Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
C.S. Lewis on Merry Christianity
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2002 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
Will you take the Atheist Challenge?
People sometimes wish me a "Merry Christmas" and then hastily amend it to "Happy Holidays" or "or whatever you celebrate" or suchlike. I honestly don't care. Does it make a difference? Do you try to act differently at this time of year than you do in mid-March? Why?
In the store, I overheard a dad say to his daughters, "Let's hurry up and buy these, we'll be late for church." All these other people have rituals that root them, that make this holiday special. All the holidays meant the same thing to me, for twenty years: I had to hang out with relatives, whether I liked it or not.
Actually, no. I grokked three holidays: Thanksgiving, New Year's, and Independence Day. But Christmas is only beginning to mean something to me, thanks to the wonderful time I had last year with Leonard's family. I wish I were there right now.
