I’m fascinated by this concept. As far as I know, the roots of Christmas as we know and celebrate it in the West, are the old Pagan winter solstice festival, celebrating the shortest day of the year and heralding new beginnings and lighter days to come.
Over time in Christian Western economies, and increasingly non Christian economies, the festival has become harnessed by commercial imperatives and re-branded to suit the tastes of a greedy commercial sector, playing to the essentially imposed needs of the mass public who are pounding away on their frenzied hamster wheel of consumption. Cue image of stressed out zombie shopping crowds in pretty much every urban centre through December.
The economics of Christmas are massive; it’s a relative orgy of consumption. Its typically the largest annual economic stimulus period for western nations, the ‘Christmas season’ starts as early as October and sales increase dramatically in almost all retail areas as people buy presents, décor, cards, food and other supplies. Cue Christmas décor appearing overnight in the shops as the autumnal leaves are still falling outside in the hazy sunshine...
Then consider the fact that by January, in the UK
But what is this all about? The tradition of gift giving apparently essentially stems from the Christian faith, in a sense copying the actions of the three wise men bearing gifts for the baby Jesus. The original Pagan winter solstice festival was very different, it was a festival of light in the darkest winter days, a time for togetherness and reflection on the year that has passed and the one that is about to unfold. There was no indulgent consumption, because resources were precious, especially through the hard, cold, winter period when the agricultural season was over and people were living off their precious food stores. Cue image of dysfunctional Pagan families sitting round fires, telling stories and arguing about who had raided the apple store…
In these days of economic austerity and planetary crisis, can we begin to steer the determined juggernaut of western consumer culture away from its self-destructive course and begin to reclaim the ethos of this festival? There’s no point in rejecting Christmas, there are such beautiful sentiments at the heart of it, but is there a way we can bring it back to its roots, not in a nostalgic new age way, but re-invent it as a contemporary, progressive version of its original self that fits in with our new circumstances?
I would boldly suggest that it’s possible for those of us who feel uncomfortable with the status quo to calm ourselves down, dust ourselves off and begin to adopt an anti-consumption stance over this period and insist on having a green Christmas with a deliberately low impact on each other and the planet. We might even feel better for it.
What next I hear you ask? Well, there are tons of lists around about how to have a ‘green Christmas’ – here is a selection of some of my favourite ideas. I’ve already personally failed on several of them but am going to strive to live up to as many others as I can in the coming weeks, its not too late. Why not join me in this little experiment? When January beckons, we might just feel a little warmer and somehow less violated in our souls by this unusual and special time of year.
Here’s wishing everyone a very, merry low impact Christmas!
@clerkenwellgirl
@clerkenwellgirl
Ideas in no particular order…
MINIMISING: Emails/texts instead of cards; avoid nasty, chemical plastic bags, packaging, decorations; travel sustainably to wherever you are going; switch lights and other appliances off when not in use; use candles rather than electricity etc, blah blah…
UPCYCLING and RECYCLING: Give home-made or cooked presents and gifts; sponsor an animal or give a membership to a charity or environmental organization rather than material goods; use recycled/home-made wrapping paper, decorations, cards; rent an Xmas tree (yes really!) or pot an existing one and replant it after Xmas; Free cycle, Ebay or give unwanted presents to charity, blah blah…
GOING LOCAL: Support your local economy and buy presents and Xmas dinner from good local suppliers or farmers market, blah blah…
SHARING and CARING: Cook, eat and be merry together; spend quality time with friends and family you don’t normally see; give love and affection generously; look out for people who might not have the family network you do; do a shift in a local shelter if you have time, blah blah…
CLEANING UP and REFLECTING: After the event, up-cycle, recycle and compost all waste; replant the Xmas tree, take a deep breath and think about how it felt being more conscientious, how you can do better next year and all that jazz…
Good point made about going back to the original ethos of the Winter solstice - "a time for togetherness and reflection on the year that has passed and the one that is about to unfold".
ReplyDeleteThis sounds a lot more like the most important date in the Jewish calendar - Yom Kippur - than what Christmas has become.
The idea behind YK is that it is only by giving up food and other distractions for 24 hours that you're able to get into the correct state of contemplation to learn from the experiences of the previous year and move forward into the next year a better person.
It's hard to truly take stock when you're stuffed to the eyeballs with mincepies, bleary on sherry and stressed out after three weeks of solid shopping...
I agree with all of your points about what we should do, the big question in my mind is how do we implement it. The problem people belive in the core things that's wrong about how we live our life, but asking anyone to change their normal way of doing things is a hard task. In a family like mine, I tried to suggest to everyone to cut down at presents yesterday - they looked at me like I was mad. When we ask people to make changes with relation to traditions it's extremely difficult. I thing the answer is that we have to take small steps.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback guys, all interesting stuff. I think I've just managed to persuade my folks to try to have a plastic free Xmas next year, lets see if they remember their promise by Oct 2012 ;o)
ReplyDeleteAlso, the lovely Emma Biermann just sent me this very thought provoking George Monbiot article about meat consumption around Xmas time, sobering stuff, have a read when you have a mo:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/dec/24/christmas.famine