Over the last year we have been following a pagan-Christian year. Looking at the festivals that Christianity latched onto to help colonize the pagan world. It’s been an interesting and thought provoking journey.
And so we come to Christmas or Yule. When the year is at it’s darkest, cultures around the globe focus on light. Candles, bonfires and stars – and evergreens – mistletoe, ivy, holly and conifer (for us northern europeans at least.
But, in his book “Christmas: Tradition, myth and total baubles” Nick Paige’, after debunking the myth that there has ever been a traditional Christmas, returns to the source of why all the traditions at this time of year celebrate mid-winter – it’s flipping cold and it’s @$!£ing dark.
Imagine, he says, “that you are a cave-dwelling Neanderthal. (Look in the mirror: you might find it easier than you think.) And you live in the north”. Maybe not so difficult to imagine if you live in the North-East. But strip away the mod-cons of insulated housing, double-glazing, central heating and electric lights. The mid-winter is harsh and terrifying.
You hunker down in your cave, stack up the fire, drag in some evergreens to remind you of summer, and wait and wait. You know it will pass, spring will come, and you’re canny enough at basic astronomy to know when the days are longest. And when the day comes, Nick Paige says, “You do what human beings always do. You pray and you party.”
Fire, food, and hope. Add to that our inbuilt human need for symbols and you have a festival in the making. The events we have followed through this year aren’t pagan, or Christian, or muslim, or taoist, or hindu (although all of them follow similar patterns of the year) – no they’re human. To claim we (as Christians) have a monopoly on them is daft, if only for the fact that archaeologists have found temples that predate our modern religions that line up with these astronomical events. But that also doesn’t mean that our Christian use of the festival is degraded. Nick Paige says:
“Deep down, you see, we are all afraid of the dark. Which is one reason why the Christian story fits so well into this time. Because it’s all about those things: the darkness and light, the joy of new life, about a star in the night sky, about the idea that peace on earth might actually be possible.”
So, embrace your humanness – drag in the greenery (from the loft or Tescos), stoke up the fire (or thermostat), light the 5 watt LED candles. Push back at the dark, huddle close with those you love against the cold, and dream/ hope of the summer. It will come…
It will come…
I hope…it will come…light follows the darkness.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Questions:
Is your tree up yet?
When is “too early”?
Has the blog made you think differently about the non-Christian Christmas traditions like the tree etc.? if so, why?
How do we party and pray?
What do you struggle with in the dark days; where do you find the light?
Response: Get an electric candle and put it in your window to celebrate light pushing back at darkness. Go outside and look at it in the window. Its power is in its contrast. If you did the same thing in mid-summer it would have no impact at all. Reflect on that for a while. Possibly with a mulled wine or hot chocolate wearing an oodie.
I’ve been a member of BCFX for about 4 years. I love it. It’s home and hearth, welcome and challenge, ebb and flow.