We will celebrate the WINTER SOLSTICE on Sunday, December 21st
this year.
It is a CELEBRATION OF LIGHT that has been celebrated
forever as the day when nights get shorter and days get longer. It is a new
beginning that happens every year and as with new beginnings, people always
think optimistically as to what awaits them in the New Year and wish each other
the best in this new beginning.
Many call this celebration pagan because it has no
connection to Christianity even though it pre-dates the invention of
Christianity. I call it a natural celebration because it is a celebration of a
natural phenomenon given to us by Mother Earth and it is a celebration we all
as inhabitants of this earth, can celebrate.
Every year (and you would think I would have let this go by
now) I get all bent out of shape at the letter writers that decry taking CHRIST
out of CHRISTMAS. The fact is that JESUS was never in Christmas if you define
Christmas as the holidays celebrated at this time of year; no one knows when
Jesus was born or even where he was born so injecting Jesus into Christmas is a
usurpation of the natural joy of celebrating the increasing of the light.
I don’t begrudge Christians their celebration of the birth
of Jesus but I do resent them injecting their celebration into our celebration
as if to say their celebration takes precedence over ours because their reason
for celebrating is somehow “holier” than our pagan celebration.
I realize that there are traditions that are observed at
this time of year and my Polish upbringing came with many of these traditions
that we celebrate to this day. There are some Christian (holy) traditions
(manger) as well as many pagan ones (Christmas tree), etc.
As time has passed we have come to keep the tradition of Wigilia
which is a gathering of the family on Christmas Eve which is the best tradition
of all.
I guess my point is that this time of year is celebrated by
many for many different reasons; all important to them and their families. This
time of year called collectively “the holidays” does not belong to any specific
group or religion and I guess what I resent most is the Christian belief that
they were here first and everyone else is stealing their holiday; that is just
plain ignorance on their part.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS ONE AND ALL…
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