In this article, I want to talk about the true reason for Christmas.
Of course, this implies that there are false reasons for Christmas, and I’m aware that this claim might sound arrogant. Who am I to dismiss other people’s interpretation of this festival?
The thing is that Christmas is, in essence, a Christian festival. We might forget this or never think about this, but Christmas means Christ mass: it’s a celebration of Christ.
Over the years, it has lost its holy connection and become about consumption and gluttony. More than anything, it’s a celebration of capitalism and mass production. If we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit we have no idea what we’re celebrating any more. We “celebrate” out of habit, and this makes me sad.
Christmas and all other religious celebrations are inextricably tied to cultural evolution and the Zeitgeist. And just as cultural evolution goes through stages of refinement, if you will, Christmas does too, and the current mutation (turkey, presents, alcohol and PS5s) is just another stage in that process.
You might ask, then: beyond the temporary surface features of Christmas, what is it really all about?
My answer will not be a rendition of Biblical verses and a call for conversion. It will be based on the great truths that all spiritual traditions ultimately point to in their own way:
To find that answer, we’ll do a brief tour of two of the major, familiar mutations of Christmas,.
Mythic and Rational Christmas
Before reading on to discover the true reason for Christmas, I recommend you check out my article on the Spiritual Meaning of Christmas, in particular the section on the Mythic and Rational stages of faith.
Keep in mind that Christmas means “celebration of Christ”, and you’ll understand how Mythic and Rational Christmas come about.
In short, in Mythic, pre-modern countries and communities, Christ is the Christ as described in the Bible. He is the son of God, was born to a virgin, walked on water, turned water into wine, fed the 5000, and so on. The Mythic mind understands these to be true historical events, as is.
Thus, Christmas is a celebration of the birth and life of Christ, and of the entire Christian faith: it is the supreme holy day, a celebration of the holy book and the holy, religious family.
In Rational, modern countries, Christ is usually considered to be a myth and nothing more. Thus, at Christmas we’re not really celebrating anything. What’s there to celebrate if Christ isn’t real? As such, it’s basically turned into a giant party, another excuse for alcohol, and a glorification of capitalism and consumerism.
The True Reason for Christmas
The two “mutations” I’ve described are, in my opinion, lesser reasons for celebrating Christmas.
The first case is based on the belief in myths and on insular religious fervour, neither of which appeal to me. And the second case is even worse: the exploitation of a holy Christian festival for capitalistic ends.
However, there are some groups of people who realise that Christ, whether he existed historically or not, is a spiritual symbol. They connect with the mystical core at the heart of all contemplative traditions, which the Bible repeatedly points to through metaphors and symbols.
Thus, Christmas is a celebration of Christ the symbol, metaphor or archetype, rather than of the Mythic, miracle-working Christ. I’ve written about the symbology of the birth of Christ elsewhere. This means that Christmas is really a spiritual festival, a celebration of our innate Christ nature, of the Christ nature of one and all.
In my opinion, this is the true reason for Christmas. I’m not denying people’s reasons for celebrating it. But when we get down to it, when we get beyond the limited mythical and rational perspectives, this is really what Christianity and Christmas are all about.
And the stages of human development (whether you study those discovered by Ken Wilber, Susanne Cook-Greuter, James Fowler, Jean Gebser or any other research) suggest that eventually this is what Christmas will become: an all-inclusive, non-sectarian celebration of Beingness.
To truly connect with this kind of Christmas, one needs to have some level of spiritual embodiment, a transpersonal consciousness, a direct apprehension of God.
Interestingly, since every thing, every one and every action is ultimately an expression of God and Christ consciousness, Mythic and Rational Christmas are undoubtedly expressions of God. To fail to see God in them is a sign of spiritual immaturity.
But there is a huge difference between humans expressing God unconsciously and doing so consciously. There is a huge difference between sleeping Buddhas and waking Buddhas, as the Buddhists will tell you.
And there is a huge difference in the levels of consciousness of a humanity celebrating Christ through gluttony than through conscious spiritual ritual and celebration.
When this higher expression of Christmas comes to be, we might continue to eat like pigs while sporting our paper Christmas hats, but inside there will be a recognition of the true reason for Christmas: a celebration of who we really are and what everything really is.
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