What is Christmas Anyway?

Well here we are the day after Christmas. Most of us have full bellies and tired minds from the days and weeks spent shopping, cooking and traveling to see family and friends for your chosen holiday festivities. Kids and grownups alike are having fun with new toys and the remainder of the long winter is in front of us.

Last year I wrote a somewhat scathing blog about the Christmas season that pretty much summed up my opinion of it (See "How the Stupid People Stole Christmas" December 2008). This year I have been listening to NPR in my car as I traveled to and from work and family parties on Christmas eve and day. All week NPR has featured stories about the history of Christmas as we know it today. It seems that last year, sadly, I was wrong. I decided to set the record straight here and write not only a retraction to my last years sarcastic flogging of all things Christmas, but also comment on my new found knowledge of the history of the season.

This whole celebration we now call Christmas actually began during neolithic times when the humans celebrated the winter solstice...now why would people that starved and froze to death by the hundreds during this time want to celebrate? Well, they had an excess of meat lying around as they slaughtered all of their cows so they wouldn't have to feed them over the winter so there was a plethora of meat to be eaten. In addition, the beer and wine they had been fermenting all year was finally ready to be drunk so the mid winter celebration was the last big feast before the long winter started. The druids were also amazed that the conifers miraculously survived during the winter outside when everything else seemed to die so they brought them into their dwellings and decorated them...Does anyone else do this? The winter solstice also marks the reversal of the ebbing of the sun. It is the longest night of the year and so, everyday following the solstice the sun stays out longer and longer. Many cultures celebrated reversal rituals during the solstice. For example; Saturnalia, the holiday celebrated by the Romans to honor Saturn, the roman god of war, was introduced in 217 BC and was marked by the role reversals of masters and slaves, general revelry, and eating and drinking in excess. This holiday started on December 17 and lasted until December 23rd. Romans would eat, drink, gamble and celebrate for a week. Slaves were allowed to party with the masters and no one was punished during this time. Schools were closed and people made and exchanged little gifts. Does any of this sound familiar? Once the Christians took over Rome they appropriated much of this pagan holiday into what we now call Christmas so as to easier convert the pagans to Christianity. It apparently worked because we now have Christmas every year on December 25th the supposed birthday of Jesus according to the Christians of the times...the actual day of his birth is actually unknown.

I am really excited to learn about all of this as this explanation allows me the freedom to enjoy the holiday with the reckless abandon I did as a child. It seems after learning all of this, that I don't have to feel guilty about enjoying a religious holiday when I don't really believe in religion. I can enjoy it the way it was originally intended, the celebration of the middle of winter. I can revel in the fact that the sun will stay out longer each day instead of shorter. I can eat until I am going to pop and enjoy all the excess this time of year has to offer. I wonder how easy the role reversal part would be to pull off at work...

Anyway, I hope all of you had a safe and wonderful Holiday. Thank you for continuing to read the ramblings I post here and I hope you all had a happy "Saturnalia" and also a wonderful new year.