My Advent Diary 3
By Dixie Darr
They decorated the church for Christmas Monday night, with a tree and wreaths and greenery throughout the sanctuary. Some of our more conservative members don’t like it, I hear, because they consider theses types of decorations pagan instead of Christian in origin. That’s true, of course. Anyone who’s studied the origin of Christianity knows that we celebrate Christmas in December less because it’s our best guess as to when Jesus was actually born (it isn’t) than because it was convenient to connect the new religion with the old. Many, maybe most, ancient people celebrated with some kind of winter solstice ritual.
That doesn’t bother me. We always use our cultural maps to interpret new information. I will happily put out my own pagan decorations in a week or two. Right now, the only thing I have out is a small nativity scene my parents bought at a garage sale a couple of years ago. It is in a wall-hanging shadow box and the figures, carved of ivory, are no more than two inches tall. In the corner is a card that says, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” The way we celebrate seems to belie that, yet the church is always full for the Christmas Eve service. We are complicated people.
Meanwhile, in line with my resolve to read only uplifting books during the holiday season, I have started reading The Lovely Bones. I put off reading it for months, because although it’s about the rape and murder of a 14 year old girl, everything I’ve read or heard about it says it is a very positive, inspirational book. I’m taking that on faith.
9:15:56 AM 
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