The Reason For The Season

Christmas seems to mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. Of course, there is the aspect of the day as the birth of the Christian savior. It is a day for the giving and receiving of gifts and spending time with friends and family. To many, it is nothing more than a day to get off work. It is finally a day to be dreaded by a great many people, who suffer through grave bouts of depression and anxiety, which are heightened by the season and heightens their sense of loneliness and isolation.

Christmas was actually a pagan holiday originally, and seems to have been adapted by the newly Christianized Romans from the old festival known as the Saturnalia. Saturn was an ancient agricultural deity from the ancient days of Roman pre history, and little is known concerning him, though he was falsely identified with the Greek Cronus. The Saturnalia was a joyous festival, in which gifts were exchanged and there was much merry making, banqueting, partying, and the playing of pranks. Work was called off for the entirety of the festival, which ran from the Winter Solstice until the following New Years Day. This may well have been, in fact, the original "Twelve Days Of Christmas".

Even slaves got into the act, and they were not only free of their duties for the duration of the festival, but their masters were expected to cook for them, and perform all the menial tasks to which the slaves were ordinarily consigned.

This was a popular, even a beloved tradition, throughout Roman history, so naturally it would be considered rash, to say the least, to atempt to bring it to an end, not exactly conducive to gaining acceptance of the new state religion of Christianity. And so the holiday was kept, and maintained as the birthdate of the Christian savior. And so, apparrently, everybody was happy.

As a pagan, of course I do not recognize the holiday as the birthdate of the Christian savior, I recognize the holiday-which actually occurs most years on December 21st-as a celebration of the Winter Solstice. As, in fact, the symbolic rebirth of the sun, and of the sun god himself. For it is on this date, the Solstice, that ancient people noticed the sun, which had been steadily declining in length of it's days, now suddenly started to once again re-emerge, as the days once again begin growing longer. The Solstice, Yule, of course, is the shortest day of the year, but also marks the period when each day now becomes successively longer, as the light and heat of the sun now grows progressively brighter and stronger.

On this day, the newly reborn sun god, in other words, is once again a new born infant, new born from the womb of the Mother Goddess.

It is, in effect, the true New Years Day, though most pagans consider Samhain (Halloween) to be New Years. This I consider to be the age old effects of marketing and the connection in the popular mind of Halloweeen with witches and witchcraft, and so in my opinion the adoption of Samhain as the Wiccan and/or Pagan New Year is quite simply incorrect. But that is my opinion, which I have to concede most other Wiccans and Pagans do not share.

But at any rate, Yule as a traditional holiday has been around for some time now, prior to Christianity, and I can afford to be generous in my gratitude toward the ancient Christians for wisely endeavoring to uphold the tradition, albeit in a somewhat corrupted version. As such, I for one have no problem wishing them or anyone else a "Merry Christmas and a happy New Year", nor do I have any hang-ups about being met with such a greeting at Department Stores and such. I most generally return the greeting.

Nor do I have a problem with trees in public parks being adorned for the season, and with them being called what they are traditionally called-"Christmas Trees". Of course, I know they are or were originally called Yule Trees, or maybe were an outgrowth of the long ago burning of the "Yule Log" which seems to have been an ancient European tradition of the Celts, or perhaps of one of the Germanic and Scandinavian tribes. I don't know and it doesnt really matter. The point is, I am not offended in the least by any of the traditional public displays or recognitions of Christmas, nor can I imagine any other Wiccan or pagan that would be, not any that have a modicum of good sense, at least.

I don't even mind the traditional Christmas religous displays, the manger and wise men with baby Jesus and all that. Why the hell should I care? Yet, evidently somebody seems to mind, and so a controversy has been erupted, one which may have been magnified by forces on the Far Right in order to gain political points (or in view of recent events to keep from loosing them) with an incensed general public. For, the reality is, like it or not, the majority of Americans are Christians, and I have no doubt the majority of Americans always will be Christians. Frankly, this suits me fine in some ways. It does provide a bulwark against radical Islam, or for that matter against the more suppossedly moderate form of that vile religion.

Yet,there are those who for no real good reason think they have to come down against any public display of Christianity. Well, I resent this, as a non-Christian, for a number of reasons. For one, it puts me on the spot, as Christians who know of my pagan beliefs automatically assume that I side with these radicals. Well, I do not.

For another, it gives just that much more fuel to the fire started by those Far Right radicals, gives them ammunition, as it were, to use against not only pagans, but against any Democratric politicans, or supporters of any kind of progressive or liberal cause. It gives them just one more wedge issue with which to infalme the gullible against those of us who would otherwise stand to gain their support. A sure fire way to convince a person to vote against their own best interests is to appeal to their vanity, or their fears, or their prejudices-or their religous beliefs. In the case of the latter, the more heartfelt and yet superstitous are those beliefs, the better.

Christians are bad enough when they are confronted just with the facts of other religions, of the existence of them. They are bad enough when confronted with the simple reality that those of other religions have the rights to practice their religions in peace. This is enough to make them shout and moan and bitch about a so-called "war on Christianity". That and the fact a good many people just don't share their values. I know I don't always. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. So what!

All I know is, America is suppossed to be a country that is founded on certain key principles, and one of these principles is two pronged. On one aspect, you have the freedom of religion, and the rights to free religous expression, while at the same time it is against the law for government to support any one religion over another. That seems perfectly clear cut to me. Christians have as much of a right to their traditional holidays as any other religous group, and this should be respected.

The ancient Christans long ago learned the value of respecting traditions. Hopefully, the modern Christians of today are not adverse to learning those same lessons. Nor should anyone else be.