured as lead story on the HuffPost Green Holidays page.

Bundled up tight and clutching mugs of hot chocolate, we wondered thoughtfully through the fragrant pine forest.  Finally, just as the snow started to pick up, one of us would spot it – the perfect tree.  It was always my brother or me who spotted the tree, but somehow I’m sure my dad pointed us there (or maybe we just spotted every tree until we got the nod).  When my dad crouched beneath this magical tree with his saw, I never failed to feel a pang of guilt.  Surely we shouldn’t be cutting down a tree?  Trees are important.  Didn’t we just plant a tree on Arbor Day?

As a child, these pangs of guilt were short lived and immediately washed away by the warmth and glitter of decorating day.  As an adult, though, the environmental impact of my choices is important to me.

A 2011 study revealed a neck-and-neck (or trunk-and-trunk, if you will) race between real and artificial trees for environmental supremacy.  In the long run, the habits of the individual consumer have weigh much more into the sustainability of either option than do the trees themselves.

Drive Time and Tree Transport

Transportation is one of the most significant environmental impact factors in the holiday tree industry.  It seems obvious to say that an artificial tree shipped from China will have a greater impact than a US grown real tree, but this isn’t always the case.  Mass shipping practices are much more efficient than personally owned vehicles.  Cumulatively, long family trips in search of a real tree may have a greater carbon footprint than mass shipping of artificial trees.  So the first consideration consumers should undertake is comparing the distance to the tree farm or Farmer’s Market versus the distance to wherever they might purchase an artificial tree.  This will also need to be coupled with how many times one plans to make such a trip – every year for real trees, less often (presumably) for artificial trees.  Which brings us to:

Storage and Disposal

Both real and artificial trees contribute to our already overburdened landfills.  The methods consumers choose to dispose of their trees, as well as how long they choose to keep and use their artificial trees, also figure into calculations of which is the more sustainable option.  A consumer needs to reuse an artificial tree for 5 – 10 years in order to establish an environmental impact lower than that of real trees.  One study stated an artificial tree would need to be re-used for 20 years to have this effect.

On the disposal side, real trees seem to come out ahead.  Artificial trees are generally non-biodegradable and will languish in a landfill for centuries, laced with petroleum-based chemicals.  When disposing of an artificial tree, consider donating it to a charity, a needy family, or a re-sale store.  There may also be recycling possibilities available depending on where you live.  Still, the more than 50 million artificial trees in use in the US (as of 2010) have to go somewhere at the end of their lives, and they, unlike real trees, cannot become mulch.

Just because real trees are biodegradable does not mean the landfill is an environmentally conscious disposal solution for them.  Items in a landfill biodegrade very slowly and take up precious space.  With real Christmas trees, there are many “Treecycling” options.  When I was a kid in western Michigan, we had a Christmas tree graveyard in the woods behind our house where our holiday trees when to await their fate as firewood.  When I lived in New York City, a good friend sought out real trees to be chunked up and given as toys to the orangutans at the Bronx Zoo.  At Eastern Market in Detroit, any unsold Christmas trees as the end of the season are turned into mulch for the farmers.  There are several options out there.  The landfill should not be one of them.

Pesticides vs PVC

      The most common indictment levied against artificial Christmas trees is the fact that they usually contain PVC and often lead.  That is enough of a concern for me; I don’t want my baby crawling around beneath a tree that might contain lead (or PVC).  But what about pesticides?  Christmas trees are farmed just like any other crop.  The plus side of this is that when you cut down a live holiday tree, you’re not contributing to deforestation, you’re simply harvesting a crop grown for that purpose.  The downside is that many tree farms use “contemporary” farming practices – meaning pesticides and chemical fertilizers.  I don’t really want my baby crawling around in that, either.  My options are then to either declare this one a toss-up and base my decision on the other factors (and keep my baby well away from the tree, which is about as easy as keeping my cat away from the tree); or to seek out an organic tree farm or an artificial tree company that does not use those chemicals.

Photosynthesis

There are environmental and social benefits to tree farming.  According to Earth911, “A single farmed tree absorbs more than 1 ton of CO2 throughout its lifetime. With more than 350 million real Christmas tress growing in U.S. tree farms alone, you can imagine the yearly amount of carbon sequestering associated with the trees. Additionally, each acre of trees produces enough oxygen for the daily needs of 18 people.”  Further, more than 100,000 people in the US are employed by the live Christmas tree industry.

