Why, yes, I do celebrate (insert winter holiday here)
As a bare-footed, tree hugging, Goddess worshiper I get asked frequently this time of year why I even bother with the whole Christmas thing, seeing as I’m not Christian and I’m not looking for redemption. I could bore you with a lot of ancient history, and point you to a million sources of information on ye olde internets, but I’m pretty sure you can find it yourself if you are interested. What follows is the condensed version.
Before the advent of Christianity, and before the Roman Catholics took over the world (those bastids!) people were celebrating the winter solstice in a variety of ways. The ancient Romans had Saturnalia, the northern Europeans had Yule. Even the ancient Celts celebrated the solstice, if not as heavily as some of their other holidays (the fire festivals like Beltaine and Samhain.)
There were various reasons that the solstice was celebrated by ancient cultures, ranging from the mythology of the sun king being reborn, to plain out needing a reason to party in the dead of winter. Most of our modern Christmas trimmings and trappings are borrowed *cough*stolen*cough* from ancient celebrations. Gift giving, candles (well, we have lights now, and my neighbors are seriously trying to cause me to have seizures with theirs), holly and mistletoe, even the traditional food we eat. And, if you want to get all technical, Jesus is a “sun god”. So yeah, even that as well.
And me? Why do I celebrate a very commercialized season of spending too much money, pissing off your neighbors, and license to act like a complete ass in every retail store one can imagine?
Because I want to! Stop asking silly questions!
Okay, seriously again. For me, it’s all about the rebirth of the sun king. Oh, laugh if you must, but think about it. The winter solstice marks the longest night of the year. The days have been getting shorter and shorter since the summer solstice (which marked, go figure, the longest day of the year.) The wheel has moved, and once the winter solstice has come and gone, the days start getting longer again. The sun king is reborn.
It’s all about the sun. Dreams of the sun on my skin, the wind in my hair, and my toes in the sand. The memories, and future plans, of life on the other side of the wheel. See you there!