I heard an interesting show on NPR radio yesterday where they had a bunch of atheists come on and talk about how they celebrate or in many cases, don’t celebrate Christmas. Quite a few people called in pretty much the consensus of opinion was that regardless of what people believed or didn’t believe in, they still kept the Santa thing going for their kids.
I found it most interesting when the discussion turned to Winter Solstice, which is the time of year when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, it is when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. It thus becomes one of the darkest times of the year, and often the coldest. In the Northern Hemisphere, the nights become long and the the days short. This year Winter Solstice falls on December 22nd and is considered to be the first day of Winter.
Almost everyone on the radio show agreed that regardless of whether or not one celebrates Christmas in the Christian sense, there is something primal about families needing and wanting to come together at this dark time of year – to huddle together in the warmth and to take care of one another. Everyone bar none agreed that this Holiday season is largely about friends and family coming together.
There are always the fundamentalists and on the program, we were treated to the extreme views of both ends of the spectrum – atheists didn’t want to see anything smacking of religion on any public property (fair enough,) and Christians wanted folks to take the birth of Jesus seriously and as the gospel truth. That being said, most people I know live and let live. I love that here in Los Angeles, there is so much diversity – within blocks of where I live there are Russian, Orthodox Jewish, Korean, Polish, Chinese, Japanese and Vietnamese communities – all with their own steadfast traditions.
In an era where cultural traditions are becoming more and more diluted as the world homogenizes, I absolutely love to honor, and am frankly quite fascinated by other people’s traditions. As far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t harm anyone or the environment – why not? To that end, I’ve just taken delivery of a Living Christmas tree, as I won’t have my family tradition be involved in uselessly cutting down trees to celebrate our Holiday.
My personal tradition comes down from my Danish father. We always celebrated a Danish Christmas, despite the fact that my parents were agnostic. It was the only time of year that the extended family would formally come together and keep a beautiful tradition alive. The celebrations began on Christmas eve with a formal dinner as follows: Appetizer was warm rice pudding, topped with cinnamon sugar and butter and over which you pour beer! The whole deal with this pudding is that an almond is hidden in it and the person who gets the almond, wins a prize. A roast goose followed, served with spicy red cabbage. Following dinner, we all went into the living room, where the Christmas tree had been illuminated with real candles. The lights were turned off and the smallest child would enter first. After a couple of readings from the bible, which were just beautiful to hear, we sang four or five Danish carols and then came the gift-giving fun. Christmas day was celebrated with an enormous Danish Smorgasbord, which would have horrified a vegetarian, due in part to the whole cow’s tongue that sat amidst a myriad of cold meats and raw fishes. Although I don’t do the Smorgasbord thing, I do try to keep the Danish tradition alive on Christmas eve, especially with the hidden almond in the rice pudding.
I’m so excited to have my in-laws – yes I did say my in-laws come to stay. I’m fortunate enough to have a loving family still alive and well and I plan to cherish the time we spend together. Our children remember and often treasure special Holidays – so all this makes the harder work so worthwhile.
Most importantly, this Holiday season is a wonderful opportunity to be of service. There are so many homeless, hungry and lonely people in every city in the world and this time of year can be miserable for many. It’s become a family tradition for us to choose a few different ways that we can really make a difference to people who may be suffering – even if it’s a call to someone who may be on their own – its the small things that really matter.
How do you celebrate? Are you referring to the upcoming week as “The Holidays”, “Christmas” or anything else? I’d love to know…