American Made

      There are also jobs created in the US by the artificial tree industry.  There are a few a few US producers of artificial Christmas trees.  These include, Christmas in America, New Jersey’s Holiday Tree and Trim Co., and USChristmastree.com.

Unique Alternatives

A few years ago, we hatched a plan to have an indoor tree for all holidays.  We purchased a contorted filbert for this purpose one spring.  Sadly, it succumbed to aphids just as it was sprouting leaves.  Still, a year round potted holiday tree is an idea I’m fond of, and one we will probably try again in the future.

Another popular alternative is to purchase a small potted tree and then transplant it outside in the spring.  You can purchase a potted pine tree at most nurseries that will survive the holidays in its pot and can then become a thriving part of your home landscaping.

The Daily Green also recommends decorating an outdoor tree instead of bringing a tree into your home.  This isn’t the ideal alternative for me (or my kids!), but for some people it might be just perfect.  I do remember when I was a kid, we used to run all the extension cords in our house (an my dad was a carpenter, so we had plenty) way out into the woods and string up a white pine with colorful lights.  Then we would make balls of birdseed and peanut butter with paperclip hooks to decorate that tree, our own special holiday offering to nature.  And I remember many winter evenings gazing out our frosted windows at the twinkling lights way out in the snowy woods.

And the Winner is:

In the real vs artificial debate, real trees still come out ahead in my book.  Where we live in Detroit, it’s pretty easy to Make it a Real Michigan Christmas.  If you live in an area where real trees are hard to come by or require a lot of travel, the answer might be different for you.  Either way, please keep in mind that there are a lot more ways to green your holidays than simply choosing the right tree for you.

Lights

Did you know that the lights you choose to put on your tree actually have a much bigger impact than the tree itself?  A switch to LED lights is a major step toward sustainability this holiday season.  LED lights use about 1/6 the amount of energy that “traditional” Christmas lights use.  Just make sure you recycle those old lights!

Paper

      According to Stanford University:

“Americans throw away 25% more trash during the Thanksgiving to New Year’s holiday period than any other time of year. The extra waste amounts to 25 million tons of garbage, or about 1 million extra tons per week!  If every family reused just two feet of holiday ribbon, the 38,000 miles of ribbon saved could tie a bow around the entire planet. If every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields. The 2.65 billion Christmas cards sold each year in the U.S. could fill a football field 10 stories high. If we each sent one card less, we’d save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.”

This year, consider sending digital holiday cards, purchasing paper products made only from 100% post-consumer recycled materials, and re-using other paper products to make cards and wrapping paper.  There are dozens of templates available for converting cereal boxes to gift boxes, plastic bags to festive bows, and more.  Urban Earthworm features a long list of alternative gift card and wrapping paper ideas, including my favorite – homemade seed paper!

Gifts

      What gifts you give this year and where they come from also have a huge impact.  If you can avoid giving “stuff,” that is always a good idea.  I don’t really need any more Harry Potter or Dr. Who memorabilia (really, I don’t…), but a sessions at the local areal yoga gym or someone to do the dishes for me (especially that last one!) would be ideal.  The list of non-material gifts is nearly un-ending and is only limited by your creativity.

Shopping local is another key way to reduce your impact this holiday season.  For those in the Detroit metro region, the local and hand-made gift possibilities are endless.  From the Detroit Merchantile’s Merry Market to Michigan Artisans, there are few excuses not to shop local this season.  Thrift and re-sale shops are also a great alternative, a built-in form of recycling.  I’ll never turn down a thrift-shop pile of books!  And, of course one doesn’t want to overlook all the local offerings at Eastern Market.

If you must purchase online, consider purchasing from a charitable organization.  Nearly every charity offers gifts for sale, with the proceeds going to benefit the works of the organization.  There are also sites like The Animal Rescue Site and Global Girlfriend, which bring together a huge selection of items with a portion of the proceeds going to charity.

Over the River and Through the Woods

      Lastly, always keep in mind the costs of transportation.  The fewer shopping trips you take, the better you are treating the environment.  If you can walk to the stores or take public transit, all the better.  If not, consider trying to consolidate all your shopping into one trip.  Happy (and Green) Holidays to you!

The post Sustainable Holiday Tips and Real vs Artificial Trees appeared first on Urban Earthworm.

      The integration of Chalica into our holiday activities has been an ideal way to imbue our festivities with even more meaning and thought without adding the “bulk” of another holiday to our schedule.  I think Chalica presents a wonderful opportunity for families of any religion to really embrace the spirit of the season.

