It’s Not Just Christmastime
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It is all too common to see an array of Christmas trees, oversized nutcrackers and flickering white lights spread across every building on the Post Road. We as Darienites have grown accustomed to these decorations as we’ve been blithely underexposed to Eastern influences.
As Christians, Jews, atheists or even self -proclaimed Facebook Buddhists, we’ve often forgotten about the rest of the world and the impact the winter holiday season has on people of other religions.
People all too often ignorantly lump Winter Solstice with witchcraft and ancient Pagan rituals, when in reality a new wave of atheists have been growing more and more attached to this nighttime tradition. They celebrate it in late December when night is the longest. The event is founded on the principles of the Neo-Paganism movement, which is focused on an interest in the worship of nature and fertility.
Student Buddhists in Darien often confine themselves to a simple “Religious Views” section on their Facebook page. Without further educating themselves on the religion, most pseudo-Buddhists are aggressively ignorant to such traditions while only practicing the “peace” aspect of the religion. But for those who actually take pride and understanding in their religion, the 8th of December is the one of most importance.
Bodhi Day or “Rohatsu" is one of the most significant days of the year, symbolizing the day when the great Buddha sat underneath his fig tree to achieve enlightenment. Bodhi day is considered the day of the birth of Buddhism and when Buddha found out that everyone suffers from ignorance.
Ramadan is one holiday known to Muslims worldwide. Starting on the first crescent moon sighting of the winter, this is an honorary holy period of the Islamic year and is considered the most sacred. Ramadan is later followed by intense prayer and fasting.
The “Vampyre” (they are deeply offended if called “vampires”) movement in America and Europe has begun to conduct their own holiday as well. In the celebration of “The Long Night” self proclaimed Vampyrs often join alongside Winter Solstice movements. Despite the fact this groups takes umbrage at being called vampires, there are some factions that so perform a rite of drinking blood.
While we at home stress over the Christmas tree and relatives coming home for the holidays, our Eastern neighbors are often in an enlightened state and completely often happily oblivious to our stressful traditions. Is the West gradually losing more and more of the true meaning of the word “holiday”? Has the modern holiday evolved – or some might say devolved -- past its original definition? While we live in a forever changing world, Easterners have managed to stop the fast pace of a changing society and keep true to their cultural roots stopping to enjoy a time that is meant to be cherished and not a harried flurry of stressful events.
