Why on earth do so many of us celebrate this season even those that are not Christian? What could compel us to decorate our houses with lights in the darkness? Or act as if it is everybody's birthday? Why do we decorate the inside of our houses with a tree and other greenery? Why do we secretly hope that on December 25 we will wake up and all will be right with the world? Could it be the vast and sinister power of advertising? Or merely the biggest economic event of the year? I am beginning to think otherwise.
According to Wikipedia,"Christmas is celebrated throughout the Christian population, but is also celebrated by many non-Christians as a secular, cultural festival. The holiday is widely celebrated around the world, including in the United States, where it is celebrated by 96% of the population.[6]"
Several times over the past 2000 years church authorities have ridiculed and even tried to ban Christmas. Anyone who has looked into it knows that Jesus was not born on December 25. Only two of the four Gospels in the Christian New Testament mention Jesus' birth at all and neither mentions a date or even a season. The most recent attempts to ban the celebration of Christmas in the US were in the late 17th and early 18th centuries by the Puritans, Quakers and other Protestants who saw it as a papist, meaning Catholic, holiday. After the American Revolution it fell out of favor because it was seen as an English holiday. (In England after the Protestant Reformation the Monarchy tried to ban Christmas but such violent rioting broke out they gave it up.) Christmas gradually gained favor in the US and Europe (and many other places around the world). However, partly because of the religious controversy and also the growing secularization of society, it became secularized and eventually commercialized out the wazoo, as we say.
Despite the above history the holiday retains a deeper meaning that cannot be explained by the commercial and economic forces of modern society and custom. I have come to believe that this time of year is holy, requires our attention, causes anticipation and dread, the need to withdraw and to celebrate, inspires awe and hope- and all of this pre-date's the birth of Jesus, whenever that was, and Christianity. For some years I have thought that the Church authorities tried to usurp this important time of year for its own purposes, But I now wonder if they too felt the power of this primal, holy time of year and recognized its congruency with the birth story of Christ, pairing them up precisely because they match so well.
For many pre-Christian cultures around the globe the winter solstice was the most important (read holiest) time of year. Of course, in the southern hemisphere their winter solstice happens during our summertime and vice versa. Though we live in modern times and ameliorate the extreme temperatures of the seasons, though we do not rise with the sun and sleep when darkness falls, we are more affected by the seasons and forces of nature than we know or can easily admit. Do you know the origin of the Christmas wreath? The Celts, at the beginning of the dark time of year, set aside a whole month to worship and celebrate. They removed a wheel from their cart, decorated and hung it on their door. This ensured that normal work stopped and the praying and celebrating began. Modern, especially Christian, theologians describe the Celts as primitively praying to the sun to not abandon them, or placating the sun-god to return. But I suspect that even then, there was a deeper more mysterious process going on, for surely anyone who lived longer than a few years witnessed the regularity of the seasons; the days grew shorter, the sun further away, but then came back and the days grew longer again.
So, no matter what religious persuasion you are- or even if you are persuaded by none, let us celebrate the light in the midst of darkness, let us give each other gifts, let us take the month of December off as much as we can, as much as we dare. Let us sing to each other of despair and hope, of joy and sorrow, and of the rebirth of light. Let us be again like small children waiting, believing that our wish will come true on 'Christmas' morning, hoping against hope that all will be right with the world. And, then when it isn't, let us rededicate ourselves to bringing a little more light into the world each day in whatever small ways we may.
Wishing you a Merry Christmas, a Happy Solstice and a new (perhaps) sense of the mystery, beauty and holiness of this, the darkest time of the year!
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