Friday, December 7, 2012

Another Way to Celebrate....

Now that November, and my NaNoWriMo are over for this year, I have time and peace to resurrect this writing space. For December, I am turning these pages into an outpost of Atheist Advent, my own small contribution to the ongoing dialogue about the many holidays that traditionally hold this month in their cold, sparkly grip. This means songs of the season, from a decidedly different perspective than your average Bing Crosby croon-fest. I plan on no less than one per week, but if I'm on a roll, who knows?

 I celebrate a calm, ripely Wiccan Yule for myself, and attend a semi-Catholic (read: no church for most of us) standard Christmas with family. I have a bad history with Christmas, though, that started when I was a teen, and got worse for a decade, before it came back around. I'll spare you the details here and now, as they might appear in a song soon. 

What you may need to know to get these songs is this: I am an atheist, have been for decades now, and there is no conflict with my pagan/witchy tendencies. In fact, most of the Wiccans and pagans I've known, and there are many, are wise enough to understand that the "old gods and goddesses" are simply symbols of a nature-revering outlook; not to be worshipped, but used to the betterment of our relationship with our planet and all of its occupants, animal vegetable and mineral. I knew a pagan man once who had dedicated his life to Saint Brigid, for her ideals, not because he thought she needed a worshipper. It gave him the framework of meaning he needed in life, as most religion was meant, somewhere back at its inception, to do.

 All this is to tell you, I love the Solstice, and what the spirit of it brings to this month. I enjoy the trappings of the season, but detest how all the major holidays that shine in December have been  perverted by ever-increasing greed. And I'm here to tell you, there is no fucking war on Christmas. Christmas has as many secular traditions as it does god-inspired ones-- more, actually, but who cares? What is, is; and atheists aren't trying to keep you from putting up a tree, a creche, a star, an elf, or an angel on your own land or your church's.

 Just don't expect us, me, to bow to it. And I won't expect you to light a candle on the shortest day of the year, or spend the 25th  of December having dinner at an Indian restaurant because they're the only places that are open, as I have many a year.

 Deal?