December 08, 2002

Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat

Things I learned this weekend: "In Dulci Jubilo" is actually the same as the carol
"Good Christian Men, Rejoice" that I sang in junior high school choir. (In a choir
that was more than half Jewish, including the choir director,
ironically.)

I'm still in remedial Christmas education, not having
celebrated the holiday until I took up with Rudder. Now we do both Christmas and
Chanukah. I confess, though, that I use Rudder as an excuse. I do throw myself
into celebrating Christmas, though in a secular way. For one thing, I like
holidays, the more the better. This is a Jewish thing, I think; we have more
holidays than anyone except Catholic-school kids who get off for all the saints'
days. For another thing, I figure anything that promotes "peace on Earth, good
will to mankind" is worthwhile. Thirdly, it is just strange living in the U.S. and
not celebrating it. I'm not fond of feeling left out. Growing up, we sang
Christmas carols and made Christmas crafts in school, and watched Rudolph, Frosty,
and Charlie Brown every year. The mall (in our largely Jewish neighborhood) decked
itself in lights and fake evergreen garlands. I think my parents even got a
picture or two of me on Santa's lap, and rumor has it I'd memorized The Night
Before Christmas
by age two. And yet we had no tree or presents or
decorations.

I think this is something that's been a problem for
Jews in general since moving out of the ghettos and participating in the larger
culture. My great-gradnmother referred to my grandmother, her non-Yiddish-speaking
daughter-in-law, as a "Yiddishe shiksa" (lit. Jewish gentile). My uncle reports
that he and my mother did have Christmas trees as children, 'until we realized we
were Jewish'. I went to college with people of Jewish background whose families
always celebrated Christmas. We often gathered for big family dinners then,
because that's when everyone had time off.

It's hard not to
celebrate when it's a recognized national holiday with an official national tree
at the White House, when all businesses are closed and everyone has time off, when
every magazine has articles on what to wear at holiday parties and what to buy as
presents. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future, as the various
Christian denominations become less of a majority in the US. (This might not
happen if Hispanic Catholics coming in balance out Buddhist and Hindu immigrants,
or if the latter tend to convert as they assimilate.) My guess is that we'll
continue to celebrate the holiday but in a more and more secular way, as Japan
does.

I sympathize with religious Christians who hate to see their
holy feast co-opted, but I suspect they're fighting a losing battle. (Only as far
as the wider society goes -- if I can celebrate Passover in my home, there's no
reason Christmas can't be Christ's mass in theirs.) At any rate, since most
Biblical analyses I've seen seem to think Jesus would have been born in spring,
and since our current celebrations owe at least as much to Yule and Saturnalia, it
may be a battle lost before it started. Besides, it was a battle lost to win the
war; co-opting local holidays was a primary method early missionaries used to gain
converts.

So I do celebrate Christmas with enthusiasm and enjoyment,
marred only by a limited tolerance for kitsch. I'm not a high-culture snob; I like
things I understand. I prefer Norman Rockwell to Jackson Pollock or even your
average medieval allegorical painter. In the case of Christmas decorations, the
kitch-tolerance line is fuzzy. There's "not in my house", which includes pretty
much any decoration that makes noise ecept jingle bells, and then there's "get it
out of my sight", which would include the bare-bellied wiggling Santa I saw the
other day. In other words, I'm pretty tolerant.

In the matter of
music, I draw the line much sooner. First of all, Christmas music Should Not be
played before Thanksgiving. Second, I really wish people would give up entirely on
updating holiday music, unless the resultant oeuvre has either entertainment or
aesthetic value. In other words, "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Rockin' Around the
Christmas Tree" should be abolished. I'm OK with Rudolph and Frosty (the songs) as
long as I don't have to hear them more than about three times a week. (A futile
ambition.) My favorites, though, are the really old traditional ones that seem to
hold layers of meaning like "The Holly and the Ivy" (I keep wondering if all the
Jesus stuff was a later addition) and "Lully Lullay" or the semi-obscure but
beautiful ones like "In the Deep Midwinter" or "I Heard the Bells on Christmas
Day". As an antidote to the horrible mall music I've been hearing, I've gone out
and bought CDs by the Medieval Baebes (which then saw mentioned in In Style
magazine -- hey, I'm trendy!) and the Robert Shaw Chorale, and a Chanukah
compilation including They Might Be Giants (they're Jewish??). I haven't listened
to the last; the Shaw one is good traditional and some not quite traditional
music, nicely done, and the Baebes are lovely pagan-meets-medieval Christian-
meets-Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares. So now should I accidentally flip to the All-
Really, Really Bad-Christmas-Music-All-the-Time radio station, I have the
antidote.

Oops, almost forgot:

Today I am thankful for: All my shopping's done and I'm more than halfway
through the erg challenge.

Concept II Holiday Challenge: Approx. 88000 meters left to go.

Posted by dichroic at December 8, 2002 04:59 PM
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?