“Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way…”–Frank Costanza (George’s Dad on Seinfeld)
‘Tis the Season
One of Elizabeth’s friends was born on December 25. As a fellow Decembrist, I commiserate. Before I stopped celebrating my birthday altogether, I lived in the long winter shadow of THAT day.
The 8mm home move of my arrival home from the hospital was labeled “Bruce comes home/Dad’s new car.” It might seem petty of me to notice, but Dad (grandpa’s) new car, a Chevy Bel-Air he bought for Christmas, got more screen time.
So, in the spirit of the season, I decided to take an inventory of why, what, and how I should celebrate.
Why We Celebrate
The first mentions of a birthday came from Ancient Egypt, where large celebrations were put on for the Pharaoh. These celebrations were coronation dates, symbolic of the Pharaoh’s birth as a ‘god. ‘ The first of these is said to have taken place somewhere around the year 3,000 B.C.E.
Pending the unlikely event that I will be coronated as a god, I feel safe in skipping this one.
On October 18, 1864, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation.
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with His guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth and has crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God, the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do further recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this 20th day of October, A.D. 1864, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
I’m on board for gratitude. Offering up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of Events? Uh. Meditation is good. Celebrating by trying to replicate the meal Abraham Lincoln ate on that day? Hard pass.
Festivus – For the Rest of Us – December 23
Festivus was made popular by the Seinfeld episode “The Strike”, written by Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe. However, Dan based the Seinfeld story on a “Festivus” holiday his own father invented back in the 1960s/1970s.
Like the alternate holiday idea. Celebrating by offering grievances and feats of strength? Maybe not so much. December 23 seems too close to Christmas. Nice try. I’ll pass.
Christmas – December 25
Nobody knows the origin for sure.
Under Emperor Constantine, the Church in Rome began celebrating Christmas on Dec. 25 in 336. Some say the date was chosen to outshine the Sol Invictus and pagan celebrations. But there’s much doubt around whether Christians had been trying to steal Sol Invictus’ thunder.
I think Constantinople is a cooler city name than Istanbul, but worthy of celebration? Pass.
New Year’s Day – January 1
It stems from an ancient Roman custom, the feast of the Roman god Janus. He was the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, frames, and endings. This is also where the name for the month of January comes from, since Janus was depicted as having two opposite faces. One face looked back into the past, and the other peered forward to the future.
Likewise, on January 1, we look back at the year that just ended and forward to the new year ahead.
To celebrate the new year, the Romans also made promises to Janus. The tradition of New Year’s resolutions stems from this ancient custom. On January 1, as the year began, it was customary to exchange cheerful words of good wishes. Shortly afterwards, on January 9, the rex sacrorum – a priesthood associated with the Roman Senate – offered the sacrifice of a ram to Janus.
This one seems mostly harmless. I’m comfortable with saying “Happy New Year.” I prefer to celebrate by using this day to listen to my entire text-to-speech gratitude journal for the previous 365 (or 366) days.
If I Were Asked to Create a Holiday…
I don’t have much experience creating a holiday, but here, for inspiration, is the story of Festivus.
What would you celebrate? How would you celebrate?
What: Community Day (The day that this posts). How: Over the past week, I shared these two questions in my Secular Buddhism, Nurtured Nerds, Monday Cluster, Remembering Our Possibilities, and Intentionally Sam communities.
