Reassigning Holidays - Why it’s insulting.
I was presented with a provocative question today. Someone asked, if you are in the Southern Hemisphere, so you celebrate Samhain today, or do you wait for your fall/winter to come around and celebrate it then?
There was a selection of responses, and snarky remarks. Mine might have been in the more snarky, or possibly condescending. Oops? But the general consensus seemed to be, No, silly, of course not - we celebrate it in our respective season!
And that, unbeknownst to me - Struck a real horrible chord with me. I kinda felt like you just slapped me in the face, or spat in my mouth.
Now, generally speaking - yes, of course seasonal “harvest” holidays or feast days would, obviously, correspond to the seasons and be celebrated or recognized in the respective season they should belong, wherever on the calendar that may fall.
BUT. My issue is - there are SEVERAL holidays that are very much more than just a ‘harvest’ festival, and have very deep rooted spiritual meaning and significance. Samhain being one of those, Lughnassadh being another great example, where the specific month, if not exact day, holds relevance. Samhain is not only a harvest festival, but also a celebration of life and death. It is a day to remember and honour the ancestors, remember the beloved dead, celebrate the victorious dead, a time for scrying and divination, shadow work, plane work, spirit work, walking, watching - SO many heightened things, in this sacred thinned veil that separate this world from the others. It is also, in Celtic belief, the New Year. And Samhain is, literally, the name of the Month. It is November. So why the hell would you celebrate a festival whose namesake is the Month it is supposed to herald in, in the precise opposite point in time? That seems. Insulting? Ignorant? Silly? Disrespectful? I need a word that is a collection of all of that simultaneously, along with indignation.
Would you move Christmas just because the season “didn’t match” what your own perception of it was?
How about New Years? Does that suddenly fall on a different day just because your on he opposite side of the world ? Or would it not still be January 1st? (not being a smartass and accounting for time-zone differences) Or what about the cultures that celebrate a different New Year (Samhain being one of them) - Like the Chinese New Year (falls on Feb 12), or the Orthodox New Years (which typically falls around Jan 14th) - Would you just expect them to NOT celebrate it on those same days just because they may have relocated to a different hemisphere?? Why is ours any different? Why do we not get the same respect as other religions and cultures? The Celtic New Year falls between October 30th - November 4th. And it SHOULD BE OBSERVED *ON THOSE DAYS* regardless of what hemisphere you live in. Period. Same for Lughnassadh - it is tied to a harvest festival, but it in itself is not a harvest festival. It originated as a funeral celebration for the mother of Lugh, and was held on her burial and memorial, and therefore should be observed ON HER DAY, not changed on a whim to suit humans perceived “misalignment” of preset notions of what the weather should look like outside on that holiday. The modernized Lunasa, is also the name of the month of August - so it should be respectively celebrated in it’s namesake. Belltaine, or Bealtaine in modern Irish, is again, another one of these celebrations that - yes, are tired to harvest days, but are not SOLELY harvest related, and is a spiritually significant holiday. It is a Fire festival in celebration of Balor, who gives his name to the celebration - and, yet again, to the MONTH. So, again, it should be observed within it’s namesake. Imbolc(g) is really the only named holiday, in addition to the solistices/equinoxes, that are ambiguously tied to the seasons and can be easily shifted to correspond to the respective hemispheric alignment. But when you have holidays that are rooted in tradition, and have historical, and cultural significance in being observed on specific days for specific reasons - they need to be observed on those days. Hard stop. It is just, plainly, disrespectful not to.
I think the idea of being overly accepting, and overly specialized in the greater pagan community (an Ironic oxymoron, as callous and gate-kept as the greater pagan community can be) has significantly watered down the respective faiths, understanding, and discipline. This constant reminder that “there are no rules!” “anything goes!” and “make your own path!” are so pervasive, that the suggestion of ANYTHING sacred, or standard, or fundamental leads your to be ostracized and mocked. Sorry, that is just not how that works. Yes - you can believe anything you want to - but if you are going to make the choice to believe in a specific faith, you should honor the doctrine of that specific path. If you don’t...well...common fucking sense would tell you, then that’s not your path, now is it? And there is nothing wrong with that, at all - but you cant practice being a frog, and claim it’s a deer. It just isn’t - and your insulting both the frog and the deer. Along with anyone with the power of logic, reason and deduction on your way...
This to me, tells me that said ‘practitioners’ don’t actually give a damn about understanding what they are doing, or what they are celebrating, or the histories or origins of what they claim to love and worship - but only the superficial perceived notion of said faith, and their own narcissistic experiences within it. It should be relevant to *me* in *my* time and place and convenience - NOT the actual gods, elements, or culture of the faith of the actual practice. Nope. That’s secondary. I’m first. So I’ll just change everything all around to fit what I think is most comfortable. Yup.
No. That is incorrect. That is not how religious observance works, regardless of what faith you follow. And that is not how holidays work. Respect them.