I always hated the phrase “Jesus is the reason for the season” though I couldn’t put my finger on just why until I got out of Catholicism. My parents were firm believers in the War on Christmas (which, as Jon Stewart once said, “Seems to start earlier every year”), a sentiment that seems to me to grow out of the hated phrase. This season, I’ve been using “Holiday Parties: the reason for the season” as a facebook status every time I attend one; and @janaremy posted this today:
RT @MoriahJovan It’s like people have forgotten the TRUE MEANING of Winter Solstice-that earth’s axial tilt is farthest away from the sun.
So my question on this Solstice day is what is the reason? Yes, the reason the nights get longer and the reason we have seasons is the earth’s axial tilt, but what meaning can even atheists find during the holiday season? My answer is: parties.
I don’t mean that flippantly, either. I truly believe that there is something primal in gathering in warmth and friendship during these shortest days and times of long darkness (/Northern Hemisphere Centric). Just as our bodies want us to wake when light streams (however feebly) through our windows, just as lying in the grass under a tree brings a kind of pleasure that nothing else does, holiday parties are the reason for the season.
All of the winter holidays revolve around light and warmth: we light candles, one more on each successive day; or cover a tree with colorful winking lights; or crown our rooftops with dripping lights; or light candles, one more on each successive week; or light candles while we gather and remember family, unity, and purpose in life. Fire is a very central part of winter holidays. So is warmth and gathering.
Tonight, I plan an electric-light-free evening with only candles to light the darkness of my home. I’ll probably warm up some Glühwein and make some stew: warm things, warm foods, for a long, cold night. I may do the same in three or four days.
Humanity may have conquered the fear of long dark nights, we may have mastered fire and flame so that we are never without it in the cold and dark, but we have not outgrown the need to celebrate it. Whether your light in the darkness is the Invincible Sun, the Savior and Son, or just the earth’s axial tilt, may your holiday of choice be filled with warmth and light—both literally and metaphorically.
