Humanist Fasting?
It’s Lent at the moment. In fact, I think it’s been Lent for nearly a week. Traditionally, Lent is a time when you give something up originally it was meat and dairy products, but nowadays I think most people stick to something easier, like chocolate.
Religious customs that involve some sort of sacrifice of food are quite common. Besides Lent, there’s also:
- Ramadan - Muslims fast between sunrise and sunset for a lunar month
- the Bahai fast - a nineteen day fast running from 2nd March to 20th March
- Yom Kippur - a long (25 hour) day, when Jews fast, do not wash, or wear leather
- many different forms of Jain fasting
Generally, when a spiritual or religious practice is widespread across differing religions, I think that there might be something useful in it - at least to some people at some time.
I guess that fasting, or giving up food, can remind us that for example, not everyone has enough to eat. And it is important to remember that, although it’s probably more useful to help out in some way.
I think deliberately making a temporary sacrifice, in the modern Lenten style, can also be a good discipline - if you give something up, you can see how much you really value it. This doesn’t happen so much with fasting. I think I pretty much already know how valuable food is to my life.
The biggest non-religious sacrifice type thing that I’ve heard of, is The Compact, where a group of individuals have given up buying new non-food items for a year, to draw attention to the amount of waste produced in modern society and to stop contributing to it. It initially started in 2006, but is still going strong with people joining in for a year, or other pre-defined periods of time. I’d definitely struggle with this one.
I think that, on balance, temporary sacrifices can be a good practice, but I’m going to stick with trying to make permanent changes where I think I need to improve myself or my actions.
Image by Hydroxi
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I Believe in Father Christmas
My favourite Christmas song is I believe in Father Christmas by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Honestly, I’m not normally the worlds biggest fan of prog rock, but I love the wistful quality of this song.
It has some particularly English lyrics
They said there’d be snow at Christmas,
They said there’d be peace on Earth,
But instead it just kept on raining,
A veil of tears for the Virgin Birth
The song, seems quite grown up to me, especially for a Christmas song - it’s speaks about the loss of childhood beliefs inherent to Christmas. The belief in Father Christmas, belief that it will snow, belief in the Israelite, belief that there will be peace on Earth, they are all gone, and yet it is uplifting, for it contains a Christmas wish of plain ordinariness - something that might actually happen. Nothing miraculous or amazing, just the simple things of everyday:
I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish, pain, and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
Merry Christmas everyone.
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The Reason for the Season
Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. I love to sing and enjoy the Christmas carols. I also love decorating my house with a Christmas tree and usually have candles everywhere. I’ve even been known to start the celebration with a proper Advent crown (like on Blue Peter) as well as an Advent calendar - I find a good countdown enhances the festivities.
I also enjoy the myriad of Christmas stories, whether it is the Dr Seuss’ The Grinch who Stole Christmas, the story of Baboushka, or the traditional Nativity in Luke. Christmas stories, even the modern ones, tend to be of a thoughtful type, and concerned with the true meaning of Christmas, the reason for the season.
If you look back at the historical records, winter celebrations pre-date the arrival of Christianity in Europe. The original reason for the season, was to ward away the cold and the dark, and celebrate the coming return of spring. This reason, is still around in the traditions of Yule logs, and of hospitality, of eating and drinking and making merry.
The early Christian church co-opted the existing winter festivals and added a new layer of meaning. They spread the story of a baby who was to be the fulfilment of earlier Jewish prophecies of a new King. The reason for celebrating was the birth of a new hope for humanity. Remembering this story is an important part of modern Christmases, in the Nativity plays that children put on at school or at church, and the Nativity sets that we use to decorate our homes. It is also found in the looking back and looking forward that accompanies the end of the year - we have new hope as the calender turns.
In lots of houses, the focus of the Christmas celebrations is on the youngest of the family. The wonder and awe of the fresh eyes that children bring to the festivities, has a magical transforming affect to many adults. The centrepiece of this reason for celebrating is Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, has evolved over the years from the figure of St Nicholas, Bishop of Smyrna, to now brings presents to all the good children.
Since the Victorian times, one of the over-riding Christmas sentiments has been, “peace on earth and goodwill to all men”. This is expressed in the true story of the Christmas football match between the British and German soldiers in the first world war trenches of 1914, or Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’. This reason for celebrating is seen in the successful appeals for gifts for those people and families who might otherwise go without, the special shelters for the homeless, and in the general air of friendship and joy that pervades many workplaces, schools, and homes.
There are many reasons for the season and they are all good ones. Pick the reasons and meanings that ring true to you and enjoy a wonderful Christmas season.
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