{"id":1264,"date":"2009-12-07T00:26:00","date_gmt":"2009-12-07T00:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2009-12-07T00:26:00","modified_gmt":"2009-12-07T00:26:00","slug":"pagan-thoughts-at-the-parade-of-lights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1264","title":{"rendered":"Pagan Thoughts at the Parade of Lights"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last fall I looked for Pagan virtues in a small-town “Pioneer Day” parade<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Similar thoughts ran through my mind last night watching an even smaller town’s “Parade of Lights.”<\/p>\n

The procession was about one block long: two pieces of fire apparatus, the local mountain search-and-rescue group (yellow jackets, hard hats, head lamps), another flatbed truck or two, various kids and dogs.<\/p>\n

On the sidewalk, Father Christmas greeted spectators and drinkers.<\/a><\/p>\n

Even though the American Thanksgiving holiday was established during the Great Depression<\/a> to signal the start of the holiday shopping season, many towns now re-celebrate that spending spree with a “Parade of Lights,” a secular solsticial event.<\/p>\n

Most seem to be sponsored by downtown merchants’ associations. (You can’t have a traditional parade at a shopping mall.) Stores stay open late hoping to sell things to the spectators.<\/p>\n

Some years ago, a Pagan group had a float in Colorado Springs’ Parade of Lights, a first in that city, often jokingly called “Fort God” for its combination of military bases and big-name Protestant “ministries,” like Focus on the Family.<\/p>\n

Maybe the frankly secular and capitalist nature of the event was a plus. Pay your entry fee, get a place in the parade.<\/p>\n

Other parades, such as those on St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day, have their definite sense of “ownership.” Sponsoring organizations are pickier about who they permit to march.<\/p>\n

I wrote “frankly secular,” but we Pagans see a brave display of light against the incoming darkness–not to mention the cold wind sweeping down from the mountains ahead of today’s snowstorm.<\/p>\n

We are used to the dichotomy of light and dark, of order and chaos, Apollo and Dionysus–or their equivalents. Perhaps commerce and gift-giving are another pair.<\/p>\n

These pairs will contend with each other forever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last fall I looked for Pagan virtues in a small-town “Pioneer Day” parade. Similar thoughts ran through my mind last night watching an even smaller town’s “Parade of Lights.” The procession was about one block long: two pieces of fire apparatus, the local mountain search-and-rescue group (yellow jackets, hard hats, head lamps), another flatbed truck […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[5,43],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-paganism","tag-yule"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-ko","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":189,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=189","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":0},"title":"Berkeley's Pagan Pride Parade Some\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 20, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Berkeley's Pagan Pride Parade Some photos from the Pagan Pride parade, 15 May 2004, in Berkeley, California, are online. (Image-intensive pages will load slowly on a dial-up connection.)","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1210,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1210","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":1},"title":"The Not-Quite-Pagan ‘Pioneer Day’ Parade","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Think of a typical American small-town parade: the Apple Queen and her court in a convertible, the honorary marshalls (some respected elderly couple) in an antique car, the high-school band kids' faces earnest and nervous under their shakos, Shriners in miniature cars, a military vehicle or two, horses, alpacas, old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Colorado\"","block_context":{"text":"Colorado","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=colorado"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=chascli-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0814797083","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4954,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=4954","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":2},"title":"The Year the Calendars Ended","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"January 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Was 1 January 2013 was some kind of unrecognized cultural watershed, like \"The Year Frenchmen Stopped Wearing Berets\" or something? I took my 2012 Reed College alumni association calendar off the wall and realized that I had nothing to replace it with \u2014 not one free calendar. Not another from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"winter\"","block_context":{"text":"winter","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=winter"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/gbgcalendar.com\/images\/60263390.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":945,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=945","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":3},"title":"State-sponsored Paganism","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Students are hard at work putting up Pagan altars in the student center. At least that is what it looks like to me, although I am sure that la profesora would differ.I did not hear about a parade this year, however.Photos to come.","rel":"","context":"In \"Day of the Dead\"","block_context":{"text":"Day of the Dead","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=day-of-the-dead"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1263,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1263","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":4},"title":"Father Christmas Works the Bar Crowd","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Father Christmas makes his way through the bar after a small-town Parade of Lights (of which more later). No, that was Santa on the fire engine. Different demigod.","rel":"","context":"In \"Yule\"","block_context":{"text":"Yule","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=yule"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13148,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13148","url_meta":{"origin":1264,"position":5},"title":"Witch Dance is a Phenomenon","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 17, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Time was,\" Minnesota witch Steven Posch wrote in 2016, \"here in Paganistan, the Besom Brigade used to show up at the Heart of the Beast May Day Parade, black steeple hats and all, doing our precision broom drills down the middle of Bloomington Avenue.\" A sort of drill team with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"dance\"","block_context":{"text":"dance","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=dance"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/orDHt1qosDg\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}