Holy days?

A pantheist believes that God is in all things, all the time. There is no part of creation not completely composed of divinity. No thing is more sacred than any other thing. (Unless the pantheist takes the view that Nature is God, Man is outside of Nature; therefore God is not within Man’s creations.) No time is more sacred than any other time. The concept of a holiday is strange. Why should one day be more holy than another? Why would God want other days to be less holy?

So begins my annual rant against Christmas. I single it out because I hate holidays, and Christmas is singled out among all holidays. Is ‘hate’ too strong a word? Each day has as much potential as any other to be a great day or a terrible day or anything in between. Designating a holiday puts pressure on its celebrants to create a good day of it. A bad day any time of the year is just a bad day, and then you can have a good one later. A bad day on a holiday ‘ruins’ the day. How many children have been scarred by being told they have ruined Christmas? (Or Thanksgiving, or whatever)

Christmas, or rather the new celebration that as a culture we have agreed to call “The Holidays,” (in the mistaken impression that there are religious feelings to be hurt) compounds expectations of family bliss with a Saturnalia of consumption. Greed and guilt are the modes of the season, while the entertainment industry cynically pretends to promote the “True Spirit of The Holidays” between commercials.

All my childhood I faced The Holidays with a mixture of anticipatory greed and guilty dread. I really wanted to get all those great toys and gadgets, but buying gifts was like the worst homework assignment given all year. I became cynical early, faced with a list of family and family friends to select gifts for, all people I should love, reduced to check boxes to tick off when I bought a cheap watch, bath bead set or Tonka truck. The thought of the thousands of malls filled with millions of tons of junk produced merely to serve as token gifts depresses. How could God, Jesus or even Santa want this?

I believe in celebrating. Life is short, and we should fill it with as much joy as we can. Rituals and traditions that we walk through the motions of, without real feeling, are meaningless and should be discarded. I like birthdays. They are very personal celebrations in which you say to your loved one “I’m glad you exist. I celebrate your existence.” (I realize that is the alleged purpose of Christmas, to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but it really isn’t about that.) I like the Solstices and Equinoxes. They are the birthdays of the seasons. The pagan holidays in-between them are even better (Candlemas, Beltane, Lamas and Halloween) because they occur when the seasons are at their heights. I like rite of passage celebrations, too, and I think humans need them to survive. I am fortunate to have been to many weddings and not many funerals, and I believe they are necessary and good.

I don’t celebrate The Holidays, and I risk becoming an outcast to my new (soon to be married into) family. Thankfully, my father hates The Holidays (all of ‘em!) even more than I do, and we happily agreed not to buy gifts for one another long ago. When I told my (now ex)wife that I didn’t believe in Christmas Gifts she stopped in the middle of a beautiful piece of art she was making for me. I still feel guilty for that. My wonderful fiancée seems to okay with my Xmas Resistance, though (as the mother of a 12 year-old must) she buys gifts for her family. I think my opting out is viewed similarly to my vegetarianism. Honorable in principle, but annoying and selfish in practice.

If you want to resist The Holidays too, cartoonist and sensible thinker Nina Paley has some helpful tips (like, what to say to your loved ones), and galvanizing propaganda at: http://www.xmasresistance.org/