December is here! Christmas time is coming soon!

It is Gift Giving Season and so I thought it would be an apt time for me to offer some perspectives, ideas and experiences pertaining to nurturing the Gift Economy.

First of all, what is Christmas… exactly? and where did this tradition originate?

While the cultural origins of Christmas can be traced back to pre-Christian times over 4,000-5,000 years ago and include the winter solstice celebrations of the ancient indigenous peoples of the homelands of my Gaelic ancestors (as well as aligning with ancient celebrations connected to the Roman Saturnalia and the birthday of the Persian deity Mithra, among others) most think of it as a Christian tradition.

In Dana Driscoll's educational post on "Celebrating the Winter Solstice with Sacred Foods and Feasting" she wrote that "Ancient Rome’s festivals of Saturnalia and Sol Invictus involved much feasting this time of year. Saturnalia, an ancient Roman holiday of feasting, took place December 17th with festivities up until Dec 23rd. The time of Saturnalia involved role reversals, feasting, gambling, gift-giving, and of course today, many “pagans”, particularly Hellenistic “pagans”, still celebrate the event. A related holiday, the celebration of the Sun God, Sol Invictus (Helios), was celebrated on December 25th, the “dies natalis Invicti” which refers to the rebirth of the sun. It’s not a stretch to see how these days of feasting in Ancient Rome were appropriated into the modern 12 days of Christmas and Christmas day.

Beyond Rome, we see Dong Zhi, the “arrival of winter” festival in China, which also typically falls between Dec 21st and 23rd. Its origins were also as an end-of-the-harvest year festival, where families would gather to enjoy the fruits of the harvest with special foods. In Scandinavia, “St. Lucia’s Day” is another modern feasting and fire festival that was likely appropriated from older Norse solstice traditions."

The spread of Christianity in the first millenium led to the Church taking decisive steps to entice new members via merging of some more ancient Earth centered religions (commonly referred to as “Pagan” by some) and Christian beliefs and celebrations. Existing traditions surrounding Celtic deities were woven with new Christian ones as well, for example Saint Brigid is thought to be derived from the Celtic goddess of fertility, Brigid.

In the Celtic times, druids observed the festival of Alban Arthan (also known as Yule) at the time of Winter solstice. They gathered mistletoe from oak trees.

The solstice was one of the most important celebrations in the pre-Christian world. All over the Northern Hemisphere, there were ancient festivals marking the shortest days of the year when the sun appeared to “stand still.” Solstice is from the latin sōl-stitium which translates as Sun stop or Sun still. Several of these festivals have survived to this day while others have been incorporated into modern day celebrations.

We know that the winter solstice has been marked in Ireland for at least 5000 years. The spectacular Síd in Broga cairn at Newgrange, Co Meath, was built around 3200 BC with its entrance in precise alignment with the rising sun over the solstice each winter. This imposing and mysterious monument is a testament to the importance of this time of year for the ancient indigenous ancestors of the people of what is now called the British Isles (the Druids and their predecessors).

This monument continued to be of importance for different people hundreds and even thousands of years later. Newgrange is our modern name for the site, but in Celtic mythology it was known as An Brug, the house or dwelling of the Tuatha De Danann. This mythical race lived in the “other world” underneath our feet. And according to Celtic myth, the solstice marked a great battle each year between the Oak King who represented the light, and the Holly King who represented the dark. Each year the Oak King would finish victorious at the winter solstice, and daylight would slowly return to the island until it was time to do battle again - at the summer solstice.

The tradition of hanging wreaths also has roots in ancient Gaelic tradition. A ring of holly is displayed on doors of houses throughout the world, however this tradition originated in Ireland. Holly was one of the most flourishing plants at the time, and so allowed the poor to decorate their houses too. All decorations are traditionally taken down on January 6th  and it is considered bad luck to take them down beforehand.

In modern times, most religious people associate Christmas with the birth of Jesus and a time of gift giving, expressions of gratitude and joyful meals shared with loved ones.

At the same time, Christmas day (and season) often gets intertwined with consumerism and ego, so this year I want to invite all of us to take a step back and look upon the concept of sharing gifts from a different perspective.

Gifts come in many forms and the most beautiful gifts that embody the spirit of hope, kindness, joy and good will are those gifts that you arrived with when you chose to come to this world and live the human life you are living now. These gifts are inside you, they are unique to you and you possess them so that you can engage in the sacred task of sharing those gifts with this world.

When you take time to look inward, discover your unique gifts and then imagine a way you can use your gifts to nurture other beings to achieve their highest potential, give back to the living planet that gives to much to us and create things that express the essence of your spirit manifested in physical form and/or poetry for the senses, you are giving the most valuable gifts in this universe. No one else can share the same gifts, in the same way that you can.

Therefore, during this season centering on a day that is meant to honor the birth of a man that shared his unique gifts with this world… with courage, love and kindness… the best way we can honor his life is to do the same ourselves.

Pursuant to this, I offer the following essay:

Embracing The Gift Economy As An Antidote For The Scarcity Economy: