Merry Christmas!
Before I say anything else, I would like to point out that it is not at all weird for a Swedish person to be blogging on christmas day. The only thing special about today is that it’s a bank holiday - the actual christmas celebration took place yesterday. Which brings me to the actual topic of this post, a topic which seems to be very popular among secularist bloggers this time of year: Us godless atheists and our supposed difficulties with the holiday season.
The ridiculous figment “War on Christmas” aside, I’ve seen quite a few very snide remarks about atheists and humanists and how we obviously don’t celebrate christmas, and how we probably would like to forbid it altogether as the spoilsports we are. The fact that most of us celebrate christmas like any other person, and are not ashamed to admit this, is completely irrelevant to the people making these arguments, as they live in their own little imaginary world where atheists are all, if not the spawn of satan, then at least cousins of the grinch.
So how do I celebrate christmas? Eating with my family, like most other Swedes. Religion plays a very marginal role in Swedish christmas celebrations, mostly present in the form of music. In my family the only overtly religious tradition we follow is the lighting of the advent candles, the four candles of increasing height that can be seen at the back of the table in the picture. They’re lit sequentially on the sundays of advent, the fourth on christmas eve. But, for the most part, a regular Swedish christmas is a modernised pagan solstice feast centered on the consumption of vast amounts of a variety of seasonal food.
The crown of the “julbord” (literally “christmas table”, a seasonal variant of the smörgåsbord) is the christmas ham, a large ham which has been soaking in a solution of salt and sugar for ten days before you stick it in the oven. Then there should be meatballs, small sausages, various kinds of pickled herring, and so on ad infinitum. An interesting specialty is “dopp i grytan” (lit. “dipping in the pot”), where you take a piece of bread and soak it in a fat, salty broth and eat it with ham. Presumably back in poorer days, this was a way of making stale bread more palatable. Not all families prepare all dishes, of course, it’s all a matter of personal preference.
Then there’s obviously a lot of traditional sweets, cookies and other yummy things that should be present to make a christmas feast complete. This year I decided to make christmas sweets as a present to my family - depicted on the right is knäck, a kind of hard toffee with chopped almonds, resembling daim.
A slightly quirky component of a typical family christmas celebration is a reel of Disney cartoons shown every christmas eve at three in the afternoon. As far as I’m aware, most families with children will sit down in front of the television at this point and watch an hour of mostly the same cartoons as they saw last year, with a few changes (there’s a few perennials and then they show clips from the latest Disney movies, presumably to get us to buy them). My family still watches at least part of it, even though the youngest of my siblings is nearly 20 years old.
After the cartoons it’s time for the presents (although my family has developed the unconventional and blatantly, unabashedly materialistic habit of going christmas shopping together before the cartoons), which may be brought by Santa, or may be lying under the tree, which we decorate with most of the usual stuff.
In short, christmas in Secular Sweden is an advanced family dinner preceded by presents and disney cartoons. We celebrate not the birth of christ (which, if it happened at all, at least didn’t happen on December 25) but each other, by giving each other gifts and spending time together. It’s a time to indulge in what’s good in life, and you really don’t have to be christian to do that.
Merry Christmas everyone, and if that offends you, feel free to substitute “Christmas” with the holiday of your choice!
Sounds like any swedish “War on Christmas” would be coming from the vegetarians
(Not that my vegetarian siblings weren’t a bit left out yesterday with the traditional australian roast)
But yes, there was a big kerfuffle recently in fanfic(*) circles about the exclusionary nature of christmas themed things, and the atheists (and pagans) tended to be on the “But christmas is for everyone!” side. The ones complaining were jews and members of other religions which specifically don’t celebrate christmas. (And after reading some of their complaints I can see where they’re coming from)
Anyway, merry christmas to you too, and a happy 2008!
(*)Yeah. yeah, you can stop judging me now
Comment by Sophie — December 25, 2007 @ 23:03
Sophie, No judging here
I used to write and read fanfic… many years ago.
Anyway, I can kinda see where they’re coming from too, it’s just that, well, isn’t it very much about just that - where you come from? I can see why someone living in a region where christmas is celebrated would feel left out. I might feel left out if I lived in a place where everyone celebrated Hannukah and I didn’t. But Christmas is largely secular these days and there’s no real religious reason to opt out (and if I were constantly surrounded by people who celebrated Hannukah, I probably would too!). Of course, one could try to make christmas an opt-in holiday instead, as well as all other cultural feasts like May 1, Halloween, Midsummer’s Eve or whatever’s pertinent in your part of the world. There are indeed people who think we should get rid of all bank holidays and let people have a few extra vacation days per year instead. I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit and come to the conclusion that I don’t agree. I think it’s good that we have certain cultural traditions that we can all take part in on specific days. Christmas is handy because everyone knows when it is and all you gotta decide is where to celebrate it. Same with New Year’s Eve. No calling around to ask if people can take a day off to do one thing or another.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — December 26, 2007 @ 13:21
Hi!
I am a humanist celebrating christmas (the word atheist I see more as something christians have been using to name their opponents). Anyways, Christmas was actually celebrated long before the christians came to Sweden. So, christians should really be ashamed, stealing that holiday. So, I am still pro christmas as a secular holiday. If we just could get rid of all the religious (and government financed) mumbo jumbo they show on TV it would be great.
/D
Comment by dave — December 26, 2007 @ 14:40
I celebrate christmas also but I am atheist. It’s just been a tradition for me passed down from my mom. Nothing religious, just the santa guy. (smile) A friend of my daughter’s asked her why she celebrates christmas, she replied, why do you celebrate halloween?
Comment by Tina B — December 27, 2007 @ 15:52
Dave and Tina, nice to hear from more christmas-celebrating non-religious people. In Sweden I don’t think there’s too much of the religious mumbo jumbo around, although there’s a lot of christian carols of course. But you hardly ever see nativity scenes or anything like that around. Tina, your daughter’s really cool!
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — December 27, 2007 @ 16:00
Well, rather than have me try to explain opinions I don’t really understand (it’s been so long since I was religious I have trouble remembering what it was like to be christian, let alone imagining what it’s like to be some other religion!) here are some links:
http://mofic.livejournal.com/64833.html?format=light
and if you’re still interested…
http://chopchica.livejournal.com/101908.html?format=light
All in all I imagine that christmas in a secular place like Sweden is, well, more secular than it is in christian-centric places like America and (to a lesser extent) Australia.
Anyway, happy new year for Tuesday!
Comment by Sophie — December 29, 2007 @ 01:02
I’m an atheist, and I celebrate Christmas too. How odd to hear that the whole “war on Christmas” balderdash is going on in Sweden too! It’s fun to joke about it, though–to refer to my “liberal war on Christmas.”
Comment by Ed — January 24, 2008 @ 18:14
Ed; Oh, there’s no one claiming there’s a “war on christmas” in Sweden. There are a few people who are complaining because schools are starting to opt out of the christmas celebrations at church, which are actually against the law but which many schools take part in anyway. And the snide remarks do come up here from time to time. But there’s nothing like the campaign in the US.
I think part of why it isn’t really an issue here is because our word for Christmas is Jul - Yule - and that has nothing to do with christianity. So it’s not as easy for christians to claim it’s all about them.
Comment by Felicia Gilljam — January 24, 2008 @ 18:56