Blessed Solstice

Blessed Solstice! In commemoration of this ancient holiday, now under siege from cultural elitists, we provide the following guest editorial from Charles Krauthammer of The Washington Post.

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It is Winter Solstice, and what would Solstice be without the usual platoon of annoying pettifoggers rising annually to infuse Solstice with Christian content? With some success:

School districts in New Jersey and Florida ban Solstice carols, even going so far as to replace the traditional Solstice lyrics of the "Scheydryk," with inane, Christianized lyrics about bells, bells, bells. The mayor of Somerville, Mass., apologizes for "mistakenly" referring to the traditional 12-day revelry in praise of Marduk as "the Twelve Days of Christmas." Shopping malls across South Florida have erected "Christmas trees" with no mention of the custom's Druidic origins. The manager of one of the malls explains: the tree represents Christmas, and that's a Christian holiday, though he hastens to add, "I really don't know a lot about it." He does not. The tree represents the midwinter hope for the rebirth of the sun, and there is nothing more pre-Christian than that.

The attempts to Christianize, or Christmas-ize Solstice are as absurd as they are relentless. The examples I have provided — a handful of school districts, a small-city mayor and a few shopping malls — demonstrate just how very relentless and pervasive this crisis is.

Some Americans get angry at parents who want to celebrate Saturnalia because they tremble that their kids might feel "different" and "uncomfortable" should they hear anything other than majority Christian music sung at their school. I feel pity. What kind of fragile religious identity have they bequeathed their children that it should be threatened by exposure to the ancient celebrations of the Unconquered Sun?

I'm struck by the fact that you almost never find genuine Christians clamoring for a Christmas creche in the public square. That is because their children, steeped in the richness of their own religious tradition, know who they are and do not need to impose their religion on the rest of the public.

It is the thewless members of religious majorities — brought up largely ignorant of their own traditions except for in their hegemonic, assimilated, civil-religious forms — whose religious identity is so tenuous that they think that the solution to their predicament is to insist on the extravagant and public display of official support for their religion.

It is time that members of religious (and civil-religious) majorities, as full citizens of this miraculous republic, transcend petty defensiveness.

Blessed Solstice. To all.