So, it's no mystery to those that are close to me that Christmas is not a favorite holiday of mine.
Humbug, Grinchitude, whatever...call it what you will, but my overall disdain for this time of year is well rooted in legitimacy.
So, let's begin...
First off, I used to work retail and yes, I worked retail through two Christmas'. Some people claim that this holiday transforms people into greedy s.o.b.'s that have to make the holiday perfect for their loved ones because their loved ones matter more than anyone's. While this is a close observation, it's not true, however the truth is far more distressing. Instead of transforming people all this holiday does it bring whats buried down deep inside most people bubbling up to the surface; the whole greedy, s.o.b. thing. People clog retail outlets clawing at, often, meaningless garbage to stuff in stockings and shove under trees to make people smile on that fateful morning, which, ya know, is just beautiful; making someone smile with products. Things. Consume, conform, and obey, America.
And even worse about this time of year is the fact that society, and more importantly, Christians, accepted this holiday as the birth of their savior because the Church decreed it so. It is a suject of great debate, but if one were to do the research I feel they would come to the same conclusion most, along with myself have, and that is that the man named Jesus was born sometime in the Spring and the early Christians decided to celebrate on the 25th of December to steal attention away from several Pagan holidays that all happened around that date. Being a pagan, and more importantly, one who celebrates the Festival of Yule, I find this time of year to be...overly offensive. I try my best to shrug it off, as I know deep down inside of me it doesn't really matter, but with the almost continuous holiday music on the T.V. and the just completely irritating Christmas messages plaguing my Facebook newsfeed it's hard to 'shrug' it all away.
I guess what all this really is is me telling more people to rise above ignorance.
When has any church been overly concerned with the facts? I like the holiday and the traditions that I associate with it, though. I go to church at midnight though I'm not, per se, a believer in the magical powers of the Jewish carpenter. I come home that night and put shiny things on some poor conifer that wasn't hurting anybody, yet had to be uprooted and set up in the living room. I wake up the next morning earlier than anybody on vacation should actually have to wake up (my sister is a Christmas morning Nazi, fyi). I tear the paper off of things that I wouldn't have bought for myself, yet am nevertheless glad to get, because my mom and sister pick out nice stuff, and just because I wouldn't have bought it doesn't mean I don't like it. I pack up the car and head over to my Aunt's house or some other relative that I don't get to see too often, and we have a nice dinner and sit around and play the board games that clever people play. They won't play Encore with me any more since I beat the entire family at knowing songs a couple of years ago, and this saddens me, but winning at trivial pursuit is almost as much fun.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the timing of the whole ritual goes, I'd be just as happy to do it during the summer solstice. Traveling to Pennsylvania in December blows. (you can actually omit the words, "traveling to" in that last sentence and it makes just as much sense)
Wishing you and yours the merriest of yules :)
~Ardan
Maybe this will cheer you up?
ReplyDeletehttp://homestarrunner.com/xmas10.html
FWIW, the origin of the Dec 25 date is actually a bit stranger. There was an ancient belief that the date of one's death was the same as the date of one's conception. Thus the date was a calculation of nine months forward from the passover when Jesus died.
See more here if you like:
http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=16-10-012-v