Nested in the word holiday is an ancient meaning, suggesting that these days at the end of the year "holy days," but also days of "wholeness, uninjured" and of "good omen." Yet so much is said by psychologists like me, and other healthcare professionals, about this time of year being full of stress and depression. We give recipes to "fix" what many people suffer each year as we approach the winter holidays. How is it that we have moved so far away from the ancient meanings of the season? Or have we?

During periods of ritual and tradition, we are held in a state of timelessness, an in-between place where we repeat the same gestures again and again (exchanging presents, lighting candles, decorating our homes, going to church, visiting friends and family). Often we do not understand exactly the origin of our gestures. Do you, for example, know why you hang lights on a tree?  They look pretty and very special, but so would snowballs in July. Did you know the evergreen Christmas tree perpetuates ancient Egyptian rites of death and resurrection? Or that Santa Claus is related to Saturn, the mythical old man and father of the Greek gods? According to some accounts, he lived in the North Pole and brought with him a sprig of evergreen and the gifts of the New Year..

In fact, it does not seem to matter so much that our gestures are fully understood. Setting is equally important, which is why the rituals and story telling of our winter holidays take place under very specific circumstances with ceremonies seen no other time of year. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, thought that the

ancient patterns of rituals and stories brought us to the crossroads between the rational and the irrational--where the imagination meets outer reality--and where the human, the finite, the temporal and the infinite (or what some call the divine) are all present. Winter holiday ritual brings us to a crossroad in the progression of time from one year to the next, from dark into light.        

We are familiar with the outer world into which we are born, live, and die. As winter sets in, our lives become more interior and contemplative. We move inside from the weather, and nights grow longer. According to native American tradition, people "tell stories, dance spirit dances and gather songs and poems," getting ready to "live with the spirits all winter long." We come once more to a larger world, a world which includes our inner voice and the imaginative. We are given the opportunity to get back to this place of wholeness within ourselves, uninjured by the slings and arrows of life, and see it as a good omen for what will come. This is an opportunity well worth celebrating.