don't let me slip - I'm up on my soapbox

A friend sent me an email today - one of those "Hurry, send to everyone you know" emails that was a story about Jesus being all sad and upset because he thought everyone was celebrating his birthday around this time of year, but people keep forgetting to invite him to the party.

Puh-lease.

I don't know if I can roll my eyes with enough exaggeration to express my feelings about this - and I'm guessing anyone reading this who knows me can indeed guess my feelings about this.

Anyone care for a brief history lesson? (yes I had to do some internet snooping, er, research, to find details of this stuff. No way can I keep all this stuff in my already muddled mind, though I retain the generalities).

Let's visit Ancient Babylon - Feast of the Son of Isis (Horus) on December 25. 'kay - we're talking about a thousand years or so before the birth of Jesus. So, Horus is the son of the "queen of heaven", Isis. Coincidentally, she is also described as a virgin mother. Celebration of the birth of this son of the virgin mother includes "Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving..."

Breeze on over to the Romans, who were celebrating Saturnalia, a holiday for Saturn, the god of agriculture. They celebrated this each year beginning December 17, and ran it for 7 days until December 25, and their celebrations were marked by "postponing all business and warfare, exchanging gifts, and temporarily freeing their slaves". Lessee, this is going on maybe a bit before and just after 0 B.C.

Mithras - an religious cult of ancient Rome (several thousand years BC) sounds just crazily the same as christianity. He was the son of the Sun God and a virgin mother, born on December 25, and was born to save the world from its "sin". Shepherds attended his birth. Nuts! Nuts, I tell you!

And the celtic religions - based on the circles of nature and the universe. They noticed the solstice occuring in late December every year (or whatever related time their calendars said). These celebrations honored the shortest day of the year - the rebirth of the son. *Thousands* of years B.C. I can only imagine how ancient we are talking here.

I could go on but won't. There are countless examples of ancient traditions centered on or around this time of year we now call December 21-25. The tilt of the earth's axis, the angle to the sun, the length of the days, these all these make it noteworthy, so it's no surprise that so many ancient celebrations occured this time of year. It's a noteworthy mark in our natural seasons that has been celebrated, presumably as long as humans have noted that cycle.

As the Imperial Romans tried to spread Christianity, they made it more palatable to the masses by merging their celebrations to those pagan holidays already loved and celebrated. Jesus of the bible wasn't born in December - best guesses have it placed in mid- to late summer, so don't try to tell me this is really the day that scholars think Jesus was born.

So those of you who would complain to me of highjacking "your" holiday, give me a break. I'm celebrating it in love and with hopes of peace. I'm imagining wonderful things happening for humankind - for our planet - for the universe. Hopefully you're celebrating it with as much spirituality and goodwill as that, and not wasting your time trying to prove to the world that you are holier than others who are not like you.

I like my friend. I'm not going to share all this with her. I'm going to wish her a merry christmas (rather than "happy holidays") and am glad for her that she's celebrating it in her individually chosen spiritual way. I'm going to assume she wasn't thinking about the fact that I am an atheist when she included me on her "send" list.

But I'm not going to stop wishing that everyone, and particularly those fundamentalist christians who have conveniently forgotten history, would open their minds enough to realize that people who do not believe like them are not new, and are not evil. You know?

This time of year is magical to me and to many people for a wide diversity of reasons. Let's find the common ground - the wishes for peace and the joy in being with family and loved ones, and celebrate those, eh? This is my wish for the new year.
Fat chance, huh? Or maybe not. I will be hopeful until I take my last breath.