Entry 443, on 2006-12-13 at 15:56:33 (Rating 2, Comments)
As many people prepare to celebrate Christmas I have been considering what would be the appropriate attitude for an atheist like myself. Making Christmas a major part of a country's culture can cause problems because people who are members of other religions might not find it easy to accept. You might say that they don't have to participate, and that is true, but when it is embedded so deeply in society its hard to avoid. You might also say that its always been part of our culture and there is no good reason to change. That is partly true. But religion is no longer a major force in many countries, for example here in New Zealand, so why should we celebrate a religious holiday?
Instead of opting out of the whole phenomenon I think its better to modify the meaning of the day to fit something that suits an individual's or group's beliefs. Christmas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus, but we don't even know if Jesus even existed, much less when he was born. The real reason we celebrate on the 25th is that it is close (it should be the 22nd or 23rd) to mid winter (or mid summer in the southern hemisphere) and the Christians just borrowed the solstice celebration to make it easier to convert people to their religion.
So I'm taking the day back. For me it will be a celebration of mid summer, which is so much nicer than celebrating mid winter like northern hemisphere dwellers will. I will celebrate "solstice day", not Christmas. This is a nice idea for me because it restores the original meaning to the day and has an astronomical meaning instead of a religious one.
I will follow the customs that suit me: exchange of gifts, visiting friends, drinking lots of wine and beer, etc; but avoid those which I disagree with such as celebrating Jesus' birth. If anyone else wants to use the day to celebrate something else, that's fine. And if the majority still want to stick with the Christian symbolism, even though they have nothing to do with church the rest of the year, that's fine too. So happy solstice day everyone, I'm off to buy some solstice presents for my family now.
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