Yoj To The World, Lamorinda

Since 1999 my family has celebrated a unique holiday, one with light, laughter and creativity. The following story is the origins of this holiday and an invitation to make it your own.

I was traveling down the street on my way to work teaching parenting in Hayward, when I saw a banner on someone's house that read, "YOJ" and I thought to myself, "Another December holiday that I haven't heard about before. " In my class at the time there were 17 languages spoken and traditions from around the world, so I'd been hearing about all sorts of different holidays, but here was one I hadn't yet heard of. I began to ponder what the origins of this holiday might be, where it had begun, did they focus on light like so many others, what songs might they sing, what foods did they eat? My mind filled with all sorts of ideas about this holiday of YOJ.

When I got to class I asked my students about it and asked if anyone else had ever heard of this. No one had.

I became more curious and more imaginative in my ideas about dances and songs and music that might go along with this holiday. When I drove back home I saw the same banner, only this time it read JOY. I'd seen the sign backwards!

I began to laugh at myself for having created this whole holiday in my mind when in fact it was just JOY backwards!! I laughed the rest of the way home and when I arrived I continued laughing as I told my daughters about this holiday. They didn't laugh. Not at all. They thought this was an incredible idea. We should celebrate YOJ!

I asked "But how will we celebrate?" They answered, "We'll build a bonfire and roast marshmallows. You can bang on your drum, and we'll sing songs." I said, "What should we eat?" ' We should have roasted apples and marshmallows and drink hot cocoa and apple cider," they answered.

"Well, who should we invite to Yoj?" Together they shouted, "Everyone! Everyone can come and celebrate Yoj with us."

And so we did. Thirty-three people came to the first Yoj now a dozen years ago. We celebrated that year on the solstice which also happened to be the full moon, but it moves to convenient Saturdays each year. We’ve had as many as 125 people celebrate with us, and people I know have begun to celebrate it elsewhere.

What has made this holiday so successful for us, is that there are no expectations about what Yoj looks like, there’s nothing to buy (except maybe some marshmallows) and it moves and changes with us, depending on our needs.  It brings us back to the simplest element of celebration: JOY.  If you want to bring that back to your life invite friends over, light a candle, howl at the moon, or bang a drum--or whatever makes you truly happy--and celebrate where ever you are.