There is a tradition that we enjoy for the winter season that is much more suited to Newtonmas than any other holiday. That tradition is adorning our trees and homes with light. Specifically putting strings of multi colored lights or projecting lights for decoration. We can’t say for sure where or when the practice of taking lights that were intended for holiday trees were put on houses for seasonal decoration. But there is no doubt that many people are enjoying this activity now.
Christmas trees are a German tradition left over from the pagan practice of bringing evergreen plants inside during the winter to symbolize the promise of the coming spring. Protestants in Germany added to the tradition of placing evergreens inside their houses for Christmas by putting candles on their trees. When Germans emigrated to other countries, they took their lighted trees with them. The tradition caught on in England during the Victorian era and came to the United States shortly thereafter.
Americans kept the tradition of lighted Christmas trees, first with candles and then with electric lights. Electric tree lights have some obvious advantages. Although early versions of electric lights were not as safe as the ones we use today, they were a lot safer than putting a candle on a dead tree inside a house. These strings of lights were taken from the living rooms of America and flung on the bushes our in front of the house by some unknown pioneer and the tradition of decorating your domicile in light for the holiday season was born. It took a few decades to grow to the orgy of light that it is today with lights that blink, shimmer, dance, and shine. The over to top house decorations have seeped into our popular culture in movies like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and in reality shows that are competitions to see who can create the most dazzling display in the country.
So, what does any of this have to do with the baby Jesus? As with many other winter holiday traditions, outdoor “Christmas” lights have nothing to do with the birth of the christian savior. It is more of a reflection of American consumerism and savvy marketing in our capitalist culture. There was an activity that everyone liked during a season where people spent a lot of money and some smart people decided to sell products to satisfy a demand where one had not existed before. It is no surprise that decorating houses in an extravagant and sometimes gaudy manner has really taken off in the last 25 years when the tools and tricks of marketing have become much more refined and effective.
It is depressing to think that the reason that we take part in an activity has more to do with being manipulated by Madison Ave and Hollywood than any nostalgic tie to a tradition. But we have a chance to change the narrative on this tradition from one of base consumerism to one that actually has meaning.
Christmas lights are now called “Newtonmas Lights”. This makes sense on a few levels. First, it is a way to celebrate Newtonmas and the Season of Reason. Second, it honors the work that Sir Isaac Newton did with light and the visible spectrum. Newton was the first person to realize that if you refract light that it produced the colors of the rainbow. Before Newton’s discoveries, the common understanding of light was that color was made by adding or subtracting light. Newton proved this idea wrong when he split white light with a prism and discovered that regular sunlight contained all the colors of the rainbow. Newton’s groundbreaking work “Optiks” detailed his experiments and revolutionized the science of color.
Isaac Newton gives us our modern understanding of light and color. This understanding has opened the door to revolutionary change not only in science and engineering but in art and culture as well. There is no better way to honor this man’s accomplishments than by decorating your house with the very colors that he helped us understand.
Good luck with your Newtonmas decorations and lights! This year I am going with colored lasers!
