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'Tis the season on the Camino a Ìtaca or at least the streets are starting to look like it and it comes earlier every year. Click over on the Christmas lights to read the original piece in Spanish published in el HOY or read the English translation below. (PDF en castellano abajo)

Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past it didn’t begin until after the megapuente in December. Then as Amazon insidiously wormed its way into all our homes, it started to appear with Black Friday. Which is in effect the secular harvest celebration of Thanksgiving in America, now converted into a global orgiastic carnival of consumerism.

But that wasn’t enough. Now it has moved up the calendar and appears after Halloween, the tuned-up Dia de Todos los Santos celebration that the ofendiditos so love to hate. Look up and you’ll see them strung between lampposts, the harbinger of the longest season here in Spain, Christmas lights.

Ah, Christmas lights. Those twinkling, gaudy, and garish displays that punctuate our long, dark winter nights, like the flashing neon signs of the seedy roadside houses of ill repute that line the motorways across the country. These ostentatious displays of luminosity, meant to invoke a sense of wonder and joy, have become a hallmark of the holiday season.

However, when one examines the origins of these illuminations, it becomes clear that their early iterations were more about extravagance and opulence than any genuine spirit of Christmas.

In the late 19th century, as the world was undergoing rapid industrialization, inventors and entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to harness the power of electricity for commercial gain. It is here that the story of Christmas lights begins, not in a manger, but in the drawing rooms of capitalists.

One must acknowledge the genius of those early pioneers like Thomas Edison and Edward Johnson, who, in the 1880s, strung the first known electric lights as decorations for the holiday season. Edison's display at his Menlo Park laboratory was indeed a spectacle to behold, with its 80 red, white, and blue bulbs, illuminating a giant Christmas tree. Yet, while these technological marvels were undoubtedly impressive, their humble origins soon took a back seat to the commercialization of Christmas.

The embrace of electric lights as a holiday tradition was not merely a symbol of ingenuity but also a reflection of a burgeoning consumer culture. The more lights one could afford, the more opulent their display would be. The Christmas lights of today resemble more of a carnival than a solemn commemoration of a religious holiday. It’s now a spectacle, a distraction, and a testament to the power of consumerism.

We now see an arms race of sorts, as cities around the country compete to outshine one another with the most extravagant light displays. The extravagance of Vigo for example makes the headlines every year.

The idea of modesty and the true spirit of Christmas seems to fade into the shadows, replaced by the glamour and grandiosity of electric light. Christmas has become not a time for reflection, charity, and goodwill but a time for excess, conspicuous consumption, and one-upmanship.

The early pioneers of Christmas lights may have marveled at the magic of electric illumination, but it is important to consider the trajectory of this tradition. What started as a testament to human ingenuity and a nod to the festive spirit of Christmas has, over time, morphed into a glaring testament to our excesses and our obsession with appearances and, of course, shopping.