Warmth in December, on Humanist Terms

HumanLight is a midwinter celebration for humanists and other non-religious people, kept on 23 December. It was created in 2001 by the New Jersey Humanist Network (its founders are credited as Gary Brill and Joe Fox), and its inaugural gathering, attended by around a hundred people including the prominent humanist philosopher Paul Kurtz, was held that December in Verona, New Jersey. Its purpose is not to parody or replace a religious feast but to offer the gathering and warmth of the December season on humanist terms, giving secular people an occasion of their own in a month heavy with others' festivals.

Its stated themes are reason, compassion and hope, often represented by candles in those colours, and observance takes the form of a shared meal, music and readings with family and friends. It is deliberately light in structure, with no fixed liturgy and considerable local variation from one group or household to another, an openness in keeping with humanism's resistance to prescribed ritual. Since its founding it has spread to secular organisations and individuals across the United States and beyond. HumanLight is a clear example of a very recent, consciously constructed holiday, invented to meet a felt need for a positive secular celebration in the winter season rather than inherited from any older tradition.