I'm a little
late with my 'holiday season' letter. Did I say that right? Should that be 'New Year's letter'? 'Christmas letter'?
And I can't get past the holiday season greetings "issue" that popped up absurdly this
year. Provoked by political manipulators, some people started worrying about whether one holiday greeting was more
appropriate than another.
I have a
proposal. Let's put the 'happy' -- or the 'merry' or any 'good' word-- back into holiday greetings. Once we've got that element taken
care of -- a 'good' this, a 'happy' that; Greetings! Welcome!-- we've accomplished
our purpose. The rest of the phrasing really doesn't matter to anybody. (Or
shouldn't.)
Everybody
celebrates something this time of year, even if it's nothing more than a week
or two off from school, or a day or two off from work. Holidays are a break
we all need. Our traditional late December holiday season falls close to the winter solstice, a
natural point for all societies to take a break from their routines. The
'festival,' or 'feast,' or way you celebrate that break is the way societies have marked
that break from the routine time to 'festal time' when everyone is invited, in fact expected, to put aside their work or ordinary activities.
For millennia civilizations
have acknowledged the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year,as a special time. If you live in a temperate, season-driven, sun-dependent climate, it's
a natural time to remind yourself of this dependence and appeal to whatever
spiritual power your community recognizes to make sure the sun remembers that
it's time to start coming back up in the sky, lengthening the days, and
returning to us (in its appointed time) the growing season that human life
depends on.
That makes the solstice a good time to perform the sacrifice, sing the right songs, and utter the
prayers that we believe those special power likes to hear from us. And so,
since we have to gather all together to do these things right, we might as well
figure out some ways to have some fun as well.
Solstice
festivals in pagan Europe were known as Yule time, from which the expression
"yule log" still endures. The Yule log -- and in view of its purpose
it had better be a goodly hunk of wood -- was supposed to be dragged in from your
own land or received as a gift (apartment dwellers got this clause inserted in
the festival rulebook) and placed in the hearth, where it was subject to
greenery decorations and doused with ale or cider (on the theory that the
consuming spirits had the same taste in beverages that you did), then set ablaze
by a piece of last year's log and expected to last not only through the night but to
to smolder for 12 days more days before being put out. That could be a chilly
period unless the Yule log was permitted some companion logs to share the
fireplace.
Like the Yule log, the Christmas
tree derives from the same North European notion of a "world tree," known
to a Teutonic peoples as "Yggdrasil," an ash tree associated with the
sun and the bringing of light. Another custom calls for finding a Yule branch with a flat
side to use as candle holder for three candles.
Many Yule
customs influence holiday traditions today -- the Christmas tree, decorative holly or other
greens, burning candles.
In the Mediterranean, the
Romans had their Saturnalia a few days before the solstice, introducing a period
of gift-giving, continual partying, and gambling, and the overturning of
ordinary social rank. Here we find the root of the traditional office
Christmas party.
Our notion
of when to begin, and celebrate, a new year probably also derives from the winter solstice. It's
a new ear because the sun is in fact observably "returning" to the northern
hemisphere, the days are lengthening, and it looks like the whole party is
going to last for another year.
Almost
anybody looking forward to another year of existence on earth -- and that's a
pretty wide tent -- would likely be receptive to a celebratory salutation of
"Happy New Year" and "Seasons Greetings."
While the salutation
of "Merry Christmas" is unlikely to be used much by people who are not
Christians, everyone can appreciate that it's the thought that counts. We
all want to be told to be "merry" or happy about something.
I am greeted by "Good
Shabbos" at the end of services at my wife's temple, and though I do not
use this salutation myself, it is hardly anything to get uptight about.
Similarly,
my father-in-law was charmed to receive a "Merry Christmas" from an
almost certainly Muslim waiter in a Moroccan restaurant on Christmas Day in
London, when all the English-owned businesses were closed but third-world
establishments were kind enough to feed some hungry American tourists. ("God
bless us everyone!")
Nor do I have
any hesitation in saying "Happy Hanukkah" to others at the
appropriate times, though often I have no idea when that is. It's a holiday that
derives from a national event (similar in kind to Independence Day) and is not directly
related to the winter solstice, though the lovely phrase used to describe this
holiday,"Festival of Lights," offers a strong similarity to
the Yule/Christmas line of holiday customs and symbols.
And for those
who haven't yet discovered this application at home, leftover Hanukkah candles
work wonderfully when inserted into the widely enjoyed Christmas decoration called "Angel
Chimes."
You can try
that one at home -- while wishing your friends, family, neighbors, office mates,
and other acquaintances some version of Season's-happy-good-Hanukkah-New Year's-Christmas-welcome-merry Solstice!
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