Beyond Christmas and Hanukkah

Looking around at the big box and department stores on that day after Thanksgiving, it may not be apparent that Americans celebrate any other winter holidays besides Christmas. Then, a few stray plastic menorah limp out from behind the shelves, and December’s focus is shifted slightly to Jews as well as Jesus. But many non-Judeo-Christian holidays also have a place in people’s beliefs.

Spending time with family makes Christmas important to secularlists

Most of the time “you can’t walk two blocks” without coming into contact with some form of religious display, said Bart Helms, the public relations director for the Secular Alliance of IU. And during the holiday season, that situation is no different, he said.

For Helms, who is a secularist – someone who sees the world through a naturalistic sense of “science and reason,” according to the Secular Alliance Web site – the reason for the season is just a celebration with family, not a celebration of faith. He said some secularists will celebrate Festivus, a joke holiday introduced in an episode of “Seinfeld” for those who aren’t religious. One of the traditions of Festivus is an “airing of grievances,” which encourages participants bring to light other people’s personality flaws. The decorative emblem of Festivus is a metal pole, not an evergreen tree. However, for Helms and most people who observe something besides Christmas or Hannukah during this time of year, their holidays and reasons for celebrating the season are more serious.

Helms said on Christmas Day he will usually eat a late lunch of turkey, not ham, with his parents and sister. His mother will make a soup from leftover bones after the family spends the rest of the day in front of the television for a “Die Hard” marathon, a tradition that came about because the first movie starts with a Christmas party. No one but his mother will make it through all four movies, though.

Both he and his sister are secularists, but their parents are Christians. He said contrary to the conventional wisdom, this difference doesn’t create tension. His parents will invite him to church on Sundays, but that’s because his mother is in the choir, not because they are pressuring him to find Jesus.

Yule marks the start of a new year for pagans

Amber Smoot, a graduate student studying speech and language pathology and who described her religious beliefs as pagan, also said there is no tension when she shows up at home for the holidays. In fact, her mother, who is not pagan, will usually give her pagan-oriented presents, like Goddess figures or books in wicca or shamanism. 

Smoot celebrates Yule, a name used by many European-centered neo-pagan religions to denote the celebration of the winter solstice, which usually occurs around Dec. 21 and denotes the start of a new year. She said the holiday also symbolizes “preparing for rebirth.”

She said common Yule traditions include a lot of activities that have been folded into Christmas. Observers will burn a Yule log, which symbolizes the warmer days to come, sing songs, decorate a tree – usually by stringing popcorn or dried fruit – and exchange gifts. She said pagans also have spiritual traditions, such as communing with the universe and honoring the cycles of life.

Smoot said she will usually do Christmas with her family and have a winter solstice party with her friends, where guests will make music and share food. The party is laid-back, though, and they don’t go through the spiritual ceremonies of Yule. Normally, Smoot acknowledges Yule on her own.

Kwanzaa reminds black Americans of their African heritage

Another widely observed winter holiday with its origins outside of the Judeo-Christian tradition is Kwanzaa.

Sachiko Higgins-Kante, administrative assistant at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, said the holiday was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, an Africana Studies professor at California State University. She said Karenga wanted to create a way for blacks to “connect with their roots,” and that’s why Kwanzaa takes many of its traditions from indigenous African harvest celebrations. The name “Kwanzaa” is actually derived from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanzaa,” which means “first fruits.” She emphasized, however, that Kwanzaa is not a religious replacement for Christmas, but a supplement to the holiday season.

Like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa is a protracted celebration that occurs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Each of the seven days is represented by one principle: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith. The kinara, or candle holder, represents African roots, and the red, black and green candles stand for struggle, the African people and prosperity, respectively.

Higgins-Kante said that, for her, Kwanzaa is an “expression of self and a way to connect with the past.” She uses the holiday as a chance to look at what her ancestors accomplished and work on being an inspiration to others. But, she said, the seven principles should be utilized all year, and Kwanzaa is a “way of living,” not just a holiday.

She also stressed that Kwanzaa is explicitly noncommercial and starts on Dec. 26 partly out of protest against the commercialization of the holiday season.

And despite the cultural divide between his beliefs and Higgins-Kante’s, Helms said he would also like to see a return to the joyous, humble Christmas “spirit of the old movies.”