Okay, so there are these folks who think that there’s a War on Christmas. Blah blah. Let’s just call those folks eccentric, okay?
The Winter Solstice is universal. It’s obviously a significant event, and it’s obvious that lots of different religions and traditions have noted that event. And most have marked it with light because, hey. Light. Birth, too, is a common holiday theme, because the Sun is gone, and then it begins really, really smalll, so that’s like being born, so… (one of the things I adore about Paganism is the simplicity).
So despite the rage against “the Holidays,” the fact is, there are an awful lot of holidays this time of year, only one of which is Christian.
Over at Wild Hunt, Jason (somewhat tongue-in-cheek, I think) agrees with Catholic writer Andrew Greely that maybe Christmas should be moved out of the Solstice season. I disagree. I mean, ain’t my holiday, they can do what they want, but I hope they don’t.
When I was a kid, I keenly felt that left out feeling that everyone had a holiday and we didn’t. Then I became a cynical, Christmas-hating, turn-that-damn-music-off teenager, which suited my cynical teenage sensibility.
One day, I shed my cynicism, and noticed the love, the light, the sense of fun. I started digging it. So it was something of a relief to me, after I became Pagan, to discover that a lot of “Christmas” was, in fact, Pagan. That Santa was Pagan, that decorating trees was Pagan, that exchanging gifts was Pagan. I dove right into all those lovely, yummy traditions.
It’s nice to share a holiday with everyone. And as more and more people got on board with the Happy Holidays thing (as they got “PC”), there were more and more people to share with. In recent years, it’s become easier to fling open one’s arms to Christians, to Jews, to Pagans, to New Agers, and even to Atheists, and say “Happy Holiday Season! Enjoy the Longest Night!” Some years, Ramadan and Diwali also fall around the Solstice, and how lovely it is to find that there is a time of year for universal celebration.
Indeed, isn’t that part of the meaning of most of these holidays? Isn’t part of it about the love of the light of the world? And the more inclusive we are with that love, doesn’t that make us more true to the spirit of Christmas/Chanukkah/Solstice/Yule/
Saturnalia/Kwanzaa/Ramadan/Diwali/Festivus? And isn’t that just bloomin’ GREAT?
Today I feel sorry for those strange, eccentric Christmas Warriors, because they are purposely excluding themselves from the love.