      Chalica was developed as a Unitarian Universalist holiday in 2005.  While the first reaction of many is to cringe a little at the thought of “yet another” holiday at this time of year, or any “new” holiday at all, I think a closer look at Chalica reveals it to be more of a beautiful flourish or a thoughtful overlay to what you’re already doing for the holidays.

       The beauty of Chalica is in its simplicity and flexibility.  The concept is simple: 7 days, 7 candles, 7 principles.  Every day for 7 days  you light a new candle representing one of the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism.  On that day, you pay particular attention to that principle and plan actions that promote and embody that principle. 

       The Seven Principles are:

1. The inherent worth and dignity of every person;
2. Justice, equity and compassion in human relations;
3. Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations;
4. A free and responsible search for truth and meaning;
5. The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large;
6. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all;
7. Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

      Chalica is supposed to kick off on the first Monday in December (which was the 3rd this year) and culminate on Sunday.  I, obviously, completely missed that deadline, but another beauty of Chalica is it’s flexibility, which is why our family is doing it this week!

       Today is our first day of Chalica, the day when we are focusing on the inherent worth and dignity of all beings (you’ll notice the principle states “every person,” but we expand it to all beings in our home).   This is typically treated as a day to develop compassion for those we dislike or disagree with – a time to mend broken bridges, forgive and forget, and to seek understanding of the positions of those you disagree with.

      There are many ways I could embrace this.  It fits in perfectly with my mission to complete the Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life.  I considered extending an invitation of friendship to one of three people in my life who seem to be on a constant mission to anger me or otherwise (unsuccessfully) meddle in my affairs, but, alas, I have done that before only to have those individuals continue on with their silliness.  I understand the insecurities their behaviours come from, and I try to look on them with compassion, but I will no longer be the one offering friendship in those cases.  There are literally dozens of ways I could embrace this Principle today, but ultimately I decided to be especially compassionate to one person in my life who I just have a hard time seeing eye-to-eye with.  This is a much bigger deal than it sounds like on its face.  This person annoys the heck out of me, and their stances on everything just seem wrong to me most of the time.  Today, I will ensure that our differences to not blind me to the inherent worth and dignity of that person.

       I will also be strictly vegan today in keeping with this principle.

(Obviously, I started this post on Monday.  Then 600,000 things needed my attention.  We are now on day four of Chalica, and it has been lovely so far!)

Timing:

      When I decided to do Chalica, I was worried about the potential for it to become somewhat of an afterthought:  “Oh, it’s 7pm, let’s light the Chalica candle.  How can we practice the first principle in the next hour and a half before bedtime?”  To remedy this, I decided to follow the Jewish tradition – viewing the day from sunset to sunset.  We lit our Day 1 candle at around Sunset last night, recognizing that we would be embracing the first Principle all day today.  At sunset tonight, we will recap our successes and light tomorrow’s candle.

      No matter what your religion, I encourage you to take a closer look at Chalica.  It is an ideal way to imbue every day for a week with meaning, and to add a little more magic to your holiday season.  For an extensive list of Chalica resources, a Chalica day-by-day printable coloring book, as well as suggestions for every day of Chalica, visit http://chalica.blogspot.com/.  The site is packed with information, references, and activities!

How is Chalica related to Sustainability?

I am a strong believer that sustainability goes far beyond simple science – it is a compassion for the Earth, for mankind and all living creatures on the planet, that real sustainability stems from a desire to do what is best for the world.  I believe Chalica is in every way in keeping with that spirit.

The Apocalypse

      I would be remiss if I didn’t so much as mention the impending Apocalypse.  The mania with the Mayan calendar was just starting to spin up when MacGyver and I first moved in together.  With my background in Anthropology and his studies in sustainability, climate change, and engineering, we both found the concept extremely amusing.  We are not doomsday preppers, but we are doomsday discussers, in as much as MacGyver loves to design crazy contraptions to see us through the apocalypse – like a gyroscopic house (effectively a house in a hamster ball).  Then we discuss.  My part of the conversation is typically about food production and world domination.

      In or around 2007, I announced that I would be throwing a huge End of the World Party on the 20th or 21st. I have DIBS on the End of the World party.  Our Party Like it’s 1999 Millenium Party was epic (in my mind at least, ;-))  With my unusual predeliction for astrology, my love of all things South American ancient history, and MacGyver’s doomsday survival inventions, it was only fitting that we throw the party.

      We even went to Chichen Itza on our honeymoon in anticipation of our End of the World plans.

