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capri0mni(Thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
calapine for the link to BBC's First Trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, 2010)
You know, that recent Nova episode "The Secrets of Stonehenge" has got me thinking. Here's a three-sentence synopsis of the hour-long program (As I've come away from it, anyway), for those who can't watch the whole:
So the day of the winter solstice, it would seem (to me), was dedicated to starting out in "this world" and spending the day making a pilgrimage to visit the Otherworld, and bringing the blessings of the ancestors back with you.
So the "Little ghost story of Christmas" that Dickins wrote, where Ebenezer is redeemed by reconnecting to his past, and his past blessings, and then bringing that back to the future, by ensuring the survival of Tiny Tim, has far older roots than the Christian Charity that Dickens explicitely writes about in his prose.
... ... ...
I do so wish Christianity didn't have such a death grip on the Winter Gift-Giver (Also trickster and psychopomp, if you trace his roots back far enough). Makes it impossible to invoke him as a universal figure (Which is why I never bothered to do anything with my NaNo Novel of 2006-- I'm not Christian, and neither were about 3/4 of the people I wanted to give the story to, but I couldn't write a "Santa Claus Story" without making the whole thing seem like "Yay for Christianity-- the default religion!")
Sigh.
calapine for the link to BBC's First Trailer for the Doctor Who Christmas Special, 2010)You know, that recent Nova episode "The Secrets of Stonehenge" has got me thinking. Here's a three-sentence synopsis of the hour-long program (As I've come away from it, anyway), for those who can't watch the whole:
- Stonehenge is just one half of a ritual space alongside the river Avon, a burial ground for royal families; the other half is the "Woodhenge" of Durrington Walls.
- Stone, in many cultures, belongs to the realm of the ancestors, while wood belongs to the realm of the living.
- On the winter solstice, the sun rises over one of the main avenues of Durrington Walls, and sets over one of the main avenues of Stonehenge (And the timing is reversed for the summer solstice, rising over Stonehenge, and setting over Woodhenge).
So the day of the winter solstice, it would seem (to me), was dedicated to starting out in "this world" and spending the day making a pilgrimage to visit the Otherworld, and bringing the blessings of the ancestors back with you.
So the "Little ghost story of Christmas" that Dickins wrote, where Ebenezer is redeemed by reconnecting to his past, and his past blessings, and then bringing that back to the future, by ensuring the survival of Tiny Tim, has far older roots than the Christian Charity that Dickens explicitely writes about in his prose.
... ... ...
I do so wish Christianity didn't have such a death grip on the Winter Gift-Giver (Also trickster and psychopomp, if you trace his roots back far enough). Makes it impossible to invoke him as a universal figure (Which is why I never bothered to do anything with my NaNo Novel of 2006-- I'm not Christian, and neither were about 3/4 of the people I wanted to give the story to, but I couldn't write a "Santa Claus Story" without making the whole thing seem like "Yay for Christianity-- the default religion!")
Sigh.
