How our Dutch family got into English Christmas carols, way back when.

In terms of religious practice, my family of origin was a mixed bag. Mom was a devout member of the Dutch equivalent of the United Church, a liberal protestant. Dad labeled himself a humanist. His childhood  home had been dominated by devotion to the improvement of humanity's fate here on Earth. At his funeral the music included the socialist hymn "Morgenrood". 

The fear of WW 2 was still strong in the air and especially in my mother's mind. I was in my early teens before I found out that Dad's mother was Jewish. Mom swore me to secrecy, in case there was ever another war and some bad people would take Dad away. I am not making this up.

As far as I know Dad's childhood had been secular and dreidel-free, though he once mentioned that his grandparents, who lived above them, had a Mezuzah on their door. And at his mother's funeral he said Kaddish. We wish we had asked more questions.

When Mom and Dad married Dad agreed to send future kids to Christian elementary schools, in order to compensate for the lack of church going at home. I was a devout little Christian girl till age 14 when critical thinking kicked in. Dad was mainly silent on the topic, but made no bones about his objections to fear-filled forms of religion that suck the joy out of here-and-now life.

Christmas was a rare time when Dad would set his normal cynicism aside and pretend. He'd read the Christmas story from the Bible, and join in singing carols around the Christmas tree, which was small but real and lit with real candles. 

Once in a great while he would even deign to accompany Mom to church, a sweet little chapel hidden inside the block of flats where we lived.

In 1954 Mom befriended the wife of the organist of the Anglican church in Amsterdam. They lived around the corner and had children of similar ages. For a while a friendship actually flourished between the couples. And somehow, our family got into Christmas Carols. Dad liked them because he was a total Anglophile, and because the songs were cheerful. We even attended a Christmas service in the ancient English church in Begijnhof, a truly magical place hidden in a busy part of downtown.

I still love the traditional carols. The childhood memories make them all the more special. 

I find deep meaning in simply celebrating Earth's turnings. I take my Gaia plain, but deities of choice can be inserted if desired.  The huge fires on Solstice felt so right! But meaningful traditions have to grow organically. The process can't be forced. I would have loved to belt out some hearty Herald Angels and other traditional carols as we stood in the circle.

Merry Christmas from a Taoist Pagan.

Hark the Herald Angels! Bring on the Nativity scenes! Send in the Carols! In the name of the Mother, the Daughter, and the Holy Crone.

What I mean by the label is: Nature is the connection I use to commune with the Great Mystery. I am happy to call it The Great Mystery, the Tao, and let it go at that.

I have no desire to revive tribal gods of yester-year. The one we have left is doing enough damage. Parts of the tribal history AKA the Old Testament are truly grotesque. All that slaying and smiting. For the record: some of my ancestors belonged to that tribe.

My view of gods is rather Pratchettian. As The Great One (Terry Pratchett) so eloquently puts it, the difference between gods and devils is rather like that between freedom fighters and terrorists. Let sleeping gods lie.

Mystics of all religions get along just fine. As a Christian theologian said (sorry, forgot his name): “God is a metaphor for God.” Amen.

AND (and, not but) I was raised as a good little Christian girl. Part of me will always resonate to those particular rituals. Rituals feed the soul. I love Christmas Carols. The real kind: Herald Angels, Oh Night Divine, Once in Royal David’s City, and so on. They are simply too beautiful to be reserved solely for Christian believers.
I did another post  about how they became part of my Dutch childhood.

We used to hear carols over the airwaves in the Advent season. When did that change? As early as 1992 I wrote a letter to CBC radio complaining about their lack. It went more or less like this:

If the aim of losing traditional carols is to avoid offense to minorities, minorities and those who champion them need to make a clear distinction between wrongful discrimination and the simple inconvenience of being a minority. That seems to get mixed up.

When someone is denied schooling, employment or housing strictly on the basis of ethnic identity, skin colour, religion, gender, etc, that is wrongful discrimination. Most people of goodwill agree that everyone deserves an equal chance at the goodies.

But when a Muslim, Hindu or Atheist has to lay eyes on a plastic baby Jesus in the mall, that is merely an inconvenience. It is NOT religious persecution or discrimination. If you want to feel real discrimination, try being a Bahai in Iran or a Christian or avowed Atheist in Saudi Arabia.

I am all in favor of a strict separation between church and state. But I always thought that that simply meant that the state would refrain from dictation in matters of personal religion.

In my opinion public schools should indeed be secular. That doesn’t mean anti-religious, just neutral. If you want your child to be indoctrinated in your personal faith, take care of it at home or send her to private school.
In my grandson’s school in Greater Vancouver, B.C. Christian kids and those of European extraction are as much a minority as everyone else.
In that context it makes sense to change the traditional Christmas Pageant into a bland midwinter celebration.

But when did we get all paranoid about displays of religion in public space? Are our own convictions so pathetically insecure that we cannot handle being exposed to another view? What does that have to do with freedom?

True beauty has been replaced with insipid winter songs that reek of plastic and the Mall. That obscene Reindeer story deserves a rant all on its own.

I say: bring back the carols. They feed the soul on a deep level.
And when the time comes for Diwali, Hanukkah, Eid, or other celebrations, let’s hear the songs that go with those.

Let’s celebrate all festivals instead of none!