Keep the Saturn in Saturnalia

I love this time of year. I love the lights, the decorations, the "holiday" traditions, the smells, the sounds, and most especially the personal meaning that I attribute to all of these. But I especially like the feeling that my particular way of celebrating what I celebrate at this time of year is part of a much larger continuum of midwinter celebrations that have existed in various forms in cultures worldwide.

Cultural ritual and tradition are a form of artistic expression that help us attribute meaning to our lives and help us understand the inexpressible, even the unknowable. Both the way we express and the meaning we give to these traditions differs across the world, but the fact that they exist in some form worldwide is beautiful to me.

As a member of the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-Day Saints -- with an admittedly Humanist bent -- I love contemplating my place in this continuum of mid-winter ritual extending back to Roman festivals like Saturnalia and the various Druidic, Pagan, and Celtic cultural remnants that also find expression in my "Christmas" activities. I love thinking of my personal focus on children at this time of year as a remnant of the Feast of Fools (or a relatively similar tradition inherent to the Roman Saturnalia), where peasants and kings traded places for a day of silliness and festivity. I love contemplating what  symbolism my evergreen tree or crackling winter fire might have had to my tribal forebears in Celtic Europe. I love contemplating how my "festival of lights" is different from, and yet so very similar to the Hanukkah of my Jewish friends.

I also love contemplating the way these mid-winter festivities join me with the rest of humanity. My humanity is enhanced when I contemplate the artful expressions of culture and meaning that have been celebrated at this time of year in Asia. The Chinese Dongzhi Festival with its focus on family and togetherness (and delectable balls of glutinous rice!); the Water Lantern Festival with it's focus on ancestors and spirituality -- don't we all turn our thoughts to our forebears at this time of year, with both sadness and joy?

This time of year also serves to remind me of the destructive cultural hegemony that humans have forced onto other humans with malicious ignorance throughout history. The celebration of Kwanzaa, with its beautiful colors, dances, and ritual is a stark reminder of this fact, while simultaneously affirming the beautiful ability humans have to be artful and expressive as they reclaim and reinvent their cultural and religious observances.

So at this time of year, I embrace my humanity and yours. I embrace the wonderful diversity of our cultural traditions. I revel in their expressive artfulness. I celebrate those who reclaim and recreate; who relive and perpetuate; who share cookies and mirth, give gifts, and warm smiles. I celebrate those who look on in bewilderment, frustrated at the onslaught of it all. Whether it's a nativity crèche presented with religious fervor, an inflatable Santa electronically chanting "ho, ho, ho", an austere metal pole accompanied by various airing of grievances and feats of strength, a retail business just trying to make a buck, an opportune day-off for going out for Chinese food, or anything else, it's my hope we'll all be true to ourselves first and foremost.

Our DNA comes to us from a long line of mid-winter survivors. Let's lift one another up and make it a happy one, remembering the shared experience and continuum of humanity. And Christians, we need to recognize our privileged place in American culture. We may insist on keeping the Christ in our Christmas, but in so doing, we need to recognize the human continuum that has given us many of the traditions we now cherish as part of our Christmastide. Remember, in keeping Christ in Christmas we also need to embrace the Saturn in Saturnalia.