Feasts

There is a mistake floating around the Christian world these days that goes something like this:  "Christmas is everyday, or Easter is everyday, so we shouldn't worry about celebrating them as feasts."  Generally this is a response to someone being wished a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter, or at least it is a response I have gotten several times.  I am not concerned with denying that Christ is, in fact, Risen every day and that we are an Easter people, who would do best to live every day in perfect imitation of Christ.  I agree whole heartedly.  But those who would therefore suggest that we remove from our calendar the celebration of these feasts, or their preparatory seasons, etc. are rather missing the point.

The first thing to recall we can see simply in secular culture:  that you are alive every day does not take away from your birthday.  You still celebrate it, and others will wish you a happy birthday regardless of the fact that as you are alive every day, every day should be a celebration of your birth.  Likewise, anniversaries are not celebrated because you are not married every other day of the year, but because you are married every other day of the year and this is a commemoration of that fact, and thus a celebration.

The second thing to recall is something we can take both from the natural world and from Scripture, and it is very simple.  Everything has its season and its time.  The world moves in seasons, life itself has rhythm.  We, too, as creatures who are part of this world, however transiently, also have rhythms and seasons.  To have a calendar, to celebrate at one time, and prepare at another, to be joyful and gay at one moment, after having been mournful a moment before, is part of the rhythm of life.  It is part of being human.  To deny it is to deny part of your humanity, that which moves in rhythm with all the rest of Creation.  So when someone wishes you a Happy Easter or Merry Christmas, regardless of whether you think we should celebrate it, take it in the same way you take someone wishing you a happy birthday.  Don't fight about it, be joyful, because whether you celebrate it once a year, eight times a year, or every day, it's still cause to celebrate.