The Question of Christmas.

I find myself wondering more than ever this year why we do Christmas. Why do we voluntarily engage with all its angles, overtones, undertones, trouble and expense? Indeed, is it voluntary or do we just get pulled along with the tradition because, to most people, it would be unthinkable not to? Is the apparent atmosphere real, or has it been artificially manufactured through persistent use going back to the dawn of humanity?

At its root, it obviously isn’t about Christianity. That’s just the most recent façade that’s been laid upon it. The midwinter festival goes back through time immeasurable.

So how did it start? Was it about the worship of gods and ancestors, the need to connect with the natural order, the re-affirmation of familial and group bonding – or maybe all of these things or something else entirely? We’ll never know, of course, and maybe it doesn’t matter. But it does raise the question of whether we should be doing things when we don’t really know why we’re doing them. Is it just a question of going with the flow, fitting in with the culture, and is that right? Maybe it is.