Merry Christmas, Everyone!
Dec. 25th, 2010 07:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jim_pMerry Christmas to all my friends!
There was a period when I did the "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" thing. This was during the time that I was actively renouncing my Catholicism and struggling to get Christ out of my life (details are a separate essay). This also happened during the rise of the religious right as a political force in this country. I literally lived in fear that today's church ladies would someday evolve into tomorrow's Saudi-style religious police.
Then, a couple of years ago, it hit me:
Christmas, as it is celebrated in this culture, is a secular holiday.
What we celebrate is an amalgam of traditions from numerous holidays and celebrations surrounding the winter solstice. I always chuckle when I see a church with a Christmas tree next to the manger. The Christ connection is actually pretty late to the party when it comes to Stuff To Celebrate at this time of year.
Every year we're treated to the wailing and hand-wringing by Christians outraged by a so-called "War On Christmas" and earnest reminders that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". Uh no... actually it's the other way around. All these pagan and secular celebrations were there FIRST. Christians tried to co-opt the holiday by establishing their own festival to coincide with the others.
Whenever you try to co-opt someone else's movement, you run the risk that the original movement will prevail.
That is why, even though I grew up in a very observant Catholic family, the baby-Jesus thing was at best a footnote to our celebrations. The bulk of the energy went into shopping, trimming the tree, decorating the house, preparing the special foods for Christmas dinner, wrapping and sending presents, and the like. Yes, we had a nativity scene set up on the buffet table, but that was at best 10% of the decorating. The obligatory trek out to Christmas Mass was seen as a diversion from the festivities, not an end in itself.
So on that note, Merry Christmas, everyone! Today is Christmas Day, regardless of whether or what or how you celebrate! Take this one day out of the normal routine, and enjoy it as you wish!
Hugs, handshakes, and good wishes all around!
There was a period when I did the "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" thing. This was during the time that I was actively renouncing my Catholicism and struggling to get Christ out of my life (details are a separate essay). This also happened during the rise of the religious right as a political force in this country. I literally lived in fear that today's church ladies would someday evolve into tomorrow's Saudi-style religious police.
Then, a couple of years ago, it hit me:
Christmas, as it is celebrated in this culture, is a secular holiday.
What we celebrate is an amalgam of traditions from numerous holidays and celebrations surrounding the winter solstice. I always chuckle when I see a church with a Christmas tree next to the manger. The Christ connection is actually pretty late to the party when it comes to Stuff To Celebrate at this time of year.
Every year we're treated to the wailing and hand-wringing by Christians outraged by a so-called "War On Christmas" and earnest reminders that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season". Uh no... actually it's the other way around. All these pagan and secular celebrations were there FIRST. Christians tried to co-opt the holiday by establishing their own festival to coincide with the others.
Whenever you try to co-opt someone else's movement, you run the risk that the original movement will prevail.
That is why, even though I grew up in a very observant Catholic family, the baby-Jesus thing was at best a footnote to our celebrations. The bulk of the energy went into shopping, trimming the tree, decorating the house, preparing the special foods for Christmas dinner, wrapping and sending presents, and the like. Yes, we had a nativity scene set up on the buffet table, but that was at best 10% of the decorating. The obligatory trek out to Christmas Mass was seen as a diversion from the festivities, not an end in itself.
So on that note, Merry Christmas, everyone! Today is Christmas Day, regardless of whether or what or how you celebrate! Take this one day out of the normal routine, and enjoy it as you wish!
Hugs, handshakes, and good wishes all around!
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no subject
Date: 2010-12-26 12:44 am (UTC)I appreciate what you're saying and I agree with parts of it, but speaking as someone who isn't Christian at all, Christmas still isn't a secular holiday. To say that it is one smacks of various kinds of privilege, and while I'm not offended because I understand your intent, I wouldn't be surprised if other people were, and I'd see it as justified. This is similar to a common statement I hear from friends who claim to have had no religion because they were raised generic American Christian. It may feel like there's nothing there, but that's only because your thing is such a supermajority that it's easy to just not see it.