Benedicamus Domino!
Well, today is as near as makes no matter to the date of the Winter Solstice, when the sun is the farthest away from the earth, causing both the shortest day and the longest night of the year. I have celebrated it in my time as the ancient fire-festival of Yule. The yule-log was burned at this time during the longest night to keep vigil and to wait for the new day's dawning, for if the sun returned after this longest of nights, then people knew that spring would indeed come again. Of course, when I celebrated it, we had no fears for the longest night as often did the ancient Germanic peoples, for instance, but we still met in fellowship and in good cheer and toasted the new birth of the sun. We spoke our hopes and cast our fears and past sorrows into the fire. We looked forward to the lengthening of the days and the coming of the new spring. It was wonderful!
It is often said that the feast of Christmas was instituted at a similar time of year in order to eclipse Solstice festivals like Yule and to stamp out idolatry and demonic worship. I do not doubt that the timing of Christmas was not a mere coincidence, but was it truly an attempt to stamp out idolatry? First, I'm not completely certain of this, but I believe that when Christmas was established as a feast in the Christian calendar, no Christian could ever have moved the Roman state to do anything in favour of Christ and against its own religion. Christians were being killed at this time and were also being relieved of their careers and ranks and such if they were openly Christian. The Roman religion too at this time was little more than a public observance, and denying it would have meant that you were in revolt against the state. It was a citizen's civic duty to attend the various ceremonies.
And what about the Germanic and Celtic and other people for whom their worship was more than public formalism? Well, Christians did go among them, it's true, but except in very rare cases (St. Boniface cutting down sacred trees comes to mind,) they tended not to simply uproot the peoples' beliefs and plant their own in their place. Anyone who's done that has ended up with a pretty dead religion and very little faith among those they have tried to convert whole-cloth. Instead, a slow process went on, where Christianity and the indigenous faiths were sort of adapted to each other. I don't exactly mean syncretism, but it was amazing how so much of Christianity seemed to be the fulfilment of the beliefs of these people, and I only say this because I myself have experienced this firsthand! The problems come when everything that is not Christ is ipso facto demonized and made to be evil! How can an honouring of the seasons be evil? It isn't Christian, perhaps, but it is people trying to make sense of their world. I have come to the belief that Christ's birth is the fulfilment of the dawn after the longest night of the year, but does that mean that I demand that others believe this too? No! That sort of belief can only come by experience. I will say that it came to me almost against my will, though. It just came and washed over me and that was that, but that was God's doing and did not come at my or any other's asking. For me, though Christ is the baby in the manger, He is also the uncontainable and uncircumscribable God come in the form of man to bring new light to our darkened world. Surely other Pagan people had this same experience! Surely they were not simply herded into churches and made to abandon their bonfires and evergreen boughs! Surely not! Surely they themselves brought their boughs to be blessed and to honour the infant Christ, having sensed Him as the Truth even as I did.
I know that it is difficult for those of other faiths to deal with this season called Christmas. I've heard people describe a "war on Christmas" going on. They cite Christian privelege in the face of their own beliefs, but at least they live in a land where they aren't being killed or taken from their families and imprisoned for what they believe. This must be remembered! As for me, I think that much of Christmas has become about family and gifts and not about Christ, but do I think that all this should be banished? No. It is what it is, and though I wish the consumerism was less, it isn't likely to change any time soon. It is our new public religion, after all, and Santa Claus is our new Sol Invictus! Ah well! So goes the world, I suppose.
However, the light still burns in many forms. There is still hope left. So, on this night of Yule and for this season of many holy days, may all have the best things in life and truly experience hope and joy!
Deo Gratias!
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