December 25 - Season of Reason Day 1 - Merry Newtonmas

December 25 - Season of Reason Day 1

Merry Newtonmas
The Newtonmas celebration should look very familiar to many of you.  This holiday centers on family, friends, presents, good cheer, community, and apples.

Today's Celebration
On Newtonmas we celebrate the gifts of science by giving these gifts to each other.  Since we are honoring one of the greatest scientists that the world has ever known, our gifts are centered on technology. Anything that has been created by the scientific method or the hard work of human trial and error qualifies as a Newtonmas gift.  The technology does not have to be sophisticated either.  A simple hat and scarf are genius human inventions that have saved many lives and created comfort for people in cold climates.  Many people are already giving Newtonmas gifts for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Mithramas, and Saturnalia and they don’t even know it! 

The other part of our celebration has to do with apples.  Share some apple pie, apple fritters, apple butter, apple juice, applesauce, or apple cobbler with your friends and family.  The apple plays an important part in Isaac Newton's discoveries and we honor this humble fruit and the bounty it provides for our bellies as well as our brains.

Apples are important to Sir Isaac’s story because it was during a walk in his garden that an apple falling to the ground inspired him to form a hypothesis for Gravity. So give an apple, eat an apple, hang an apple ornament on your Newtonmas (or Christmas or Yule) tree, drink apple cider, give apple wine, the possibilities are endless. Have fun with it and let us know how you have incorporated apples into your celebration.

Let other people know that you are celebrating Newtonmas by using #Newtonmas or #MerryNewtonmas on social media.  Take a picture of your gifts and your yummy apple treats and send them to your friends!

A word about myth and magic. Newtonmas does not incorporate any fictional characters into the holiday. Our stance is that what people have accomplished using math, science, and reason is miraculous enough. We don’t need a magic elf using our chimney to drop off presents. If you want to feel holiday magic ponder our place in this vast and ever expanding universe. Realize how we are all made of stars and connected to everything by our biology and chemistry.