Always Winter and Never Christmas (Part 2)

 Always Winter and Never Christmas

In our first installment on the above words of the Faun Tumnus we asked the question, why is winter without Christmas such a tragedy? The answer we provided was motivated by the words of Pastor Ray Fowler, Christmas provides a respite to the hard winter and makes worthwhile the work and stress that the winter brings. In Narnia, however, there was no Christmas. There was no vacation and there was no satisfaction in a job well done. 

In this post I would like to explore an alternate reading of Always Winter and Never Christmas as suggested by Pastor Robert Marsh:

Each year, beginning on June 22, the number of minutes of sunlight we enjoy each day begins to shrink. From 15 hours and 2 minutes on that day, the time we have in the sun shrinks until December 22, when we have only 9 hours and 20 minutes. But as we approach that shortest day, I find myself telling people around me, and reminding myself, that the days immediately start getting longer again – gradually building till that wonderful 15 hour day in June! We need that hope – that reminder that things will once again return to the warmth and light of summer! 

But imagine if there were no hope – imagine if on December 23, the minutes of daylight kept getting fewer – and scientists told us that it would never get better – no hope! Imagine the despair of being hope-less! Of feeling there is no end to the misery, no light at the end of the tunnel – no reason or purpose to go on. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, “If you lose hope, somehow you lose the vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of it all.” That’s how the world would be with no Christmas...

In this reading Christmas is not just a respite from difficult times, or even the reward or satisfaction achieved due to hard work. Rather, Christmas is a beacon of hope that things can improve. In a moment the world can be transformed for the better, things need not remain as they are now. 

While I appreciate Pastor Marsh’s insight and his entwinement of the darkness of winter due to the natural shortening of the day with the evil doings of the White Witch, I believe that some more depth can be provided to Christmas’ theme of hope. For that I would like to turn to perhaps an unlikely source: the Talmud. 

The incompatibility of Judaism with the pagan gods is such that Talmudic law forbids certain interaction with pagans lest they use items gained in such interactions as a means for worshipping their gods. Thus, a Jew must be especially careful around the time of pagan holidays when worshippers are more likely to make dedications to their temples. In order to facilitate this, the Mishna (Avoda Zara 1:3) provides a list of pagan holidays which includes Saturnalia and Kalenda. The Talmud (Avoda Zara 8a) explains that Kalenda is the celebration after the Winter Solstice (the kalends was the first day of the Roman month) and Saturnalia is the celebration before the Winter solstice. 

The Talmud then relates the origin of these holidays. After Adam’s sin and his exile from the Garden of Eden, he realized that the days were getting shorter and the nights longer. Perhaps, he thought, I have ruined the world and the darkness will continue to grow until the universe reverts to nothingness. He then spent 8 days in fasting and prayer. When the solstice came Adam realized that this was simply a natural cycle and he then spent the next 8 days in celebration. Starting the next year, he celebrated both sets of 8 days as holidays. Of course, Adam set aside these holidays to celebrate God’s command over nature, and the pagans came and misused them for idol-worship. 

The connections between Saturnalia and Christmas have been noted time and again. Unfortunately, these similarities are used as an attack on Christianity. The thought process appears to be that if a religious holiday grew out of a pagan ritual (though the religion now utterly rejects paganism) this somehow is a point of ridicule. I must admit, I fail to see why this should be so. The Christian faith (perhaps Pope Julius I) understood the importance of a celebration around the Winter Solstice as symbolic to the birth of the Christian Messiah. 

The (Christain) theology perhaps goes something like this: the time before said messiah came into the world was one of great troubles: God’s people had splintered into numerous, warring sects. The Pharisees who were teachers of law, were hypocritical and corrupt. They put minutiae before ethics and did not truly love God. This was a time of great spiritual darkness. At this time, when the world was at its bleakest, the messiah was born. He did not immediately engender change, but the moment before he was born was rock bottom, the nadir. After that the situation started to improve until such time that it will come to full day. 

This is symbolized by the natural cycle of light and darkness during the year. At the autumnal equinox, the amount of light and darkness are equal. After that, there is more darkness than light until the solstice, the day of greatest darkness. However, after the solstice the situation begins to improve. It is still dark for most of the day but the amount of light increases. The solstice may be rock bottom, but only because there is a rock bottom, can light start to increase.  

Christmas represents the turnaround from the darkest day of the year. It’s still dark and cold, and will be for quite a while, but at least it is getting lighter. But what if there was no Christmas? What if there was no rock bottom, but it always remained dark as it is on the day of the solstice? What if there could not be a turnaround because everything is (and always will be) static? That was the situation in Narnia. It was not just that there was no hope, but that there was no worst, and therefore no chance or possibility for improvement. It was just always winter, the White Witch would always be queen, and evil would always be triumphant. 

Therefore, the first step in the redemption of Narnia must be Christmas. The arrival of Santa Claus brings joy in hot drinks and a good breakfast, but that is only temporary. It is still cold, the White Witch is still queen, and she can (and does) still cause much harm. What Santa Claus permanently brings is the realization that the worst has past, and that the situation can be improved. It hasn’t improved yet, but he provides the tools that are needed induce change. Those tools, with determination and faith, will bring about the Narnian redemption.