We live in a very strange and interesting world. It seems like today life is changing more rapidly than ever before, but certain cycles and patterns remain. Or no, the socio-cultural ones do change slowly over the years, but what remains is our desire to cling to those patterns for as long as possible because human brain finds great comfort in predictable things and cyclic repetitions.
We want to be sure that the sun will always rise in the East, that Christmas lights will always be on in December, that old people will eventually die and that babies will always be born, and that Harry Potter will defeat the Dark Lord over and over again. Human beings base their entire social existence on the ability to predict things and stabilize various processes. Toddlers have comfort toys. Adults have favorite coffee cups and blankets, ”their” corner of the sofa, a preferred route to work.
This time of the year, the holiday season, makes me think of human life cycles and traditions. I watch the deeply ingrained human need for a number of “beacons” to which cultural, social, and religious meanings are ascribed to make our existence more predictable, more comfortable, less frantic and unsafe.
At this point in my life, winter holidays no longer give me any sense of comfort or safety, so THAT particular aspect of tradition is out of the door. I am not religious either, so to me the birth of Christ (who I see as a mysterious figure of great significance, but more on that later) stands out no more than the birth of Buddha, Prophet Mohamed, or any man or deity from any belief system around the world.
Then there is a whole another thing called “egregore”. Egregore (also spelled egregor; from French égrégore, from Ancient Greek ἐγρήγορος, egrēgoros 'wakeful') is an esoteric concept representing a non-physical entity that arises from the collective thoughts of a distinct group of people. (c) Wikipedia
Christianity (as well as other Abrahamic religions, and all religions in general) is also an egregore. With such a powerful entity being fed by so many people for hundreds of years at some point it doesn’t matter anymore if YOU belong to the same religion or you don’t. It has a very real presence in the world and manifests in many different ways.
Some have told me before that I think too much, dig too much, and generally get preoccupied with things that aren’t that serious. I totally disagree — to me it’s all fun and interesting explorations of esoteric knowledge, human history, and our psyche. I am not preoccupied, I am mesmerized by all the stuff “out there” 😄
But then again, it’s completely understandable that normal (?) people don’t want to hear anything about learned socio-cultural patterns, manipulations, true history of religions, various meanings of Christ, where the Christmas tree actually comes from, who Santa is, why this whole thing is so stretched in time and commercialized, etc.
Who needs all this crap? It’s disturbing and non-comforting at all. Some other time of the year folks might watch a documentary or read an article on a true meaning of this and that, but not during actual Christmas! People want to finally RELAX (which I completely understand), enjoy their vacations, meet with relatives, feel togetherness of their families (the question is why wait for a holiday and where does this togetherness go the rest of the year, but anyway…), and dive into the general feeling of warmth, comfort, security, and joy. The feeling that in the end, everything will be okay. That’s why I rarely talk about this to anyone. Except my partner of course — he knows and understands.
I do note the change of seasons and the subtle comfort of warmth provided by any dwelling I currently call home. I like the contrast between this warmth and the harsher outside conditions, and yes, I do enjoy a cup of hot cocoa sitting on a sofa while the Christmas lights glimmer softly in the early darkness of winter nights. No, I am no spartan 😄 or samurai or whatever other warrior. Although come on, those guys had their “comfort things” too, I bet. So yeah… no, I’m not all stern and tough and immune to Christmas; it’s just that the MEANING of this whole season and the general craze of it doesn’t touch me in the same way as most folks who surround me in society.
Also, I am a mother of a young child. Since her coming into this world, Christmas has been that special, magical time because kids don’t realize how much of this “magic” is purely manipulative and commercialized.
I am all for eye-opening moments, but I’m not going to spoil my kid’s childhood joy and imagination by speaking of some other meanings of this holiday, of how much of Christianity is corrupted, of how Christ wasn’t even born on this day, and how the Catholic Church withholds information and manipulates people. Hell, no. I’m going to glue those snowflakes to the window, put up a tree, play festive music, drink hot chocolate, and enjoy the time with my kid while she is still little.
Pretty much for the past 11 years this whole thing for me has been revolving around my daughter and my parents since they are the ones who take upon themselves like 80% of preparation for the holiday and the Christmas night itself, including the tree, the dinner, and presents. And they aren’t even Catholic either!
After moving to this country from Russia a long time ago, they simply switched the big New Year celebration to December 24th in order to match with the rest of the society in which for most people the supposed date of birth of Christ is a much bigger day than December 31st (he wasn’t born on this date anyway, but we might as well celebrate it on any date because none of the historical records can be fully trusted). And for my parents and I it has always been more about the whole mood and festivity of the season than about the actual religious base for it… Which, one would think should be the main thing? But it seems that a big portion of western society doesn’t focus on it either.
Other factors that affect my attitude to this whole thing include personal issues and tasks at hand. I think I would be able to actually relax during the holiday season if it didn’t come with certain social pressures and duties which I am still subjected. Along with pleasant tasks that have meaning and make complete sense to me there are those which I find invasive and obsolete… yet I haven’t worked hard enough to free my life from them. So that’s on me anyway.
That said, I do realize (and I hope most people realize this as well) that despite social, religious, cultural, and family pressures ultimately it’s up to every individual to make ANY day and date into something they see as good, significant, and worthy of living. I might write a whole dissertation on manipulative practices of cultural life cycles, mind conditioning, the role of tradition in our society (both good and bad), human psyche and the relativity of it all, but at the end of the day I am the one living MY day every day, and it’s up to me to manage my attitudes, decisions, actions, and reaction every single minute of the time passing.
Here is a little traditional thing that they put up every year by one nearby Catholic Church. Every time the scene is a tiny bit different, and I believe it’s the people who attend the church take part in organizing it some days before Christmas.
