Joyce Allen On Why One Pagan Sings Christmas Carols

Joyce Allen is a longtime friend from the PeaceBang community. She sent me this and I loved it and I can’t remember if I shared it with you all or not. A bit late, but better late than never.

Pagans and Christmas Carols

Someone asked me a very interesting question recently– “Do Pagans sing Christmas carols?” Well, friends, we’re an independent lot. I can’t really speak for all Pagans, but I can speak for one (myself).

Yes, I do sing Christmas carols, and I sing them with the traditional lyrics. Why? Because they create joy. That’s frequently in short supply, and it’s a mitzvah in anyone’s tradition to make more of it and spread it around. Another reason– these songs reconnect me to my past. I come from a Christian family. I’ve outlived a lot of the relatives I grew up with, and I’m estranged from a number of the rest. When I sing these songs, I am reminded of the many people, gone from me now, who loved me even before I was born.

And a final reason–the Christians who celebrate Christmas are celebrating the same thing as we Pagans who celebrate Yule, or Winter Solstice, the rebirth of the Sun. Many of the customs around the holiday have pre-Christian roots, including the timing. When the Christians took over Rome, they decided to celebrate Jesus’ arrival at the same time as the festival of the Sun God Mithras’ birth. That was –surprise!– at the winter solstice. Since people are going to celebrate this time of the year, the early Christians said to themselves, they might as well celebrate Jesus’ birth now. And so it has been since.

Or as I have said to many friends over the years, “Tell the beautiful story again: of the God, born at Midwinter, Who comes to bring life, and warmth, and Light back to His people.

It is a very old story.

We tell it, too.”

Blessings of the Light on us all, friends, now and evermore.

Thank you, PaganBuddy!! This is a lovely reflection. Happy new year to you and yours.