We’re looking forward to the long “weekend” ahead, with Christmas on Thursday and many people taking “Boxing Day” off on Friday.

Say, why not have Christmas on Thursday every year? The feds moved Abe’s birthday, and George’s (does that make them twins?), so why not Jesus’ birthday?

Nobody really knows when Jesus’ birthday was. 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 in the winter and occasionally snows. 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 today has become its own end, 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, fortunately 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 phase of the moon.

No, these externalities don’t really matter to the core message 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.”

Christians can enjoy the 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

Exciting choice

Count us among the first to express excitement at President-Elect Barack Obama’s choice for Education Secretary: Arne Duncan.

Obama campaigned on the theme of “change,” stressing the importance of education for all of our nation’s youth and speaking about recognizing and rewarding highly effective teachers. Duncan looks to be an agent for such change, and we applaud the choice.

For us here in Sonoma Valley, where state funding is tight and getting tighter, we don’t hold hope for immediate financial relief. But we’ve commented before that it doesn’t take more money to set higher expectations or to instill more serious attitudes. The new dress code in Sonoma schools this year is a successful example, and we hope that Washington, D.C., becomes a source for other changes that our local education leaders can make here, now.