When pagans and witches celebrate the Winter Solstice, ?

Question

do they feel a little down in the dumps because Christmas and Hanukkah have so much more spectacle?

Answer 1

No.

I celebrate Winter Solstice in my heart, and in my own home.

But every year, I still go to my parents house, and have Christmas eve dinner, and Christmas dinner.  Other than the prayer my family may or may not say (they only really pray when my Nana is around), which I tactfully and respectfully exclude myself from, there is absolutely NOTHING specifically Christian about their celebrations. My family's Christmas is mostly about family traditions (traditional Polish food for Christmas eve dinner, me and my sister's tradition of putting up my mother's tree), and the pagan aspects of the holiday (ie, gift giving, a tree, a feast) anyways.

If I refused to attend my family's Christmas, I would not consider myself a very good person, or a very good pagan. It would hurt my family beyond words if I refused to celebrate our family bonds, and our family traditions, for something as paltry as religion.

No, I'm not down in the dumps about Christmas being more spectacular, because most of the spectacle is pagan anyways, and that which isn't doesn't matter because Winter Solstice to me is more about having fun with my family than rejecting Christianity.

Answer 2

Greetings!

Many Pagan Traditions, and certainly Wiccans, have a vast Treasure-Trove to draw from as far as Yule, and Solstice Celebration.

The Trees, the Gifts, the Singing, Eating, Drinking are all part of Yule-not part of Christ-Mass.

The Solstice was Celebrated in Ancient Days, and was one of the most important, as StoneHenge, and other Megalithic structures AROUND THE WORLD were built to comemorate, and celebrate this yearly event.

There are Bon-Fires and Mistletoe, there are Games and Partys, Gifts and Spiced Wine, but those are not part of Christ-Mass.

Christ-Mass is celebrated by sitting in a cold stone cathedral, listening to the Priest drone on, and on, and on, and on, about how those who give the Church the most money, will sit closer to Jesus.

So, NO! Thank God and Goddess that they wish their Children to be Happy and Hopeful, to eat, drink, be merry, and Libate!

We dance the night away, wait for a Man in Furs to pop down the smoke-hole, and Gift us all!

You may "borrow" our Traditions, but don`t claim them as yours, and yours alone, as they are NOT!

But be happy! Pray hard. Pay your tithes, and come to OUR party on the Solstice!

/!\

Answer 3

why do I need more spectacle?

I've got this great big tree!

Answer 4

Hanukkah kinda sucks. ^^ I know a few Jews, and Hanukkah ain't nuthin on Passover.

Christmas is nice, because it's recognized by most people, even outside of Christianity.  It's current incarnation is pretty much because the US wanted to develop a secular winter holiday to flesh out their calendar. The Japanese love gift giving day.

Winter Solstice is fun, and generally either singular, or more party like continuing through the night depending on your belief.  And that just rolls right into Universal Gift Giving Day a few days later.

Answer 5

Not at all... I don't even think about those other

holidays unless someone brings it up... but so

what that other holidays fall close to mine ?

That's no concern to me.

Answer 6

no i do not. besides where do you thing christmas came from? pagans. christians just took it as theres but a new name to it with a new belief  

Answer 7

Not really.  Yule came from NORSE beliefs anyway.  There were also some in the Mediterranean area that were similar, and many of the New Age "pagan" religions that popped up in the 1930s through the 1960s such as Wicca picked them up just like the Christians did in the centuries past.

Answer 8

Nope. Yule starts ont he 21st and goes twelve days! What's to feel down about??

Answer 9

WELL I PERSONALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS, ITS A GREAT CELEBRATION OF JESUS BIRTH.