The beloved Christmas classic Home Alone features an original song by John Williams called “Somewhere in My Memory.” This ethereal lullaby begins with these lines: “Candles in the window. Shadows painting the ceiling. Gazing at the fire glow. Feeling that gingerbread feeling.” The poetic imagery paints a nostalgic image of cozy Christmas evenings gathered around family and feeling at peace. However, the first time I listened to these verses, I was confused by the first line. I had not grown up seeing or placing candles in windows on Christmas. Where did this image come from?
The tradition of placing candles in one’s window dates back to the 1600s in Ireland. Irish Catholics were brutally persecuted by the British at this time, particularly during the reign of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell attempted a genocide in Ireland to root out those he deemed both ethnically and religiously inferior. During his brief tenure as Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth, Cromwell killed 616,000 Irish people and captured another 60,000 Irishmen as slaves to ship to the sugarcane fields of Barbados. It was a dangerous time in Ireland, especially if one was a Catholic.
The British closed all Catholic churches on the island, so Irish Catholics had to worship secretly in their homes. Priests would go from house to house to conduct mass for families individually. And how did priests know which homes to visit? A secret code was developed: candles in the window. If British forces questioned Irish families about their window lights, they would insist it was to welcome Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus for Christmas. After British oppression of Catholicism lifted, the Irish kept this tradition, using the candle as a signal of welcome to needy travelers, especially at Christmastime when no one should be alone. In the 1800s, the Irish took this tradition with them to the United States, where some Americans had already embraced this custom as a way to offer a sign of welcome to the Christ Child and to passers-by.
The window flame took on a new meaning in Eastern Europe during the dark years of Communist oppression we call the Cold War. During times of hardship, families would place candles in their windows as a sign of hope–a hope for freedom to come to their land. In 1978, a man from Communist-occupied Poland became pope: John Paul II. He immediately spoke against Marxist tyranny and gave the millions of faithful in the eastern bloc a simple message: “Be Not Afraid.”
The Soviets panicked. They knew this message of hope and freedom would spread, and indeed it did. Millions of Polish people flocked to see the pope’s triumphal return visit to Poland in 1979; and in 1980, inspired by the pope’s courageous message of hope, a commoner named Lech Walesa started an anti-communist labor union called Solidarity in the Gdansk shipyard. Labor unions had been strictly forbidden in the Soviet sphere, but within months, tens of millions of Poles had joined Solidarity. In May 1981, the Soviets hatched a plot to assassinate the pope, but he survived the near-fatal shot. Then, in December 1981, the Soviets instructed their puppet government in Poland to crack down on Solidarity. Lech Walesa and countless other leaders were arrested, and a new wave of leftist oppression swept over Poland as martial law was enforced.
The former Polish ambassador sought asylum in the United States, where he was welcomed to the White House. President Reagan had been president for less than a year, and had suffered a near-fatal assassination attempt himself that year. When Reagan met with the former Polish ambassador, he had two requests for the president: to pray for the people of Poland and to place a candle in the White House window on Christmas–a candle for freedom and hope. President Reagan addressed the nation that Christmas on the crisis in Poland and told of this conversation. He informed the country that he and Nancy had placed a candle in the front window of the White House, and encouraged all American families to do the same in their homes. Millions did.
Nine years later, in 1990, Poland was free, as was all of Eastern Europe. The Soviet Union was on its death bed. Lech Walesa was elected President of Poland, John Paul II was still pope, and Ronald Reagan had quietly returned to his California ranch after eight years of peacemaking around the globe. Home Alone was released this year, which gives its title song “Somewhere in My Memory” a deeper meaning than many may realize. “Candles in the window” is not merely a cozy, nostalgic image. It’s an image of hope–a hope that was recently realized in 1990 due to the courage and prayers of so many faithful people who were inspired by millions of candles in millions of windows on Christmas.
So, this Christmas, light a candle in your window for a group of people who is currently in danger–perhaps for the innocent civilians in Israel and Palestine, or the war-torn nation of Ukraine. Maybe for the sick or the poor; the mentally ill or the unborn. And as we light candles in our windows throughout these 12 days of Christmas, let us pray that the Lord brings these precious people peace, as he did in Poland all those Christmases ago.
Johnathan Kettler is a history teacher at Brandon High School.
