"Happy Holidays!"
The stranger called out to me as I rode my bike around Lake Hollywood.
"Happy Holidays!" I called back.
Late December can be a difficult time. Even for those who don't struggle through the shorter days (and longer nights!), the season can be fraught with uncertainty: mounting bills, colder weather, a dwindling food supply. Maybe that's why, across the centuries and throughout the variety of human experiences, cultures and traditions, this time of year has been a time for celebrating. If we have a party, we'll all feel a little better! So we have Solstice and Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and Christmas--to name but a few--each rooted in faith and tradition, each an opportunity to celebrate with renewed hope.
The way we celebrate Christmas today would have been unrecognizable to the man named Jesus of Nazareth. Wreaths and evergreen trees and holly are symbols from Pagan traditions. Falling snow would be a strange sight to someone living in the eastern Mediterranean. Mother Mary didn't spend her time in the kitchen baking springerle or krumkaka. The Wassail Bowl and the Yule Log are not traditions rooted in the belief that God broke into human history in a unique way in the life of the Galilean Jesus. Christmas as we know and celebrate it, while wonderful in its own right, is hardly Christian.
That's why I have trouble getting worked up over someone I don't know wishing me a Happy Holiday. That stranger has no way of knowing what makes the Holidays HOLY for me any more than I know what makes them HOLY for her.
And yet, how incredibly holy and hopeful that each of us can wish the other a joyous season without knowing anything more than that we share in being human.
Just like God.
Happy Holy-days to you and yours!
