And a Merry Winter Solstice to all!

In modern American culture, the biggest and most elaborate celebration of the year is, without a doubt, this monstrous holiday in the latter part of the year that goes by the name of "Christmas".  And without fail, every year there will be fights and arguments and controversy over what this celebration is REALLY about, with Christians on one side and secularists on the other.  No nativity scene or religious carol is safe!

Here is an article about a public school that banned the singing of Christian-themed carols.  It occurred a few years ago, but since I cannot find any follow-up news on it, we can assume that singing "Silent Night" there will get you in a heap of trouble. 

So, 'tis the season for your favorite blogger to whip out his keyboard and add his two cents worth!

Let's start off with this:  Jesus Christ was NOT born on December 25th.  We don't know for sure what time of the year He was born, but Bible scholars are in unanimous agreement that it was highly unlikely to be "on a cold winter's ni-ight that wa-as so deep."  Shepherds do not (did not) watch their flocks by night in the dead of winter, among other morsels of evidence.

When the sun, on its annual journey, reaches its most southerly point, it's called the Winter Solstice in the northern hemisphere. (Summer Solstice if you live south of the equator.)  In 2018, it will occur at 4:23 pm CST on Friday, December 21.  At that point, winter has reached its apex, and the days will start getting longer again.  Spring is coming!  People in the northern hemisphere have been celebrating this joyous event for pretty much as long as humans have lived on this planet - which is probably at least a thousand years or so before Christ was born.

To this day, our Christmas traditions are full of emotion and "warm-fuzzies" about the season of winter.  This applies regardless of the actual weather conditions outside.  I live in south Texas, where it very rarely snows, come Christmas or otherwise.  But we still put up all the decorations meant to mimic ice and snow and such, and sing songs like "Jingle Bells", "Sleigh Ride", "Frosty the Snowman", "Let it Snow", "Winter Wonderland", and others that are really just about ice and snow and cold weather.  We sing them even though few, if any of us, have actually ridden in a one-horse open sleigh or built a snowman.  

So how and why did the "mass for Christ" come to be celebrated in December?  There are a handful of theories, but the generally accepted answer is that the church leaders wanted to "steal the thunder", so to speak, out of the Solstice celebration.  It seems that in the days of the early Christian church, the Solstice parties had become a hideous pagan orgy of sex, drunkenness, and debauchery.  Turning it into a religious holy day might tone things down somewhat - in theory, at least. 

But notice that most of the pagan symbols and rituals never went away.  The traditions of lights, indoor trees, greenery, wreaths, the yule log, and all the other glittery, sparkly things are still with us.  But make no mistake about it:  Christmas trees and lights have nothing to do with the birth of Christ.  I hate to be the one to tell you, but:  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did NOT have a Christmas tree in their living room.  And I've always thought it was supremely ironic that Christian churches everywhere go hog-wild with all these seasonal decorations that are, in truth, 100% pagan in origin.

Meanwhile, our end-of-year seasonal celebrations have inherited all sorts of other events, celebrations, and other cultural symbols, which have all morphed and merged together into the monster we call "Christmas".   First there's the Feast of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children, originally celebrated on December 8.  Today the fat, bearded, red-suited, cookie-eating man with the reindeer is nothing at all like his original predecessor.  But who can deny that he, above all others, is the ultimate Christmas icon?  Then we can also toss in New Years, Ramadan, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa; you can probably think of a few others, too.  (I wonder if the school district mentioned above allows Hanukkah carols?)

And then there's the gift-giving orgy.  For most of us, the one aspect of Christmas that has the biggest impact on our lives is financial, all courtesy of the unbreakable tradition that we must buy everybody a present, and too often, money is no object.  According to ABC News, the average American spends about $700 on Christmas gifts and goodies.

The tradition supposedly started with the Bible story of the wise men from the East who presented the child Jesus with gifts.  Here again we have another anachronism that never gets mentioned:  Jesus was, like, two years old when this event occurred.  Thus the association with his birth is all wrong from the get-go, never mind all those nativity scenes with the camels and the "three kings".  So today, we shop till we drop, or our credit cards melt, whichever comes first.  Jesus and company would all be horrified at what this noble tradition has morphed into.

Meanwhile, it's no secret that for many retailers, Christmas is the biggest revenue-generator of the year, thanks to us consumers.  Normally, I would not object to businesses seeking a profit-making opportunity and working hard to take advantage of it, but retailers have crossed the line when they start putting up their holiday decorations in, like, mid-October.  It's bad enough that Thanksgiving, a truly blessed holiday, has been swallowed by Christmas because there's just not enough retail money to be made on it; now even Halloween is in danger of being swallowed.   And these store decorations will probably stay up until around mid-January, which makes Christmas a three-month-long holiday, or about a fourth of the entire year.  So much for being "special".

And if it's not bad enough that Christmas overkill has consumed the retail industry, the phenomena has also spilled over onto entertainment venues.  A favorite radio station of mine normally plays bunches of great classic oldies that no other station plays.  Nowadays they start playing 24-7 Christmas music on Thanksgiving Day!!   That should be felony.  (Wow - can you believe a hard-core libertarian just said that?!?)

Finally, it is worth mentioning that, from a purely theological perspective, Christ's birth is really not that significant.  There are many other events in His life which are far more important - his death and resurrection come to mind - but we don't make nearly as much a fuss over them as we do his birth.

When I become Emperor of the World, I will declare that the celebration of Jesus' birth be taken out of the month of December, and moved to August.  What else happens in August?  Nothing!  This move should end, once and for all, all this fighting and bickering over what the "real" meaning is behind the big holiday celebration in December.  Have a Merry Winter Solstice, one and all!