I have seen the annual recurrence of the debates within Humanism over the celebration of Christmas in the Think Humanism online discussion forum. Some, rather odd people in my opinion, are vexed over the issue of whether joining in with Christmas is a sell out to the still dominant religion that they have chosen to turn their back on. I lived in Edinburgh during my time at university and the Scots make a bigger deal of New Year (Hogmanay) than Christmas - indeed the English celebrations have a definite Scottish flavour . I saw in the New Year eating haggis, dancing to I would walk 500 miles and Donald where’s your troosers, not to mention the obligatory rendition of Auld Lang Syne, what’s more Scottish than that? Does joining in with Hogmanay suggest I am impersonating a Scotsman? Perhaps if I donned a kilt (as some do in England) I would be going too far. I think that there is an irony in that the reason the Scots focus on Hogmanay for their drunken revelries rather than Christmas is not that they are less religious (I think they are more so - or at least they were) but that the pious and puritan Christians of 16th century Scotland effectively banned the traditional Christmas to impose a more Christian version of it. The truth is that the cultural milieu we find ourselves in is not of our making but traditions gradually change and eventually new traditions will be invented that future generations will imagine to have existed since time immemorial. We all play our part in the formation of that future culture but I doubt if many of us will be around to see it arrive. Our Christmas probably owes more to Prince Albert and Charles Dickens than to the synoptic gospels and if you want to abolish it, perhaps you have more in common with those dour Scottish Calvinists than with the spirit of Humanism.
Showing posts with label new year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new year. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 January 2010
Dour atheistic Calvinists?
I have seen the annual recurrence of the debates within Humanism over the celebration of Christmas in the Think Humanism online discussion forum. Some, rather odd people in my opinion, are vexed over the issue of whether joining in with Christmas is a sell out to the still dominant religion that they have chosen to turn their back on. I lived in Edinburgh during my time at university and the Scots make a bigger deal of New Year (Hogmanay) than Christmas - indeed the English celebrations have a definite Scottish flavour . I saw in the New Year eating haggis, dancing to I would walk 500 miles and Donald where’s your troosers, not to mention the obligatory rendition of Auld Lang Syne, what’s more Scottish than that? Does joining in with Hogmanay suggest I am impersonating a Scotsman? Perhaps if I donned a kilt (as some do in England) I would be going too far. I think that there is an irony in that the reason the Scots focus on Hogmanay for their drunken revelries rather than Christmas is not that they are less religious (I think they are more so - or at least they were) but that the pious and puritan Christians of 16th century Scotland effectively banned the traditional Christmas to impose a more Christian version of it. The truth is that the cultural milieu we find ourselves in is not of our making but traditions gradually change and eventually new traditions will be invented that future generations will imagine to have existed since time immemorial. We all play our part in the formation of that future culture but I doubt if many of us will be around to see it arrive. Our Christmas probably owes more to Prince Albert and Charles Dickens than to the synoptic gospels and if you want to abolish it, perhaps you have more in common with those dour Scottish Calvinists than with the spirit of Humanism.
Thursday, 1 January 2009
New Year Veisalgia
I over indulged at the New Year festivities last night. You know how it is when someone offers you that one last drink. You know that you've had enough but it seems like a snub not to accept when someone offers to buy you a drink (I know – just say no). You know that you are going to regret the decision the next morning.
One of the pre-Christmas-party stories running in the press recently was that doctors Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll from the Indiana School of Medicine have published their research findings in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal. Their conclusion, from controlled random double-blind trials is that none of the alleged cures for a hangover work. The truth appears to be that whatever you are doing to deal with the hangover that you are suffering with this morning, in a few hours the headache will subside. When it does, don't start claiming it was all of those artichokes, bananas and flat coke you have consumed (substitute your own pet theory) that helped you get better.
One of the pre-Christmas-party stories running in the press recently was that doctors Rachel Vreeman and Aaron Carroll from the Indiana School of Medicine have published their research findings in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal. Their conclusion, from controlled random double-blind trials is that none of the alleged cures for a hangover work. The truth appears to be that whatever you are doing to deal with the hangover that you are suffering with this morning, in a few hours the headache will subside. When it does, don't start claiming it was all of those artichokes, bananas and flat coke you have consumed (substitute your own pet theory) that helped you get better.
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