Winter Solstice arrives precisely on December 22nd at 05:30 GMT, or 11:30 CDT on the 21st. At this moment, the northern hemisphere will be at its darkest. The axis of the planet is pointing directly off into space, but it is also starting its wobble back towards the sun that brings all life to this humble planet. We celebrate it by turning off all electric light and enjoying a few moments with quiet and candlelight – just the music of the spheres to contemplate. This is our holiday for the season.
I gave up on Christmas several years ago. It’s not a matter of giving up on Christianity, although I firmly believe that if Jesus came back today he’s have a hard time calling himself “Christian” in any form we’d recognize. The problem with Christmas as we know it is I cannot see how something called a “holy day” (holiday) can possibly be equated with a major spending binge and a nearly complete lack of introspection. It would be for the best to have the small voice of wisdom that Linus gave us in “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, but I tend towards the cynical as the dark closes in. I’ve dug this little parody song every year for over 20 years now:
Hark, the Herald-Tribune sings,
“God is dead, now buy some things!”
Headlines tell of death and war
And of sales at some big store.Read how all the children fall!
Feel the horror of it all!
Since there’s nothing you can do,
Why not buy some stuff that’s new?Hark, the Herald-Tribune say,
“The Grace of God has passed away.”
Rather than wallow in that bitterness to much, I found it easier to start over with the Winter Solstice. As holidays go, the Solstice at least has a long history. The ancient Germans would tie bits of meat and other offerings to a tall tree and set fire to it on the shortest day in order to coax the Sun God to come back. It apparently worked. Many years later this would evolve into another German tradition, which is to periodically set fire to neighboring countries. Also, they took the trees indoors and called it Christmas. But I like it better the ancient way, when practicable.
That’s what’s so funny about our culture and how we think about ourselves. Long ago, the ancients had holidays based on real, astrological moments – events that genuinely meant something in their lives. Somewhere along the line, we became more sophisticated and crafted holidays about salvation and karma and all kinds of other social constructions that are far more abstract.
Even that became a bit too heavy over time, gradually giving way to a time for a lot of shopping without so much introspection.
It has become fashionable among some people to talk about a “War on Christmas”, a rebellion against the use of terms like “Happy Holidays” to make the season generic and not exactly Christian. The sentiment is understandable, but misses the point completely. Religious faith is not about what words you say but about what you genuinely feel inside and express through your actions. Our culture stopped having a real “Christmas” in any kind of public sense years ago – if there ever was such a thing at all. The War on Christmas was won by commercialism many years ago.
It would be nice to truly reclaim Christmas as a time when charity is given to the poor on the Feast of St Stephen (their patron saint). The darkness lends itself to introspection and old fashioned quantity time together as a family. There are many things about Christmas that are indeed good and decent, but so much of it was lost years ago it’s not in our culture any longer. It has to be actively re-invented from bits and pieces no matter what.
That’s why I stay with the Solstice, a day apart from the holiday everyone else has. You can join us at the exact moment when Earth wobbles over and points us right out into space, away from the warmth of our sun and into our own imagination. It is a good time to celebrate that life is what we make of it – peace and joy and justice all start with ideas that move with each heartbeat to arms that make them real.
We are small and fragile compared to the great forces that sustain us, but that is no excuse for not taking what we have and making the best of it.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 
I am Jewish, but I found this to be an excellent post. It challenges us to think about what observances mean, and what they don’t mean. Thanks.
Thank you! What matter is what you believe and how you act on it!
Great sentiment, but it can be Christmas if you want. I understand giving up on Christmas but it does not have to be what most people have made it.
That is true, it is what we make of it – and a private matter.
Holidays are whatever you make of them. People who get all uptight about what other people think of Christmas really need to get a life. If it’s a big deal to them then they can go celebrate it and leave the rest of us alone.
I agree completely!
Beautiful reflections on a holiday season that has gotten totally out of control.
Thanks!
Happy Holidays! 🙂
Haha! Happy generic sentiment to you, too. 🙂
The religous right is not very popular in the US. They’ve been a force in the Republican party, however. My understanding of public opinion is that women in the suburbs are turned off by the religous right due to their stance on abortion and perhaps their attitude toward the equality of women. I think I was in high school that it was commonly noted that the Moral Majority was neither moral nor a majority. Season’s greetings and happy holidays have been around a long time as phrases. It was later seen by some Christians on the right as politically correct. Erik, you had noted that the US has its roots among Christians who had migrated to American shores. It is probably not accurate to say the US a Christian nation. I guess the heart of the question is whether outside of church and private lie –in the business world–whether organizations can refer to Christmas. I’m not turned off by the commercialism of the season. Businesses have their thing to do and people are free to buy. I think most people shop for their spouse, children, and some friends. That’s fine by me. Are some families buying HDTVs–is that where we need to draw the line. Should we be critical of the level of material things that children are being given these days. I don’t know. That’s up to the parents. The kids have no money. I’ve never owned a video game console so maybe that’s where the money is going. When I was 12 started asking for records for Christmas. To me it opened up a world. My parents didn’t buy music for themselves. Elton John. Bruce Springsteen. The Who. That music has meant hours of enjoyment over the years–though I ditched the vinyl years ago!
I doubt the Religious Right is popular, too, but opposition to them is not vocal at all. As a nation, we’ve been though spasms of fundamentalist Christian revival every couple of generations since the beginning. One of them in the 1760s was part of our separation from England – the Scots-Irish started becoming more hard-line Presbyterian and thus less English (creating the Baptist faith). The big revivals of the 1840 led to no Sunday mail delivery along with Mormonism and Seventh-Day Adventists. 🙂
So this is really a part of a cycle, but the consumerism … well, it may calm down once we don’t have any money. In a contest between Fundamentalist Christians and consumerism I’d hope for mutual destruction, to be honest. But that doesn’t seem likely, especially given how much consumerism has been embraced by the same constitutency – something that I never understood, to be honest, outside of the Presbyterian roots.
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One of the reasons that I love Germany is that they are utterly frank about Christmas as an industry for the Americans. Like the British, the country more or less shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. The first of September rolls around, and the Christmas stuff is out. Now, I like lebkuchen (a soft ginger cookie with a cakelike texture that is often covered in chocolate) as much as the next person, but I don’t need FOUR MONTHS to buy the stuff. Give me two packs of it, about 12 cookies, and I’ve had all that I want.
I like Thanksgiving and Easter more than Christmas because I can make only so many side dishes on Thankgiving and any holiday that involves chocolate can’t be all bad. The Germans will have the Easter candy availale about 15 Jan.
Much of the time, Christmas is a time of unmet and UNMEETABLE expectations, and there lies most of “the problem”. Yes, you WILL suck it up and be nice to the obnoxious in-laws or bratty children of your siblings rather than curl up and read Seneca or Epicetus. I’ve learned to read the Stoics before I visit my family. This year, I am contemplating Seneca’s observation on how optimism makes us angry, and I would argue, sets us up for disappointment.
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Hmmm Christmas is apparently a stressful time for many, being associated with money worries and unmet emotional expectations. Checking out of it makes sense. Celebrating the solstice instead makes sense. A thoughtful post per Erik’s usual….