Humanist message at the end of the season of light festivals

As the days become increasingly longer again, illuminated by the light of the sun, the New Year reminds us that people can always start anew. This is what the President of the Humanist Association of Germany, Frieder Otto Wolf, said in his message at the end of the Festival of Lights on Tuesday evening. Wolf pleaded for humanists to consciously use the days to reassure themselves of their perspectives. This would make it possible for an “all too vague, non-committal contemplation” to become a genuine reflection and for questions to be asked about what is needed to really see the world in a new light tomorrow or a year from now. And: “Every beginning of a new year reminds us that it is ultimately in our own hands to bring or allow impulses of renewal into our lives.” In order to get closer to answers and new perspectives, humanists could also ask: What is sacred to me? What is sacred to us? “Or what other word could we use to explain what really means something to us, what is really important to us, what does not merely offer us a means to other specific ends?” says Frieder Otto Wolf. “What can someone use to express what is particularly important to them: today, tomorrow and in a year’s time?” As individuals and together, humanists could and should ask themselves such questions in order to overcome contradictions and conflicts and find viable solutions. After all, there are increasing signs today that nothing and no one is sacred: “Nothing is really important anymore, and fewer and fewer important things seem to be really important.” This can be seen in the large number of homeless people who freeze to death, i.e. in the fact that “more and more people are dying in great need, on the edges of our streets and in the corners of our cities, unnoticed and without anyone to mourn them.” And it is also evident far from the borders of our cities, from the borders of Europe, where thousands of refugees are losing their lives “trying to find a good life.” Frieder Otto Wolf: “A real chance of a good life at home: shouldn’t at least that be sacred?” But it also shows that people without a religious faith are still disadvantaged in almost every country in the world and in Germany too: on the labor market, in cultural institutions and in the education system or in political and public representation. “Certainly, in this country people like us are no longer threatened by violence and death – like the many people without the respective ‘right faith’ in other regions of the world. But why do the human rights of people without religion weigh so much less, both there and here?” If humanists were able to use such examples to think through what is really important to them as individuals and together, “we could also enter this new year with some good answers and perspectives.”