Solstice Light

[sartorias]

This amazing story of team effort to save lives is cast as a Christmas post, but really, it could as easily have gone up last week during Chanukah, or over the weekend to celebrate the return of the sun, or in acknowledgement of the better nature of human beings, whether couched in terms of spiritual uplift or not

Comments

[kalimac]

what Harry Connolly calls 'Giftmas'

C.S. Lewis divided Christmas into three parts: 1) "a religious festival, important and obligatory for Christians, but of no interest to anyone else"; 2) "a popular holiday ... I much approve of merry-making, but I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends"; 3) "the commercial racket ... merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things."

He also wrote a hilarious pastiche of Herodotus describing a country (obviously the modern UK) which celebrates two simultaneous holidays, Christmas and "Exmas", the former a quiet religious celebration and the latter a vast lunacy that nobody enjoys but everyone considers obligatory. That the two are actually the same, the writer considers not credible.

There sometimes was a very brief nod to ChanukahUp here in 1963, this took the form of a primary-school Christmas pageant that included a Hanukkah

[sartorias]

I have to look up that Lewis pastiche. Sounds like a crackup.

Yeah, there were some pretty wince-making moments at school assemblies during the fifties. And hoo boy, the patriotism hoorah shoveled in amongst the holiday jingles! But that was during and post Joe Mcarthy's snake oil act.

[kalimac]

The Lewis piece is in God in the Dock.

[sartorias]

Clearly I am overdue for a reread.

[whswhs]

I grew up with Christmas as a family holiday, but the theological aspect was never foregrounded; I realized I was an atheist not long after my ninth birthday, but it really never occurred to me that that clashed with Christmas. chorale and I still celebrate it as Christmas, though we emphasize more the pagan folk aspects-and we also have an apple ornament up for Newtonmas.

Ironically, chorale was playing her winter holiday track again, and I realized that most of the songs I like best are not only Christian, but specifically theological-I've never really liked the very gemütlich ones about the baby Jesus. Listening to them now with more historical knowledge, I'm struck by lines like "King and God and sacrifice" (in "We Three Kings"), which might be from the Upanishads, and "Join the triumph of the skies" (in "Hark the Herald Angels Sing"), which makes me think of Roman victory parades with the slave riding alongside the general and whispering "Remember, you too are mortal"-apparently I like the element of solemnity

[kalimac]

My favorite Christmas carols also tend to be the strictly theological ones. Holst's hymn-setting of "In the Bleak Midwinter" is the tops. The ones I dislike most are the Santa Claus ones, because they're so nauseatingly sweet, closely followed by most of the "winter holiday" ones.

[sartorias]

Yup.

[whswhs]

I dislike the ones that treat the Santa Claus/winter holiday motif as funny even more, actually. Though I quite enjoy Tom Lehrer's song about Christmas. . . .

[houseboatonstyx]

Serious Christian music is wonderful (except when one of the slow solemn respectful ones comes on in the hardware store). Otherwise I think 'That's how other people celebrate Solstice,' and take all the spritzer cookies with red and green sugar crystals that they offer me.

[sartorias]

Mmmm cookies . . . especially warm from the oven.

I love serious choral Christmas music, and also the lights!

[sartorias]

Some of the most beautiful seasonal music I've heard is from Senegal.

[thistleingrey]

Yes! In the Northern Hemisphere, many cultures and traditions have something key for midwinter; it's one of the few times when I can think upon Star Trek's IDIC unironically. :) Best wishes to you for what you celebrate.

[sartorias]

And to you!