I can't believe it is Christmas time already! I'm really not prepared for the holiday season or any of its trappings. I think I've about had it with the over Christianizing of the season and the sappy Santa who may be always cheery but will still deliver coal to a bad child. The season is actually owned by the retail industry and is there chance to bring up profit margins that have been lagging over the year. It's a time to increase personal debt trying to keep up with the Jones's and please everyone around oneself. I don't object to someone wishing me a "Merry Christmas," because most people are not thinking about the birth of Christ anyway (Christ's Mass). What I object to is Christians trying to convince others that the holiday season is really about their spiritual practice and we should all remind ourselves of this and act accordingly. The birth of Christ, most scholars believe took place earlier in the year and only came to be celebrated in December to upset the winter solstice/Yule celebrations. In other words, by throwing the blanket of the birth of Christ over the winter solstice and Yule, the Christians have attempted to wipe out the earlier Pagan celebrations. They nearly succeeded. However, traditions as old as Pagan born are not so easily subverted. Suppressed, perhaps, but not gone. Many Pagan groups across the globe will be celebrating both the coming winter solstice and/or lighting of the Yule Log. Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether you celebrate as a Pagan, a Jew, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Native American, a Christian, or otherwise. The point is not to suppress all other spiritual paths under one but to celebrate now and at other times the creative spirit that has found so many paths leading to the same goal. Call it what you will... enlightenment, rebirth, saved... it's essentially the same concept.
Enjoy the holiday season whatever holiday you choose!
