One Foot in Church, One in Secular Festivities

One Foot in Church, One in Secular Festivities

We are about to enter the holiday season — the most wonderful time of the year, and one of the most stressful and confusing. Retailers try to start it with Halloween, but the long-standing American tradition begins with Thanksgiving. From there it carries through New Year’s Day, ending in the gray doldrums of January that linger like an unwanted hangover.

Christians, however, mark the season differently. For them, it begins with Advent — the fourth Sunday before Christmas — the start of the new Christian year. Advent is a four-week period of preparation for celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, culminating not on December 25 but on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6.

The overlap of an important Christian holy season with secular festivities has long troubled those who chant, “Put Christ back into Christmas.” But the truth is, the religious and secular holidays have been intertwined from the very beginning — and, surprisingly to many, the secular holiday came first.

In the Roman world at the time of Jesus, a midwinter festival took place around the same period we now call Christmas. Roman society celebrated Saturnalia, a feast honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture. It featured lavish banquets, gift-giving, and a temporary suspension of social rules and rank. Meanwhile, followers of Mithras — a cult especially popular among Roman soldiers — observed their own festival to the Sun God, rejoicing in the return of longer days.

Did these celebrations ever get out of hand? Seneca the Younger and Pliny the Younger thought so, condemning what they saw as immoral excess. But most Romans accepted it all with tolerant good humor — not so different from what we sometimes see in our own holiday season.

When Christianity became a legal religion in the fourth century, and Roman emperors began professing the faith, the church sought to replace these pagan midwinter festivals with the celebration of Christ’s birth. It was a brilliant idea but never wholly successful. The holy seasons of Advent and Christmas collided with the enduring pagan customs of northern Europe and Britain. Humanity, it seems, has always been determined to celebrate the season with one foot in church and the other in secular festivity — and so it remains.

Perhaps it’s time for Christians to stop complaining about it. More important is to enter fully into Advent as a season of preparation — through prayer, contemplation, and acts of abundant generosity. Christians should boldly and joyfully celebrate the birth of Christ and its meaning for the salvation of all creation. We should take seriously the angelic promise of “peace on earth” by renewing our personal commitment to be agents of God’s peace wherever we live, regardless of circumstances.

Let Advent and Christmas shine  brighter than festive decorations, speak more meaningfully than any Hallmark movie, and bring more genuine joy than the best holiday party.

We have something real to offer. However delightful the secular celebrations may be, they often end in little more than the sobering recognition that nothing has really changed. The celebration of Christ’s birth, on the other hand, offers joy that endures hardship, goodwill that becomes a habit of life, and a way of living that makes the world better — not just for ourselves, but for everyone around us.

In the meantime, enjoy secular festivities with friends and family, and don’t let artificial pressures to perform make it difficult for you. If you do not want to participate, don’t — and don’t feel guilty about it. If the season is truly stressful for you, know that you are not alone. Many others feel the same way. Comfort in this holy season in which we remember that Jesus began life in a barn from an unmarried mother in a time of great danger.  Nevertheless the Angels sang about peace and goodwill toward all. Let that embrace you and let everything else pass by to go its own way.