Blue Christmas also known as the longest night of the year is celebrated on or around 21st December every year. Blue Christmas will be celebrated on 21st December this year. This day has a mix of emotional as well as astronomical significance. This day has a sense of melancholy that can make the season filled with joy, happiness, and laughter, feel emotionally heavy.
What is Blue Christmas?
Blue Christmas is for the people who are sad or lonely especially during the holiday or Christmas season. This feeling is usually triggered because of the absence of loved ones.
On this day, some churches hold a church service that honours people that have lost loved ones and are experiencing grief. These include parishes of Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Methodism, Moravianism, and Reformed Christianity. Parishes are a local church community that has one main church and one pastor.
This worship service during Blue Christmas is held on or around the longest night of the year. This night falls on or around 21st December.
This day is also the traditional feast day for Saint Thomas the Apostle and thus connection makes some linkage between Saint Thomas's struggle to believe in Jesus' resurrection and the struggle with darkness and grief faced by those living with loss.
Blue Christmas significance:
The worship during Blue Christmas includes opportunities for expressing grief, pain, and heartbreak. It is also an opportunity to focus on the promise of hope found in Jesus Christ.
Candles are lit during the service, and empty chairs are reserved for those lost during the previous year. The pictures of the winter solstice, including the beginning of longer days, are also an important part of the imagery used in this worship event of Blue Christmas.
Here are some wishes for Blue Christmas:
· May peace find its way to your heart, and hope light your path this Blue Christmas.
· Sending you warm thoughts and gentle hugs during this difficult time.
· Remember, it's okay to feel whatever you're feeling. You're not alone.
· May the spirit of love and compassion surround you this holiday season.
· May the spirit of Christmas, filled with love and compassion, comfort your heart