surrendering to christmas, part deux

so here's the thing about christmas - it's a christian holiday. i know, right? but, see here's the thing - christmas is historically a minor christian holiday. easter is THE holiday, or "holy day" as it were.

christmas is a celebration of the birth of the christ - a commemoration of the birth but not on the actual birth date because the actual date isn't know. it's highly likely the actual birth of the christ did not even occur during the part of the year during which christmas is celebrated. christ was probably born during the spring.

so how did christmas come to be during december? well, there was this huge pagan celebration surrounding the winter solstice - the day on which the daylight hours begin to outweigh the nighttime hours during each allotment of 24 hours. that is, the days begin to become longer again - longer & longer until we reach the summer solstice at which time the tide of daylight turns again.

anyway, there was this huge pagan celebration surrounding the winter solstice, and the adherants of the fledgling chritian movement in the... oh... say around the 1000s or so -- they were looking to convert all the world to their way of thinking. one of their bright ideas was to subsume the existing celebrations, the thought being it would be easier to assimilate existing celebrations rather than creating an entirely new system.

it's a good basic idea - work within the parameters, take what you're given, love the one you're with. it's still going on to this day in the "trunk or treat" or "fall festival" type celebrations which you'll see at many christian churches in place of samhain gatherings.

but the problem is that the solstice celebration was a bigger focus on the pagan calendar than the christmas celebration was on the christian calendar. so, as the christians adapted the pagan holy day, their own holy day grew out of proportion to its original importance.

start with this history and add the inherent gift-giving element of a celebration of a birth and on top of that add the consumerism which is inherent to gift-giving, and you have a recipe for a christian+capitalist explosion of... well, of greed, quite frankly.

i feel that these thoughts are not holding together well... the point i am trying to make is that christmas isn't the most important holy day on the christian calendar, but because of all these other factors, christmas has been transformed into the one given the most importance by modern pagan society. and, christians have let it happen. and, christians even fight for the merry-christmases over the happy-holidayses because they are all over the "jesus is the reason for the season" thing and... and... oh, i don't know... getting all het up over christmas being celebrated as it "should be" when it really should not be celebrated this way at all, at all!

easter is the important holy day on the christian calendar. easter.

::sigh::