Most religious holidays (of all religions) have their
origins in ancient practices that were based on nature: the cycle of seasons,
agriculture and mating seasons. So just
about every religion has some holiday that corresponds to the winter
solstice. A celebration of the shortest
day of the year because that means things will start to get better. The spirits must be looking favorably upon
on. Each religion added on its own
particular story to make it personal and to create a differentiation. The baby Jesus narrative. The Maccabian victory over the Greeks. Etc.
Now in our era of globalization, a secularization trend has
taken over. No matter what practices
used to set each religion’s version of the holiday apart, we now all have
presents, and candle lighting, and many other similarities. Twelve days of Christmas versus eight days of
Hanukkah. Hanukkah bushes to satisfy
Jewish Christmas tree envy. I heard
today that many Muslims in Baghdad buy Christmas trees and hang Santas on their
front doors. I am not an expert at
religious anthropology, but my minor in religious philosophy many decades ago
at least prepared me to notice these trends and recognize them honestly for
what they are.
An even more recent trend towards mixed marriages makes it
really hard to maintain any differences at all.
What do you tell the kids when you have a Jewish mom, atheist dad,
Christian step-mom, Wiccan step-dad, living in a Muslim community with a
Buddhist teacher and Hindu best friend?
My Take
This is really hard on companies and school systems trying
to set vacation schedules and stores deciding when to have their holiday
sales. We have “holiday trees” and other
pathetic sounding, artificial, politically correct contrivances to keep
everyone happy.
Luckily there is a solution.
New Years Eve. It wouldn’t be
that hard to extend our New Year’s Eve holiday into a ten day break beginning
on December 21. It starts with a night
of family dinners, gift exchanges, and goodwill towards all. It culminates with a New Year’s Eve
celebration of bacchanalian partying. It
concludes with a day of watching college football. On the days in between, each person or family
can insert any other practices that match their personal beliefs or
preferences. But it could be the same dates
and basic milestones for everyone so the stores would know when to have their
holiday sales and vacations could be aligned.
What do you think?
