As the Christmas season approaches, I've noticed a lot of discussions surrounding decorations and celebrations by various pagans and my curiousity has been peaked. I notice the same thing occuring around Easter and, best of all, people referring to Samhain as the Celtic New Year.
Why do so many pagans feel the need to find/invent a festival to co-incide with those of the Christian/secular calendar?
Is there something lacking in those provided by their own tradition?
Why do so many pagans feel the need to adopt the festivals from all the traditions?
Personally, I don't do Christmas or Easter and my new year is not at Samhain [whole other argument which falls outside the remit of this post]. I realise that the northern traditions have feast days such as Ostara and Yule, and the Romans celebrated Saturnalia on 17 December, but these are outside of my personal belief system, so I don't acknowledge them. I am happy with my four fire festivals and two solstices (which are acknowledged on a purely personal level) and don't feel the need to join in the celebrations of others. It feels complete to me.
So, why do so many feel these are not enough, incorporating the Christian and secular holidays in their year? Why try to blend the Christian/secular celebrations with a pagan one?
All this and then there are the rather confused local councils who go around changing things from Christmas to winter festivals so as to not offend non-Christians. As a non-Christian, I object to council's doing this. Why? Because I live in (what I thought was) a Christian country, so I expect to see people freely practising their religion and celebrating it. Seeing the councils change things actually makes me wary about the ability of the citizens to celebrate any religion openly, including paganism.
Anyways, back to the topic. If you are someone who incorporates an eclectic mix of festivals from various pagan faiths into your calendar, may I be so bold as to ask why?
This post is rather convaluted, but I find the whole idea rather confusing. So, forgive me if I come back and edit it at some point.
Why do so many pagans feel the need to find/invent a festival to co-incide with those of the Christian/secular calendar?
Is there something lacking in those provided by their own tradition?
Why do so many pagans feel the need to adopt the festivals from all the traditions?
Personally, I don't do Christmas or Easter and my new year is not at Samhain [whole other argument which falls outside the remit of this post]. I realise that the northern traditions have feast days such as Ostara and Yule, and the Romans celebrated Saturnalia on 17 December, but these are outside of my personal belief system, so I don't acknowledge them. I am happy with my four fire festivals and two solstices (which are acknowledged on a purely personal level) and don't feel the need to join in the celebrations of others. It feels complete to me.
So, why do so many feel these are not enough, incorporating the Christian and secular holidays in their year? Why try to blend the Christian/secular celebrations with a pagan one?
All this and then there are the rather confused local councils who go around changing things from Christmas to winter festivals so as to not offend non-Christians. As a non-Christian, I object to council's doing this. Why? Because I live in (what I thought was) a Christian country, so I expect to see people freely practising their religion and celebrating it. Seeing the councils change things actually makes me wary about the ability of the citizens to celebrate any religion openly, including paganism.
Anyways, back to the topic. If you are someone who incorporates an eclectic mix of festivals from various pagan faiths into your calendar, may I be so bold as to ask why?
This post is rather convaluted, but I find the whole idea rather confusing. So, forgive me if I come back and edit it at some point.
