Friday, December 12, 2008

Bursting the "Reason for the season" bubble - 12/12/08


During this time of year, advocates for Christmas as a religious holiday begin their drives to insert this ideology into places that are constitutionally barred to them: Government and public lands.

Don't get me wrong. Anyone can practice their religion of choice anywhere that is privately owned with the owners permission. If everyone in the country wanted to put up a nativity scene on their yards, all the power to them.

It's when they push their ideology on elected officials or others who have a tax-payer based investment in the lands or buildings on which these displays appear that crosses the line. It doesn't matter if these officials share the same religion. The point is you keep anything promoting one religion off of publicly owned property.

Now, onto that part about Jesus being the 'reason for the season'. In a word - Not!

The season is winter, which by all accounts has been around for much longer than Jesus. In the second place, the mid-winter (or Winter Solstice) celebration has gone on for millennia. Again, this is far longer than Jesus was ever around. The fact is, according to history, the Romans carried out their census in the spring - March or April. Given that Joseph and Mary were traveling to be counted in the census, it's far more likely that they did so after the Winter, which places Jesus' birth (if it actually happened, which has never been proven, historically speaking) in the Spring.

Most biblical scholars agree with this.

What happened to change it to the 25th of December?

The short answer: The Catholics.

The long answer: During the rise of Christianity, many compromises were made with the pagan regarding their celebrations and holidays, incorporating them into the emerging Christian mythology. The mid-winter celebrations in Rome were called the Saturnalia - which consisted of a fortnight of feasting, orgies and general debauchery. Since this didn't mesh too well with Christian dogma, the Christians started calling the start of the celebrations (on the Winter Solstice) the day of Christ's birth - "Christmas" - and started co-opting other pagan holidays like Easter (Ostera).

Now, in a quirk of fate, the actual winter solstice varies. Several hundred years ago, it was on or near December 25th. Due to a phenomenon known as precession caused by the Earth's spin, today, it's around the 21st or 22nd. Because a BIRTHDAY can't change (unlike the time of the celebrations, which depended on when the actual seasonal event happened rather than sticking to the same date every year), it has remained December 25th since it was first established.

The upshot of all of this is simple: The season's the reason for the season. Both factually and historically, Jesus had nothing to do with it. So if you want to say "Merry Christmas", by all means, do so. But if you cater to a non-christian public, 'Happy Holidays' is more than sufficient and historically accurate. So don't make people who don't know what religion a customer may have say Merry Christmas to everyone just because you say it to everyone.