Wintermas: Toward a Secular Celebration of the Season by Michael Harold

Author:Michael Harold [Harold, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2016-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

Why Wintermas?

The idea behind Wintermas is to create an expressly secular version of the winter holidays for nonbelievers and others who don’t feel comfortable with the celebration of Christmas.

Some might say then why not just celebrate Yule. Unfortunately, outside of very small neopagan circles, Yule has become almost entirely conflated with Christmas to the point that the two words are almost synonymous. Further, even the neopagan celebration of Yule is mostly centered on the winter solstice, leaving Christmas intact for those of us who want something different on that day as well.

Also, like Christmas, Yule has religious connotations and in modern times is mostly promoted by neopagans who tie it up with notions of gods, goddesses and witches. This is fine for those who are interested in the rebirth of Earth-based religions, but not for nonbelievers and secularists who want to steer clear of such associations. So Wintermas is preceded by and influenced by both Yule and Christmas, but without the Christian or pagan religious overtones. Wintermas is proposed to supplement or replace the religious parts of the winter holiday season with an expressly secular celebration for those who desire it.

Some who like the idea of a secular winter holiday have objected to the “mas” in Wintermas saying it’s too Christian-sounding or that it even creates another version of Christmas! Wintermas is certainly not intended to create another version of the Christian holiday – far from it. But as a celebration that is being developed for non-Christians in a Christian-dominated society, Wintermas is admittedly influenced by Christian traditions as well. So it makes sense to make it sound a bit like Christmas. Also, the suffix “mas” or “mass” can be construed to mean a meeting of people, celebration or feast, so Wintermas means a celebration of winter around the time of the solstice.

Furthermore, the term Wintermas is already in use as kind of an underground catch-all description for a secular or alternative Christmas. It’s used on web pages, blogs and social media posts so there seems to be some informal support for the term. Although prior to this book it has not been organized or promoted in any systematic way.

Others might also question the need for a new named winter holiday for nonbelievers and secularists. Why not just continue using “Xmas” and vaguely saying “happy holidays”? That certainly may be good enough for people who just want to go with the flow of a religious holiday and don’t mind being vague about why they do. But for those of us who like to have a reason for the things we say and do, and who understand the astronomical and seasonal significance of the winter solstice, being able to sum up what we are celebrating with one word is valuable. It instantly reminds us of and communicates to others the significance of the winter holidays and the non-religious events our celebrations are centered around.

After all, if naming things weren’t important we wouldn’t have names for our countries, provinces, political parties, religions or sports teams.

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