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Merry Solstice!

Posted on December 16, 2010 by Sonoma Valley Sun

Christmas comes on a Saturday this year, and that’s fine. But why not have it on Friday… every year. A three-day weekend every December, that’s our kind of gift.

There is a precedent. Thanksgiving is always a Thursday. And the feds moved up Abe’s and George’ birthdays, so why not Jesus’ birthday?

Nobody really knows when Jesus’ birthday was, anyway. Likely, it was not in the dead of winter, if we accept Luke’s statement that the shepherds were “out in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night,” as Bethlehem is in the Judean hills, where it’s cold and rainy and occasionally snows in the winter. In any case, it’s true that the winter solstice was celebrated long before Christ.

Maybe Christians should relinquish the claim to that holiday and pick something in, say, August, bereft as that month is of holidays, to honor Jesus’ birth. And maybe, leave out the gifting, and make it a day of contemplation, instead. But who are we to buck centuries of tradition?

It sometimes seems the winter holiday tradition has become its own end today, regardless of origin. For many people, the holiday is merely commercial, devoid of any particularly spiritual significance, and that’s too bad. Santa Claus makes a shallow, bureaucratic god, exposed as a hoax every year to new millions of children.

But organized religion itself gets in the way of faith. Does it really matter when Jesus was born? Or even if his conception was virginal? What matters, for those who believe it, is that Jesus rose from the dead – that’s what makes him unique among all other spiritual leaders. Of course, organized religion can’t get the date of his resurrection right, either, as Easter wanders from March to April and back again, depending, literally, on the phases of the moon.

No, these externalities don’t really matter to the core messages of Jesus: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and “Love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.” God loves us because of who he is, not because of anything we do or don’t do.

So Christians can enjoy this season as a reminder of their savior Jesus – Merry Christmas! Non-Christians can enjoy the season for reminders of their own, too, and everyone can enjoy, as mankind has for millennia, the anticipation of newly lengthening days. Merry Solstice!

This column first appeared in 2006



One thought on “Merry Solstice!

  1. The Winter Solstice is celebrated as Christ’s birth as it signifies the rebirth of the Year the crossover from the darkest shortest night to the increasingly longer and brighter daylight hours to signify expanding Hope that the Prophesy brought to the People. I think the timeframe selection also had to do with the Bright Star and the astrological significance of it and likely timing.

    And St Nicholas did his works at this time as well hence the Santa Claus angle. The gifts are given to signify the gifts brought to the Christ child by the Three Kings as well.

    Seems fitting to me. If you would study Organized Religions a little deeper, The Church, and Astrology it might make more sense to you. May the Holy Spirit shine wisdom to all of us that we all may see The Light this Blessed Season.

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