... but why do we put ourselves through such torment every year?
Thu, 23. December 2010
I Don't Hate Christmas...
It's lovely to have the whole family together for a few hours over a traditional roast dinner and a cold drink or two and it's nice to exchange presents. The end of December is a good time for working people to take a long break, contemplate what has been achieved during the year and have a rest before it all starts again in the new year.
However, I cannot understand the practice of putting a freakin' great 'Christmas' tree in the lounge room, where it just gets in the way of everybody that comes. I sometimes ask: "What are these meaningless obstacles supposed to represent?" but I have never had a sensible answer from anyone. "Get with spirit" is NOT a satisfactory response. I also have no idea why we decorate the trees with glossy balls, fairies, candy walking sticks and other cheap ornaments that we would not tolerate around the house at other times of the year and have absolutely no relevance - even at Christmas - whatever your religious persuasion. Pine cones and holly are common Christmas decorations but the reason escapes me.
Then there is the wretched Christmas music. We are force-fed the same old songs, year after year. As an atheist, I despise and reject "Holy Night" and "Little Lord Jesus" and the other mundane religious songs that get foisted on us. As a rational human being my mind rebels against songs about Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Reindeer, Santa Claus, jingle bells, babes in mangers, angels, drummer boys, wise men, Bethlehem, holly, mistletoe and following a star. What meaning do any of these things have? Who the hell was good king Wenceslas? Do shepherds really watch their flock by night? Who could possibly follow a star rising in the East yet end up in the West?
The same songs are rolled out year after year. If, for instance, we had a month of every year when we all had to listen to hits from the fifties, people would soon complain, so why do we annually tolerate such banal songs as "We Three Kings of Orient Are..." or "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen..." and the like? As for "Ding Dong Merrily On High..." could their possibly be a more insipid, mundane or stupidly conceived song?
Christmas cards are another example of irrationality. Why do we even send Christmas cards at all, when an e-mail or phone call would be sufficient to send an expression of good will? They are usually plastered with the same silly symbols mentioned above; plus a sock or a red robin and bleak winter scenes. This is Australia and it's hot in December, so why do the Santa impersonators dress up in red freezer suits? If we must have symbolism, why can't Australians develop their own, using something more regionally appropriate and suited to the season?
I don't particularly like the commercialisation of Christmas but the facts are that commercial interests have almost completely taken over Christmas from the Christians, who had previously hijacked it themselves from primitives with different beliefs. All that is left now for religion is Christmas Day itself, which I don't begrudge them. They can all go to church and praise their imaginary friend, that's ok. They are welcome to pray for world peace (yet again) if they like. It's futile - and if they sat down and contemplated it, they would realise that it has never worked and accept that it never will.
Why do we decorate our homes with holly and sing songs about sleighs, reindeer and snowmen? It is all so repetitive, predictable and (for adults) puerile. Now I am on my sixty-sixth solar orbit and to me, most of Christmas has become not only unnecessary but insanely irrelevant. Time of peace and goodwill? Peace arrives on 26th December!
Whilst I get repelled by the the early onset of 'Commercialmas', the nonsensical decorations, the stale Christmas carols and the monotonous self-righteous piety that emanates from church leaders each year, that is not what I dislike most about Christmas. It's fun for the children but it could easily be done without all the lies we adults propagate into their young minds.
Image copied from /www.atheismresource.com
Because we base Christmas on telling lies; because we become slaves to the fantasies, false promises & vivid imagination of others; and because it all revolves around the glorification of a non-existent being, then Christmas & Santa Claus has become a quasi-religion in itself. That's what I most dislike about it.