Question and Answer

Somebody, after enduring that Gap Ad down below, writes:

“Solstice: does anyone really celebrate this? Is neo-pagan claptrap really being put on equal footing with Christmas?”

To which the invaluable John C. Wright replies:

No, not at all. You see, ‘neopaganism’ has nothing to do with real paganism and everything to do with antichristianism.

Real pagans celebrated Saturnalia — if they were Romans or Quviasukvik — if they are Eskimos. The Germanic tribes had a winter feast day no doubt dedicated to Freyr or Baldr and the Patagonians no doubt have a feast day in honor of Setebos, but only an astronomer would celebrate the solstice because this is an astronomical term devoid of any cultural, ethnic, or religious meaning.

Real pagans were willing to fight for the ashes of their fathers and the altars of their gods, and practiced patriotism as indistinguishable from civic piety.

However, if you are a neopagan (and you joined the coven so that you could both rebel against your parents, find some comfort in a vague ‘spirituality’ that makes no spiritual demands of you, and continue your various perversions and sins without those nassty Christians condemning you) why, you dare not practice what real pagans practiced, because how could you indulge in pagan ancestor worship if your ancestors are Christian?

Neopaganism is basically an especially lame children’s game which aims to create a fantasy world for people who want to hide under the covers from Christ. It resembles real paganism about as much as an anime character resembles a resembles a real human being. The truth, as Chesterton reminds us, is that the last thing we know for sure about real pagans is that they sought baptism. Indeed, they are still seeking baptism.