Happy Holidays! We All Need a Break at this Time of Year
It seems like only last year that we commemorated Festivus together.
Well, here we are again, deriving curdled pleasure from our Airing of Grievances, spending less time each year on the Feats of Strength. Leave the athletic showboating to the youth, or to hipster oldsters pursuing, often at great financial cost, the elusive, gurgling fountain of youth. Some of the big spenders are after more than youth: they desire immortality. To their credit, a few of these high rollers already have managed to delete the “t” from that word. If only letters were years. They have many miles ahead of them, the number of years less certain.
Surveying our shoddy tech overlords, I could unleash a fusillade of grievances that would put a holiday fireworks exhibition to shame. I could do it, but I won’t. This is a time that calls for magnanimity and perspective. I need to demand more of myself, especially at a time of year associated with cheer, empathy, good will, and turning the other cheek, the latter gesture associated more these days with physical repositioning in steerage seats on long-haul flights than with refusing to dignify injuries, insults, and slights with angry reprisals.
It’s the holiday season, after all, and history informs us that humanity, for nearly as long as it has existed in the northern hemisphere, has always felt the need for a holiday at this time of year. Long before Christendom, pagans, including the Vikings, celebrated this juncture of the year, when the days were at their shortest and the nights were at their longest. They called it Yule, and they caroused and drank a lot. Some things never change, an observation that one can take as a blessing or a curse depending on one’s outlook.
In the days before Christianity, the debauchery of Saturnalia could get dark and ugly. Gladiatorial combat, of questionable entertainment value, was one attraction, human sacrifices were part of the programming, and Dīs Pater — the Roman god of the underworld, also known as Rex Infernus and Pluto — was honored and presumably appeased by offerings of human heads. Mythology suggests that Hercules paid a visit to ancient Italy, witnessed the carnage and dissolution, and insisted that the celebrants clean up their act. Thereafter, Saturnalia was reinterpreted, and though it didn’t necessarily become family-friendly — there was still an abundance of drunkenness, debauchery, gambling, and gluttony — bloodshed was significantly reduced. It became, I suppose, a forerunner to a long weekend in Las Vegas.
Pagan Traces in Holiday Tinsel
Saturnalia featured gift giving, including the giving of gag gifts, which are now part of seasonal Christmas celebrations in many parts of the world. Bright lights and candles were also part of the celebration. As for festively decorated trees, they accompanied Yule celebrations in the north of Europe. Christmas celebrations coopted many pagan rites and trappings.
In the eastern part of the Roman Empire, something called Brumalia occurred when the days got shorter and the nights longer. Like most other year-end celebrations, Brumalia was characterized by feasting, drinking, and merriment. For reasons unknown to yours truly, Connecticut College has revived a contemporary celebration of Brumalia. To the best of my knowledge, the college does not adhere to traditional ancient practices associated with Brumalia, such as sacrificing goats to Bacchus.
Interestingly, at least to me, Brumalia often was the occasion for predictions about the months ahead, not unlike the end-of-year predictions that tech-industry analysts and pundits offer today. I don’t know whether the Brumalia celebrants were any more accurate with their predictions than their modern counterparts. The record of those past predictions is lost to the mists of time, and our modern prognostications are only recalled and entered into record when their authors can make an approximate claim to accuracy.
We are entering the final week of the calendar year. Days are short, nights are long, and we all need a break, regardless of what we believe or where we live. (In the southern hemisphere, however, I imagine that these end-of-year celebrations make less seasonal sense. Down there, summer is in full bloom, it’s not getting dark and dreary by late afternoon, and they have a little more jump in their steps on summer’s early dawns.
What’s astounding to me is that so many ancient rituals and rites have persisted through the ages, adapting themselves to various customs, religions, and belief systems. Amid the seasonal cold weather and the days of diminished daylight, which I find particularly depressing, I often think that we would invent a holiday at this time of year if we didn’t already have some that are well established and offer salubrious diversions from the remorseless days of winter.
Whatever you celebrate amid this season of darkness, take time with family and friends to recharge your humanity and your spirit for the lengthening days ahead. No predictions are required, though I will look back and forward in a post later this week. In looking forward, making bold predictions, I’m hoping that you’ll forget what I’ve said by the time we flip the calendar to 2026. Unless I’m right, of course, in which case I’ll forcefully remind you of my exemplary prescience.
I should end on a high note, resisting the gloom of a late afternoon in equally late December. Happy holidays to all!