Your Culture's Version Of Vacation And Marketing

[nemorathwald]

OK, so Hannukah isn't the Jewish Christmas.

What about calling Christmas the Christian Hannukah?

What about calling them both the white Kwanzah?

What about calling all three of those the non-pagan Yule?

Well of course none of these are the category into which the others fit. None of them are the prototype of which others are derivations. However, all of them are that group's version of the vacation and marketing season. From that point of view, they're all independently versions of each other, with no root taking pride of place. The only thing that keeps them from being interchangable is the insistence of these cultural groups that they didn't suddenly open up their forgotten cultural attics and root through stuff that hardly any of them remembered, looking for an excuse to do what everybody is already doing.

Centuries ago, Christians found a way to fit into the holiday season which was practiced by the Pagans. But then Pagan traditions lost their place of prominence to the point that hardly anybody knew about them anymore. So in the twentieth century, modern Paganism was invented, and they started reviving Yule to fit in with the Christians. Thus it came full circle. Christians co-opted from Pagans, and now Pagans are re-co-opting from Christians. Yule, authentic? It's just re-plagiarism of that which was already plagiarized. I wonder if Yule would even exist today if not as a response to Christmas?

The whole season is claiming an authenticity that nobody merits. Hannukah is just the Jewish version of what everybody else is doing. That doesn't make Christmas somehow more valid. This season, every group does that.

You want to know what's real about this season? This is the season for getting out of the office to spend time with your family, and exchanging gifts driven by the needs of our retail industry. Offices provide magnetic repulsion, and retail marketing provides magnetic attraction. These are the real driving forces. All four of these holidays, Yule, Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaah, are just excuses for cultural groups to feel like they fit into that place in the year. A season of spending money, and getting off work to spend time with family, would have emerged whether or not cultural groups managed to contrive religious excuses for it.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's nice that they dignified the vacation and marketing season. But the distinction between the holidays is simultaneously trivially real, and ignorable to outsiders.

Comments

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting. You may be very interested in this livejournal post. Substitute "Christmas" for "X" and there is an explanation for why traditions, marketing, and vacations are all piled up around the general vicinity of solstice in many cultures.