Happy Hanukkah, festive Pancha Ganapati, contemplative Eid ul-Adha, joyous Yule, eventful Saturnalia, but most of all...
Merry Christmas to all my friends, colleagues, associates and readers.
Yes I said "Christmas" - go ahead and call the authorities, write me up, throw the cuffs on. You can haul me away in irons if you want to, but I celebrate Christmas at this time of year and I am not afraid to say so. I do not celebrate "festivus" or "winter break" or "December holidays", I celebrate Christmas as in Christ-Mass, as in the celebration of the birth of Christ.
Whether you believe December 25th is the actual birth day of Jesus Christ or not, and whether you believe that person was/is the messiah or a prophet or just a highly skilled public speaker, is completely irrelevant. There is no doubt that the person we know historically as Jesus Christ lived, taught, and died somewhere in the Middle East about 2010 years ago and he left behind a controversial legacy that still lives on our calendars today.
The fact is that it is highly unlikely that December 25th is an actual official birth date since most of us know that day was stolen from the Celts when the early Catholic Church "purified" that part of the world. Some date in May makes more sense based on celestial regression, but whatever. I still put up the tree, sing Christmas carols, decorate with copious quantities of light and celebrate like a Roman Counsellor throughout the month of December.
I make or buy presents for people who matter to me and I get them something that will make them feel warm and comforted. This is as close as I can get to the gift of life, peace, and joy that all Christians (all people for that matter) should aspire to. If we all thought this way throughout the year, there would be no need for borders, walls, armies or politics. I fill my world with bright lights, shiny bobbles and reflective things that make my house look like something Clark Griswold would be proud of. This is a purely symbolic presentation of "light" defeating "darkness" and all the metaphorical implications that go along with that.
Maybe it seems old fashioned, or quaint, or outdated to some, but I don't care. My Christmas season includes baking gingerbread and decorating sugar cookies with my family. We go to friends houses and sing Christmas carols by the fire with one of us playing an old upright piano and another handing out sheet music. Christmas morning starts with a full viewing of "A Christmas Carol" - the 1938 version - followed by a breakfast of Japanese oranges and an exploration into the depths of the stockings that were hanging by the fire just the evening before. Some time during the holiday, I absolutely must watch Its a Wonderful Life and Scrooge (Alasdair Sim version). My ideal Christmas Eve is spent with friends out for dinner or at a movie followed by a candle light service in a country church surrounded by fir and cedar trees - a little snow on the branches makes that perfect.
I have friends who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and Pagan and I try to acknowledge their religious holiday's when I know about them. Its never a problem for me to say "Happy Hanukkah" or "Festive Yule", so why do people take exception when I say "Merry Christmas"? I understand the need for a generic "Winter Holiday", but when I say Merry Christmas, that is exactly what I mean.
So I hope my Jewish friends have a Happy Hanukkah and I wish my Pagan friends a Festive Yule. As we approach the 25th though, I want to wish my Christian friends a Merry Christmas filled with joy, peace, light, and hope for more of the same throughout the coming year.
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