{"id":357,"date":"2014-12-24T19:57:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T19:57:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=357"},"modified":"2014-12-24T19:57:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T19:57:55","slug":"let-there-be-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=357","title":{"rendered":"Let There Be Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Claire just finished setting and decorating the table for Christmas dinner. As always, we have candles on the table. We have candles at other times, but I don\u2019t ever remember a Christmas that we didn\u2019t have candles. It\u2019s not necessarily a tradition, but we always have them. Candles are associated with many things, especially religion and they are certainly associated with Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>No one seems to know exactly why, or even when they first became connected. They were used during the ancient celebrations of the winter solstice as a way of remembering that spring would soon come. One of the earliest records of candles being used at Christmas is from the middle ages, when a large candle was used to represent the star of Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus is often referred to as the \u2018Light of the World\u2019 by many Christian religions. This may have started the custom of the Advent Candles. Of course candles are also a part of the celebrations of Hanukkah and even Kwanzaa\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Often Christmas carols are sung by candlelight and candles were almost exclusively used to decorate and light Christmas trees before electricity came along. In some parts of Ireland, they have a traditional Yule candle rather than a Yule Log.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no point to be made here. I like candles. I like Christmas. What could be better than having them both on the same day?<br \/>\nOnce again \u2014\u00a0Merry Christmas to Everyone\u2026..<br \/>\n\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Claire just finished setting and decorating the table for Christmas dinner. As always, we have candles on the table. We have candles at other times, but I don\u2019t ever remember a Christmas that we didn\u2019t have candles. It\u2019s not necessarily &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=357\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":358,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357\/revisions\/358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}