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A Journal for Western Man |
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'Tis the season to be snowed under by trite pieces about the meaning of Christmas. I’ll try not to be too trite, but here are some thoughts on the meaning of Christmas. As an added bonus, I’ll reveal the true meaning of “merry!” Why a feast in the dark of the year? Four days past the solstice, the sun is low, and soon sets. Night is long, and light is brief. Fields are bare, and roads are icy. Wind keens ‘round the eaves. Yet at Christmas we are past the solstice. Sunlight will strengthen day by day. Warmth and light will grow. The turning back of the sun foretells spring and new beginnings. For now, we can defeat winter’s numbing cold with a cheering blaze. We can dispel nature’s gloom with human brightness. We can mock the sterility of winter by feasting on the fruits of summer. It’s a great time for a party! Christmas is materialistic. It is usual to denounce the materialism which is said to have degraded Christmas. News Flash! Christmas always was “materialistic.” 1. What would Christmas be without material values? What would it be without presents to delight the soul, without food to warm the heart, without drink to cheer the spirit? What would it be without wreaths and trees, without bright colored lights; without the music of instruments? It sure wouldn’t be Christmas! Material goods are essential to Christmas. That is, wealth is essential to Christmas. This explains the appeal of Ebenezer Scrooge. Thrifty, hard-working Scrooge is a symbol of wealth. He gives Christmas joys a visible means of support. They need one. Warm sentiments with no visible means of support are enough to wring a “Bah! Humbug!” from almost anyone. Like men with no visible means of support, their honesty is suspect. Wealth makes Christmas possible; Scrooge helps to make it respectable. Christmas is not merely materialistic. No one would willingly celebrate Christmas alone. Christmas celebrates friendships and families, love and good will. Christmas is for shared joy. Friends and colleagues rejoice in each other’s company. Families delight in the sparkling eyes of children opening their presents. We extend cheery greetings to utter strangers. It is trite to say that Christmas involves taking joy in the joy of others. But it can be rescued from triteness by drawing a logical conclusion. The secondary joy taken in the joy of others depends radically on the primary joy of those “others,” and you are one of those “others!” Your own enjoyment is fundamental. Your joy is essential to Christmas! So enjoy! The fundamental obligation of those who wish to keep Christmas well is to have a great time! Christmas is not a religious celebration. We hear that Christmas celebrates the Birth of Christ, the Mystery of the Incarnation. This is plausible at first blush.2. But Christmas is older than Christianity. Christianity is certainly the latest religion to bless this season, but there were others. In Rome, the god Saturn presided over Saturnalia, December 17 to 23. People exchanged presents and feasted. Later, the honors were claimed by Mithras, Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun, born on December 25th. Does any of this sound familiar? Christ’s birth is certainly celebrated at this season, but Christmas leaps religious boundaries. A friend once received a card inscribed, “Merry Christmas, from a Muslim to an atheist.” A festival which endures while religions come and go is not a religious celebration. A festival which outlasts the religions which hallow it, must have deeper roots. What are the deeper roots? The timing of Christmas celebrates man’s power to create values. While nature is at its darkest and coldest, we celebrate amid light and warmth which we ourselves provide. While nature is barren, we feast. The much-bemoaned materialism of Christmas celebrates man’s wealth. Man3. is a material being who lives by material values. Wealth is for the sake of man’s well-being. Christmas celebrates man’s well-being, his enjoyment of life. In short, Christmas celebrates man. That’s why, like man, it endures while religions come and go. That’s why it leaps all boundaries between men. That’s why Christmas is truly the season of good will toward men! And that is why it is best celebrated by egoists! Who better than those who put human values at the center of their lives? What is the true meaning of “merry?” Talk of deeper meanings may make Christmas seem a solemn occasion, but by Saturn!, Christmas is anything but solemn! So re-discover the meaning of “merry.” It once had a very definite, specific meaning which has been all but lost, a meaning which goes wonderfully well with Christmas. Nowadays, “merry” has been eroded away to a mere synonym of “glad.” To express the historical meaning of “merry” we have only such substitutes as the frivolous “slightly tipsy” or the chilling “mildly intoxicated.” Perhaps “merry” was allowed to slip away because it lacked a formal definition. Maybe such a definition could save the word. In this hope I offer the following. “Merry” is the vigorous sense of well-being of a cheerful man after downing a few potent drinks in good company. Those who do not drink may be happy, cheerful and even jolly, but alas, they fall short of merry. At most, we can wish them a happy Christmas or a jolly Christmas, and hope the merriment around them proves infectious. The rest of us need not make do with substitutes. So sip your single malt Scotch, or your ancient cognac. Relish your luscious port. Fortify your creamy eggnog. Warm yourself with hot buttered rum. Have a truly Merry Christmas! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Crummy word, but we seem to be stuck with it. 2. There’s a strong hint in the name! 3. Of course this includes women! No femspeak here! Encourage men to have a Merry Christmas—become a Quackgrass activist! Copy this article! Keep the original for future copies. Paper meetings with it! Paper your office! Leave a stack on your business counter! If you expect hostility, use stealth and cunning—it’ll drive your opponents wild! Be ingenious! Have fun! Michael Miller is an engineer and Objectivist filosofer with thirty years of experience. He had been a member of Boycott Alberta Medicare in 1969 and of the Association to Defend Property Rights from 1973 on. He writes in-depth filosofical theory for Quackgrass Press, which can be accessed at http://www.quackgrass.com. Disclaimer: Neither The Rational Argumentator nor any of its affiliates advocate wanton alcoholism during the Holiday Season, as well as any other part of the year. While we believe it is possible for adults to drink responsibly and safely, we encourage all readers to drive sober and practice moderation as well as good taste in their choice of beverages. After all, true merriment can only exist outside the coffin. Merry Christmas, all! ~ Edmund Daleford, Vice-Editor-in-Chief, TRA This TRA feature has been edited in accordance with TRA’s Statement of Policy. Click here to return to TRA's Issue IX Index. Learn about Mr. Stolyarov's novel, Eden against the Colossus, here. Read Mr. Stolyarov's new comprehensive treatise, A Rational Cosmology, explicating such terms as the universe, matter, space, time, sound, light, life, consciousness, and volition, at http://www.geocities.com/rational_argumentator/rc.html.
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