Star-Studded Season

If you want to see the holiday lights, just look up--but not at the sky, exactly.

In the comfy surroundings of the planetarium at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, you can lean back and see a celestial show that will keep you humming Christmas carols into the new year.

Called “ ‘Tis the Season,” it explores the roots of holiday traditions and the meaning of the winter solstice through a slide show that uses the planetarium dome as the screen.

Twelve projectors positioned around the room flash images of everything from snow-covered villages aglow with lights to burning menorahs to starlit manger scenes. Meanwhile, National Public Radio commentator Noah Adams provides the taped narration against a backdrop of seasonal music.

The 50-minute show, running through Jan. 4, is scheduled weekdays at 1:30 and 3 p.m. and on weekends at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. Tickets are $1, plus museum admission of $5 for adults; $4, seniors and teens; and $3, children.

The show, purchased by the museum last year from Colorado’s Loch Ness Productions, weaves in some astronomy, but that’s not the main focus.

“People are surprised there’s not more astronomy,” said Dave Kary, planetarium director. “It looks more at holiday traditions. This place was swamped last year at this time. We added more shows.”

As a prelude, Kary darkens the room and projects the star-studded night sky on the planetarium dome. Then he points out planets--Venus, Jupiter, Mars--and some of the constellations.

“Almost none of them look anything like their names,” Kary said.

“ ‘Tis the Season” opens with a panoramic scene of a sleepy village buried in snow under a frosty night sky. Adams’ soothing voice begins: “In the north country, this is the time of darkness and quiet and cold. The grizzly sleeps, the coyote scavenges, and the mountains are sealed in snow.” It’s the darkest time of the year, he points out, but it’s the season of lights and celebrations--Christmas, Hanukkah and the flashy beginning of the new year.

Without getting bogged down in terminology, the show explains the astronomical goings-on that cause the short days of the winter solstice. It swings back to the time of northern Europe’s Celtic tribes, which lighted huge bonfires in late fall encouraging the sun in its battle against darkness. Once the solstice had passed, everyone rejoiced, relieved that life apparently would go on.

Native Americans of the Southwest undertook 16 days of purification and ritual in their underground ceremonial kivas during the solstice to ensure the arrival of longer days.

The Romans also partied: Work stopped, masters waited on slaves, people dressed in costumes and celebrated in the streets. With the arrival of the new year in early January, the festivities revved up again, with feasts and the exchange of small gifts.

The slides projected on the planetarium dome are actually illustrations, and you’ll have to turn your head every which way to take it all in. Fifty minutes is a long time to gaze upward, but you can rest your head comfortably on the back of the bench.

If you want a refresher on what the candelabra-like menorah has to do with Hanukkah, you’ll get the short version of this ancient story.

As for Christmas, the program delves into the fact that no one really knows in which season Jesus was born. The biblical clue of shepherds watching their sheep might suggest spring, when lambs are born. It wasn’t until the 4th century that the Romans picked Dec. 25--the same day as a solstice festival.

Viewers will learn about the Scandinavian tradition of burning the yule log, and how the Irish started the custom of putting a lighted candle in the window, and why people in the American Southwest burn luminarias--paper bags containing candles propped up by sand.

The program sheds light on another seasonal custom--just why we haul a tree into the house and doll it up with all that glitters and glows. And how Santa evolved into a portly gent in a red suit.

Perhaps the most intriguing question involves a bit of astronomical sleuthing. Just what was that bright light in the sky on that famous night? Was it really a star? Could it have been a planet, an eclipse, a comet? Maybe it was the passing of two planets so close together that they appeared as one big blaze of light.

Adams ends the program without reaching any conclusion about the light’s origin. “Perhaps it’s less important to know what the star was than to understand what it symbolizes: a light meant to banish the darkness, a hope for peace on Earth and good will to all.”

BE THERE

“ ‘Tis the Season” will be shown at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Gladwin Planetarium, 2559 Puesta del Sol Road, through Jan. 4. 1:30 and 3 p.m. weekdays; weekends at 1, 2 and 3 p.m. $1, plus museum admission. (805) 682-4711.