Celebration of the winter solstice has been growing in popularity for quite a few years. That’s not just the case among those who style themselves pagans. It’s also true among secularists, large numbers of whom engage in organized celebrations of the winter solstice involving gatherings, music, speeches, food, drink, lighting ceremonies, and sometimes gift giving. In short, Christmas, just not by that name.
It’s clear to me that such celebrations are a sop to leftover religious feelings. They serve an emotional purpose for people who miss the Christmas celebrations of their childhood but no longer believe in the religious drivel undergirding Christmas. If only they could recreate those happy childhood days without hypocritically embracing all that Jesus silliness again! Enter the secular solstice celebration. As I said above: Christmas by another name.
Some of them like to say that “axial tilt is the reason for the season.” Clever. Which season is that? Oh, right: the Christmas season. Or as people say nowadays, the holiday season. (Hanukkah! You Jews are included! See? It’s not Christian at all! So shut up while the radio stations all blare out an endless stream of Christmas carols and hymns.)
In some cases, they’ll repeat the same excuse that non-religious Christians use for celebrating Christmas: It’s not religious anymore. Nowadays, it’s just a time for family gathering. In that case, why not instead have your family gathering at a time of year much more suitable for traveling? Why do it at the time of year set aside by Christianity to celebrate its founding myth?
I’ve occasionally expressed these opinions online. I expected disagreement from the secular solstice celebrants, but I’ve been surprised by the anger in some of the replies. I shouldn’t have been. That agner proves my point.
I’m reminded of the angry reactions I encountered in the past when objecting to Christmas displays on public property. My first such experience was during my first Christmas on the campus of Indiana University, in 1962. I said—calmly and reasonably, I’m pretty sure—to the other young men in my dorm that it violated the separation of church and state for a public university to be putting Christmas decorations on its buildings. Outrage! Fury! “What if they added that Jewish candle thing?” “Menorah,” I said. “Yeah, that. Would that take care of the problem?” “No,” I said. “That’s also a religious symbol. That would be compounding the problem. There shouldn’t be anything at all on the buildings.” “All those Jewish merchants don’t mind making money by selling Christmas presents to Christians, do they?” That was said with a meaningful glare. I laughed and said, “If Christians want to foolishly spend lots of money on buying gifts at this time of year, then the merchants would also be fools if they didn’t make money from that nonsense, wouldn’t they?” (That didn’t improve the atmosphere.)
But here’s the point. The anger in that long-ago incident is the same as the anger I’ve encountered more recently when criticizing secular solstice celebrations. That tells me that I’m pushing the same buttons. In both cases, the unpleasant outsider is pointing out hypocrisy and illogic and explaining why the people involved should be willing to discard the cherished things of childhood and grow up.
If you really want freedom from religion, and every thinking person should want that, then free yourself from religious substitutes as well.
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