***(I am showing great restraint in posting only these pictures.  This could easily turn into a pictures of our honeymoon post.  We need to get back to Central or South America soon!)***

     Sure, the Mayan apocalypse has been pretty much debunked.  The planetary alignment isn’t going to be nearly as perfect as had been claimed.  The Earth’s polarity probably isn’t going to switch.  And with the discovery of the calendar calculations in Guatemala, it was pretty much all over.

       But that really doesn’t make it any less fun, and it certainly didn’t change my plans.

      Alas, though,something did change my plans.  And that something was work.  Shocking, I know.  We were going to head for Michigan early enough to be home for the Apocalypse, but my work schedule dictated otherwise.

      So the End of the World party is off.  But perhaps there will be a “Fifth World” party.  I haven’t seen any real evidence to back up the Fifth World theory, but why not embrace the coming of a new world where people are more in tune with the planet?  Astrology isn’t going to make that happen, but maybe we can.  And we sure as heck should.  My favorite take on the Fifth World and the new world after tomorrow’s solstice was posited by the AstroTwins.  Here are a few excerpts:

“…a 5,125 year cycle of the Mayan calendar ends and another era begins. Since the human will to live is still strong, we choose to believe this is “the end of the world as we know it,” not a literal Armageddon. In fact, the Mayans call the post-2012 era The World Of The Fifth Sun or The Fifth World. The previous four worlds brought forth minerals, plants, animals then humans. In the Fifth World, humans will be called upon to reharmonize with nature ,as we stop abusing minerals (gold, silver, fossil fuels), restore our connection with nature (global warming, be warned!) and honor our connection to animals. Indeed, we are largely out of sync with nature, so much so that an extended power outage could take us to our knees. While those wacky survivalists might seem like lunatics, maybe they’re onto something. At the very least, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to learn the basics like growing our own food or otherwise living off the land, if for no other reason than to honor our connection to the planet. (Haven’t I been saying this all along?)”

“Part of the Mayan lore involved the Venus transit this past June 5, when Venus visibly crossed over the Sun, calling forth the divine feminine and awakening women’s power. While a balance of masculine and feminine is the way to keep the world in harmony, the warmongering aggression and violent plays for domination are not exactly doing the trick. Women leaders may come forth or stage a peaceful revolution that rocks the world with its loving vibes.”  I have also been saying for a long time that I’m seeing a positive shift toward a more peaceful feminine power in the world.  Don’t anyone go crying sexist on me, I love men and male power, too, but the balance between the feminine and masculine has been so tilted toward the masculine for so long that it has exacerbated the negative aspects of the greater masculine (both masculine and feminine have positive and negative potential).

      I may not be a “true believer” in most of the New Age stuff, but it all tends to really amuse me.  And as I said earlier, why NOT embrace the idea that after tomorrow, the world is on it’s way to being a more connected, peaceful place.  Heaven knows that’s what I’ll be working for.

      At the moment of the Solstice, which I believe is 06:12 (6:12am) in this time zone, I will be alone with MacGyver.  My plans for the rest of the day will be revealed in the future.  If we’re all still here.  Bwahahaha…

      See you all in the Fifth World!

The Hobbit

      I have no idea why I feel the desire to weigh in on this since it’s so far off topic for this site, but this post is long and disjointed already, why not throw it in? 

      I was super excited to hear about the new Hobbit movie coming out.   My dad has always been very into the Lord of the Rings, and I couldn’t wait to dive in myself as a kid.  I first read The Hobbit in 3rd grade.  It took me over two months, and by the time I finished it I could barely remember the beginning, but I made it through and I loved it.  (I didn’t read the trilogy until 5th grade).

      Even though I had some qualms with the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies (mainly the way the business between Aragorn and Arwen was changed and the portrayal of Galadriel), I was still quite pleased with the movies overall.

      So I was looking forward to The Hobbitmovie.  Until I found out that the one book is apparently being made into three movies.  My first thought was annoyance at the obvious commercialism.  My next thought was to wonder how they were going to stretch it that way.  I haven’t yet seen it, but I’ve been told most of the “padding” seems to be done using lengthy fight scenes and other focuses on violence.

      If this is the case, I’m disappointed.  While there is a lot of fighting in the book, that isn’t the point, and to add more can only detract from the true mastery of the story.  I have yet to see it, but still, It troubles me.

The post Chalica, the Apocalypse, and the Hobbit appeared first on Urban Earthworm.