VIEW FROM AFAR

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN DALE SUDERMAN
Christmas is merely the latest installment in the 5,000-year quest by folks in the northern latitudes to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD as it is know in this era. Living in the dark always makes people unhappy. This is the “true” meaning of Christmas.

We-as did our European ancestors before us-watch hopelessly as the sun sinks ever lower in the south. Common sense tells us-as it did them-the days are short and the nights long from early December to mid-January.

The ancients built elaborate shrines like Stonehenge to determine the exact moment of the winter solstice; we moderns depend on the Weather Channel.

The government messes with Daylight Saving Time, but the nights remain just as long. None of these things gives us much comfort-living in the dark makes us sad.

This year, on the day after Thanksgiving, the women folk went foraging at 6 a.m. for $4.89 coffee makers and waffle irons at Wal-Mart. Their men folk put on camouflage hunting pants with bright orange vests-combining to make a bizarre but safe fashion statement-made practical since they are hunting colorblind deer.

Both are hunting and foraging in a difficult dark time-unchanged since our ancestors sent the men out to kill wooly mammoths while the women folk hunted dried berries.

For the first four centuries, the Christian church got along quite well without Christmas-it was at most a minor liturgical day-if it was observed at all.

(There was after all, no agreement on the exact date of Christ’s birth. Two of the four Gospel writers felt no need to mention it and none of the later New Testament writings ever refer to it.)

But when Christianity moved north, it bumped into our pagan ancestors with their ceremonies and rituals for the solstice-holly and mistletoe, huge burning logs, evergreens inside the house and feasting in the dark dead of winter.

Well, if you can’t beat them, join them. The church baptized the Christmas tree and peppernuts and gift giving and holly and mistletoe to create Christmas.

My neighbors have a huge plastic Santa Claus standing in reverent attention before a crèche scene with flashing icicle lights and huge red candles as a backdrop in their front yard. The combination of the many traditions is not perfect.

As late as 1885, Christmas was not a holiday for federal employees. When Ebenezer Scrooge refused to give his poor employee Bob Crachet the day off in Dickens’ Christmas Carol, he was simply doing what most shopkeepers did-Christmas was a normal business day.

We can ring bells at midnight on Christmas Eve and shoot off guns and firecrackers and make loud noises on New Year’s Eve in attempts to chase away dark demons-but common sense still tells us it is dark outside.

One can spike the eggnog or call the family physician to go double up on anti-depressants or buy an ultraviolet light from Greenhaw Pharmacy. All these cheer one up a bit-but it is still dark outside.

The crazy primitive mix of fears, depression and anxiety that come to most folks around the season of darkness is not a new thing.

Maybe all this brings meaning to angels singing “Fear not!” “A light shone in the darkness” is an ancient statement of hope. We can hang on during this darkness and try to remember, “Easter is coming.”

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

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