Parts have been edited due to change in lifestyle
As a pagan, I get the most criticisms for celebrating Christmas. How can you celebrate a Christian holiday? They say. I guess it is a matter of how I grew up. Unlike most pagans of this era, I did not reject my families’ religion in order to find my own path. Holidays mean certain things for me and always will. They are a time for gathering and news sharing. A time when people can get together and just be.
Though I did Christian things growing up, I was never Christian. I learned Christian songs, every once in a great while attended Christian “Sunday” school, but I was never part of that religion. My family did not go to church, the only religious thing my mother ever uttered to me was when I was in high school, and it was just old school bigotry. This did not take meaning away from the holidays, however.
Let us start with Yule. I celebrate Christmas. My family gets together and we exchange gifts, talk, prattle, argue, eat and just have fun. In my youth, we celebrated Christmas twice a year, once at thanksgiving with my east coast relatives and once at Christmas with those in Colorado. This changed as people grew and moved farther apart, though my Colorado family still gets together every year.
Imbolc is not celebrated in my house unless you count the intense cleaning frenzy I go through every month.
I do not celebrate Ostara either. I celebrate spring and Easter as one again with my family if possible.
Beltane is usually a quiet time. I do some rituals to focus on this day but not much else. Mother’s day is more prominent as it is another family gathering time.
Midsummer is celebrated as summer an end to my year cycle and a time for rest. In my family father’s day is usually celebrated as a family day, but it doesn’t happen every year.
Lughnassadh is not celebrated. Never had much a reason to. My grandparents keep gardens but there has never been much of a harvest in my family.
Samhain used to be a party with friends. Now it is purely ritual with a little trick or treating with my daughter.
Thanksgiving is another time spent with family; it is my (and now my daughter’s as well) birthday time.
If you have not guessed it by now my holidays are celebrated with family and friends. This is the central part of a holiday for me. Without it holidays mean very little to me. I celebrate when my family and friends can, so I can be with them. There is no Yule on my calendar, but there is a Christmas. No messiah or Yule log needed just a good friend and ear to listen.
Holidays do not have to be a religous occasion. It does not make me less of a pagan to celebrate them as a time for family and friends without worship or service. I enjoy holidays, I do not need any gods to tell me how I should celebrate.
© Michelle Norton
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