Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays!

I don’t mind when people say that to me. After all, December is the season of Holidays! There is a reason that Christians celebrate this high holy feast in December, but it might not be what you think.

So here is a quick rundown so you can see just how chock full of religious significance this month is. On

The Buddhists celebrate Bodhi day on December 6^th, the day when Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment while sitting under a Bodhi Tree.

December 21^st is the Pagan and Wiccan celebration of Yule, the shortest day of the year and traditionally when the sun child was reborn.

The solstice is also celebrated in the Chinese Festival Dongzhi, the Hopi festival of Soyal, and the Persian Zoroastrian festival of Yalda.

December begins with Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights and ends with Hogmanay, the Scottish Festival of the New Year.

Christians celebrate Christmas because it is the day when the Ancient Romans celebrated Saturnalia, the return of the Sun.

Even the Secular Humanists celebrate Christmas as some sort of festival of the best of human nature.

All in all Happy Holidays seems like a very appropriate response to all of this. I have in fact left a few out. And there are some like the Hindu Diwali or the Muslim Eid-al Fitr that occur on different calendars than ours and so sometimes happen in December and sometimes not.

These people who stand up and fight for putting Christ back in Christmas are seeing the trees instead of the forest.

What is really happening here is a very human reaction to the dark. We all remember it from when we were kids and the lights went off... we need assurance that they will go on again. Well, the world gets colder and darker, and then, one day, the light comes back on... and we celebrate.

Freud and Jung would have called it something buried in our subconscious, a human reaction to bad things by believing in good things.

So think about winter festivals as times of hope. Things can get better. Life will return. Goodness will triumph... this is the root message of every festival. And, in case you did not recognize it, the main message of Jesus.

I realize that some people feel a sort of empirical triumphalism about Christianity and want the entire world to convert. I do not personally feel there is any reason for this, but I am not really trying to focus there. Instead I am trying to say that this is a time of year we should celebrate with each other.

There is literally no one who does not celebrate something in December. Now that Christmas has been so fully embraced by the secular world and is seen as a sort of Charles Dickens ode to the goodness of people, everyone celebrates.

What is not to like about new life? What is not to like about turning the corner and the days getting longer? 

What is not to like about gift giving and feasting and celebrating?

Don’t get me wrong, I actually love winter and it has become so short these days that we really have nothing to complain about. But I also think that human beings should celebrate whenever possible. I think it makes us better people to be able to look on the bright side or to be able to see darkness and say, you know what, let’s have a party anyway.

It is after all what Canadians do best.

So I love that all of the holidays coincide with the darkest days and the colder weather. It really feels right to me. And if anyone wants to say Happy Holidays I will just assume they mean them all.