the seven-lamps society

The society keeps one observance and one only. On the night of the winter solstice, in a room agreed in advance, seven lamps are lit in a circle. The order of lighting is fixed; the order of extinguishing is fixed; the silence between is fixed. Outside this one night the society does not meet, does not correspond, does not vote, and has, in practice, almost nothing to say to itself. Members are recognised by a small candle-stub kept on the desk all year round.

The observance takes three hours. In the first hour the lamps are lit, slowly, one to the next, and each member speaks one sentence — a single thing they wish to set down before the year turns. In the second hour the room is silent and the lamps are watched. In the third hour the lamps are extinguished in reverse order, and each member speaks the same sentence again, to see what has changed. Nothing is written. The origin entry records that the founder of the society had attended the festival only once, as a child, and never afterwards.

The society is on civil terms with the lamplighter but does not employ him. It overlaps in membership with the silence-observing society and with the dawn walkers. New members are admitted, when admitted at all, on the eighth lighting they attend; before that they are simply guests, and the seven who light the lamps are seven, no more.