An atheist friend of ours put up on his face book page a bit of art explaining that many of the Christmas traditions now held dearly actually have their roots in pagan holidays of yore that all took place around the winter solstice December 21st.
The message being one does not have to be a Christian to have a Merry Christmas.
We certainly do not disagree. Indeed anyone with even a passing knowledge of the New Testament would not argue the fact that it is highly doubtful that Jesus was born on December 25th in the year 0000.
But does that mean there is no G0d?
There was something else about that post that intrigued us.
It was the Merry part.
It is a little known fact that during the great Protestant reformation several newly formed sects attempted to ban the celebration of Christmas. Citing those very same pagan roots our friend did those Puritans made even saying ‘Merry Christmas’ a crime punishable by fines and for repeat offenders some time in the stocks.
While those efforts obviously failed the reason for their failure has never been really explored. We think it has less to do with the Christmas, than it does with the Merry.
Let us digress.
Around the same time as Christmas, Jews celebrate Hanukkah commemorating the military victory over the Greek Empire and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem.
One could expect that such a celebration would be a bit solemn at least a bit more solemn that celebrating Yule.
It isn’t.
Jews are just as merry on Hanukkah as their Christian neighbors are on Christmas.
Cross cultural contamination?
Perhaps.
But there were no Christians or for that matter Jews 2,500 years ago in northern Europe when folks up there were singing and dancing and otherwise being merry around the Yule log.
So we did some checking thanks to google and wikipedia and we found winter solstice celebrations in almost every culture, religion and country around the world and they all had one thing in common– Merriment.
That struck us as a bit weird.
Marking the solstice, the shortest day of the year we get, but everyone marking it the same way kind of boggles the imagination.
One would expect that there must be some culture for which the solstice was a day of sorrow or at least reflection, but no there isn’t.
Even the human sacrifice loving Aztecs celebrated the solstice not by eating the hearts of their enemies but by making and exchanging sweet corn cakes, singing dancing or in other words being merry.
Logically there really is no reason to be merry at anytime in late December.
It’s cold, the nights are long, the weather is awful and often times money is tight this time of year for a lot of folks.
And yet, even as we enumerate all the reasons why not to be happy this time of year our heart too is singing.
Yes we are happy, joyful even.
The question is why?
It is often cited as a proof of G0d that even the youngest child understands the concept of fairness despite the fact in their daily lives fairness has very little to do with anything.
As creations of a just G0d, the argument goes, justice is inherent in the human soul.
Perhaps the same thing goes for Joy?
Perhaps the unexplained joy we feel at this darkest time of the year is also written into our souls.
Perhaps just perhaps the name we give this season be it Hanukkah, Christmas, Yule or Atemoztli is irrelevant. It is the joy we feel, the merry we make that makes this time of year, that has always made this time of year so special.
Despite all the pain suffering and anguish humanity has inflicted on its self millennia after millennia there lays in this one dark corner of the year, year after year, a small spark of Merriment, Peace and Goodwill and it shines against the night.