| Christmas Without Christ | |
|
It might seem odd to refer to "post-Christian" traditions when Christianity
is still with us, but by this term I mean traditions and ideas which may have occurred
within the context of a Christian culture, but which are not founded directly upon
Christian theology - in particular, the very central issue of Jesus' birth. What
we are looking at here are recent additions to the Christmas celebration which have
the appearance of being very old and very traditional.
All through this article I have been relying regularly on information from Tom Flynn's The Trouble With Christmas - a very informative and entertaining challenge to common assumptions and beliefs about Christmas. I recommend it to anyone interested either in learning more or in reading a rare critique of this holiday.
But I must rely on his book entirely for this one point: namely that our contemporary Christmas is largely a creation of six famous Britons and Americans. He calls this group the DWAMQ's - five "Dead White Anglophone Males and a Queen." They are: Washington Irving, Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria, Clement C. Moore, Thomas Nast and Francis Church.
Washington Irving wrote a history of the Dutch influence and rule of New York which was often meant as satire, yet ended up being received as factual, and thus its influence grew. In this work, the Dutch figure of Saint Nicholas appears more than two dozen times and he makes it appear as if New Amsterdam was dominated by a cult which celebrated the figure of Saint Nick - the truth of which is historically undecided. And Irving returned more than once to the figure of Saint Nicholas, even writing about "old fashioned" Christmas celebrations which he simply made up.
Charles Dickens, the second DWAMQ, is a familiar literary figure and his contribution much more famous than Irving's. But while his work A Christmas Carol is obvious, it is not his only one. He seemed obsessive about the holiday, and more than once he depicted lavish Christmas feasts rife with "old fashioned" traditions which were little more than literary creations. But people followed right along, enchanted with the atmosphere he created and wishing to capture it for themselves.
It is odd and unfortunate that this story created the caricature of a "Scrooge" who does not celebrate Christmas. As mentioned earlier, the original audiences would not have held the same scorn for Scrooge as people do today - his attitude of neglecting Christmas was quite common.
Consider for a moment the fact that he was only able to buy the large turkey for the Cratchit family because the butcher was open for business on Christmas day! But the harm has already been done, and it's unlikely that the negative image of Scrooge will change anytime soon. As Flynn points out:
Dickens helped to make Christmas universal by creating an atmosphere in which people who did not care for the holiday no longer dared admit it.
The third DWAMQ was none other than Queen Victoria. Coming from a German family, she celebrated Christmas with a small decorated indoor tree. Then, as today, people obsessed over royalty, and they were particularly infatuated when their teenage Queen ascended the throne. Then, as today, people wanted to be fashionable and adopt what their role models did - in this case, the tree tradition.
Clement Moore is the fourth DWAMQ - although he may not deserve to be. He is credited with writing the poem The Night Before Christmas, although he had before been accused of not writing work which he claimed was his, and it is not clear that he was indeed the author in this case.
At any rate, this piece almost singlehandedly created the modern American conception of who Santa Claus is, what he looks like and what he does. It also firmly entrenched other Christmas ideas, like the hanging of stockings by the fireplace. What might go unnoticed by many, but which is crucial here, is that this Santa Claus has been fully secularized. There is no reference to sainthood, to Christianity or to Jesus. Santa is given a pagan image - he is, after all, described as an elf.
The next milestone was achieved by our fifth DWAMQ, Thomas Nast. Although Moore's story described Santa, it was left to Nast to actually draw the physical pictures and giving people a common, shared vision of the main, secular symbol of an increasingly secular holiday.
The final DWAMQ was Francis Church - a name unfamiliar to many. It was he, an editorial writer of the New York Sun, who wrote the famous response to Virginia O'Hanlon's letter asking if there was really a Santa Claus. As Flynn accurate describes this response, Church brought together "strands of Christian mysticism, nineteenth-century Transcendentalism and Romanticism, and general distrust of scientific skepticism."
Essentially, what Church did was describe a coherent vision of what Christmas was supposed to be. He subtly replaces the literal Santa that children like Virginia believe in and ask about and replaces him with a metaphorical Santa representing a spirit of generosity and loving.
Next page > Modern Christmas > Page 1, 2, 3, 4
Do you have an opinion about this article? Make it known on the Discussion Forum!
Get weekly updates about what's new on the site and news from around the world:
|
|
|
|
Read the Latest News on religion, freethought and related topics from around the world! Updated regularly. |
|
|
|
|
