Looking Forward, Looking Back

As the year draws to a close, it is a natural time for looking back and making plans for the future; a time for reflecting on experiences and lessons learned, a time for making resolutions. 

New Year's resolutions have been a staple of numerous traditions and cultures throughout history.  From the ancient Babylonians to the ancient Romans, and even through modern celebrations of the Jewish new year (Rosh Hashanah), many times the resolutions have a religious component.  Although the timing of these New Year celebrations differs, they all include a component of seeking forgiveness for wrongs done and vowing to do better in the coming year. Similarly during Chinese New Year the ill fate of the year before is literally swept away to make room for good fortune to come.  In modern American culture, resolutions have taken on a largely secular focus, often revolving around changing health habits or eliminating negative behaviors.  Available data seem to indicate a higher success rate for resolutions that are written down and/or shared. In that vein, we (Stacy and Christine) would like to take this time between Christmas and the New Year to reflect on where Out 2 Lunch has been this past year, and share some of our plans for the future...

2016 has been an interesting year for Out 2 Lunch and we have grown professionally and tried some new ideas. We have experimented with both product lines and sales venues, we have had some successes and some failures and learned from them all. We debuted some new products - most notably pendants created by disassembling and combining multiple pieces of vintage jewelry- and we have retired some of our originals as we streamlined our offerings. We now have a product line - clutches, jewelry and hair pins- that reflects where we are going as a company. We are focusing on those things that feed our artistic spirits; creating one of a kind items that meld the past and future, that combine beauty and function. While we plan on test marketing some new products in 2017, they will be sub-lines of these categories. 

Cheers to the New Year!!

We have also enjoyed exploring our passions this year, and sharing them with you via our Instagram account and this blog. In 2017 we hope to expand our Instagram account to create a virtual community of like-minded artisans, internationally as well as in our local markets of Richmond, Virginia and Raleigh, North Carolina. We have enjoyed finding and supporting other fabulous artisans and creators, and look forward to sharing the best of what we find. We are also continuing to develop this blog, and will be bringing you some fabulous guest bloggers in 2017- that share our passion for the beauty of vintage and hand made. We have found that, generally, things that have stood the test of time have a quiet quality that we prefer to flash in the pan trends. 

Over the past several months we have also been researching and trying some classic, vintage cocktails, as a counter to the trendy bar drinks that have been making the rounds. We will be sharing these drinks on the blog the 1st of every month, beginning on New Year's Day. Some of the drinks were in our common awareness, but we had never tried them, others were lost gems that we were thrilled to discover! Each post will share the back story (or stories in some cases), the recipe for the drink and other interesting information we have discovered. 

Make sure to follow the blog and our Instagram so that you don't miss out on any of the fun!! 

Instagram: out2lunchdesigns

Blog:  Well & Truly Out 2 Lunch

Happy New Year! and Cheers!
Stacy and Christine 

Lights in the Darkness...

Advent Wreath with Candles

As my 7 year old is fond of pointing out, we now get up for school in the "pitch black darkness".   Hearing her say this amidst the candles and Christmas tree lights in our house, got me thinking - where do all the traditions involving lights during this dark time of year come from? There seem to be so many different celebrations that include candles, coming from diverse backgrounds- from the Menorah (commemorating the miraculous burning of the oil for 8 days following the victory of the Maccabees over the Greeks - read here for more information) to the Advent candles used by our family (used as a reminder to focus on preparing for the birth of Jesus - read here for more details) to the relatively recent Kwanzaa celebrations (focusing on the struggles and hopes of Africans in diaspora - read here for more information). While these celebrations all have a clear religious and/or cultural basis, there seem to be so many other seasonal uses for candles that have less clear or less publicized origins.

Santa Lucia Figurine

My eldest daughter has long had a fascination with "Santa Lucia" or St. Lucy - owing no doubt to our set of Holiday Celebrations around the World figurines.  Since toddlerhood she has enjoyed hearing, and then reading the story of young girls dressing as Lucia and bringing breakfast to their families in celebration of St. Lucy's feast day on Dec.13th. We never went beyond that though, to find out why St. Lucy was wearing candles and bringing food, or why an Italian, Catholic saint was so popular in predominantly Lutheran Scandinavia. Being me, this meant it was time to research, and share! The first question was easier to answer - St. Lucy was a young girl martyred in Rome, around 304 AD. She was killed because she was bringing food to the Roman Christians hiding in the catacombs and wore candles on her head to provide light to her path, as her hands were full of food - practical girl!  The answer to the second question is a bit dicier, but after reading multiple sources I would summarize it like this.... December 13th was the Winter Solstice in the old Julian calendar, and as such the darkest day of the year.  Scandinavian countries in particular have an extreme shift in their number of hours of darkness due to their closeness

St. Lucia Day at our house

to the polar region, and as such naturally had pre-Christian rituals and celebrations surrounding this transition from darkness to increasing light. When Christian missionaries from Italy arrived and brought with them stories of St. Lucia it was natural for the locals to connect that story to their traditions and she became something of a icon in that area, even following the Protestant Reformation. Also, as my daughter can attest - its fun to dress up in candles and deliver treats!



Vintage inspired candles on a tree

The tradition of tabletop candles dates to medieval times, and continues today in various formats worldwide.  In Ireland families gather around a large lit candle on Christmas Eve and pray for loved ones, In England and France, families often use a large candle with 3 wicks to honor the Holy Trinity, and in South America a candle is often placed in a paper lantern depicting scenes of the nativity. Among Eastern European nations, the candle is often blessed by the local priest before being lit at the family table. But the German tradition is perhaps most interesting of all.  Traditionally the German Christmas candle was placed atop a wooden pole decorated with evergreens or as a part of a triangular structure with other smaller candles. These traditions were replaced in the 1600's with earliest examples of our modern Christmas trees! These trees used candles as their primary source of light and decoration until the late 1800's when the earliest electric Christmas lights were used.

Window Candles

The custom of lighted candles in windows was brought to America during colonial times.  It has its roots in an old Irish custom, although it's unclear if it was brought to the colonies by the Irish or by English settlers that had adapted the tradition (which seems more likely to me for a number of reasons...)  During a time of English persecution that outlawed their religious observances, the Irish began burning candles in their windows to let the local priests know that their home was a safe haven to come in from the cold night, receive a warm welcome and celebrate the Christmas Mass. In order to justify the candles to English soldiers in the area, the candles were explained as a symbol that their home was open to the weary travelers of Christmas - Mary and Joseph. This generalized in colonial America to a tradition of lighting candles in the window to let traveling family members or other weary travelers know that they could find a place of friendship and welcome.  It also let neighbors know - during a time when houses were more widely spaced - that families were home and welcoming visitors.

Over time, the history of many of the these customs has been lost from general knowledge, but we have retained the feeling of warmth and welcome associated with candles.  I hope that you have learned something interesting, and will share it with others.  Please share in the comments if you have other holiday traditions that involve candles - I always love learning about other cultures and traditions!!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a joyous celebration of all your traditions!

Stacy