Happy Yuletide? Shining Light into the Darkness, by Natasha Woodcraft
Who reads blogs on 20th December? That’s the question I was asking myself, as I asked God what to write this month. Will anyone care? Won’t they all be out Christmas shopping?
Well, if you’re here with me, then thank you! Thanks for talking some time out of the crazy to join me in a little bit of writerly Christmas-related musings.
The word Yuletide popped into my head as I prayed, so I looked it up. What is the relationship of Yuletide to Christmas? I had a vague idea (mostly something to do with logs and singing!) but didn’t know specifics. Well, at least in Europe, Yuletide came first. It’s a pagan festival that is still celebrated today, associated with the winter solstice, and the picture below gives you an inkling of some of the things involved. Freaky.
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Yuletide was common among Norse and Germanic peoples, as well as Anglo Saxons. According to Wikipedia (source of much knowledge):
The Saga of Hákon the Good credits King Haakon I of Norway who ruled from 934 to 961 with the Christianization of Norway as well as rescheduling Yule to coincide with Christian celebrations held at the time. The saga says that when Haakon arrived in Norway he was a confirmed Christian, but since the land was still altogether heathen and the people retained their pagan practices, Haakon hid his Christianity to receive the help of the “great chieftains”. In time, Haakon had a law passed establishing that Yule celebrations were to take place at the same time as the Christians celebrated Christmas, “and at that time everyone was to have ale for the celebration with a measure of grain, or else pay fines, and had to keep the holiday while the ale lasted”.
Haakon planned that when he had solidly established himself and held power over the whole country, he would then “have the gospel preached” [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule ]
I find this really interesting. Haakon’s plan was to squeeze Christianity in: to gradually acclimate people to its practices (Christmas), and then, afterwards, preach the gospel. He planned to do it with much ale and grain (he obviously knew the way to people’s hearts!) It’s a similar thing to what happened centuries before when Constantine and Pope Julius I inaugurated the festival of Christmas around the time of the hugely successful Saturnalia.
In some ways, I suppose, it worked. People did convert and some “gave up their sacrifices”. But having been raised on the mission field and seen the strange assimilation of pagan practices with Christian teaching all too often, I am well aware of the dangers of this kind of thing, of mixing old practices with new faith when the truth is “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV) This teaching is a huge part of what the letters to the Corinthians are about.
My next book launches in April. The Wanderer’s Legacy is the third book in The Wanderer Series, which reimagines stories from the earliest times, and this one is about Lamech (with the two wives, not Noah’s dad.) Lamech represents a significant step in the corruption of humankind in Hebrew literature. He takes the sin of Cain (murder) to a new level when he doesn’t do it on the sly, but celebrates it to all and sundry. He’s the precursor for the flood narrative, where everyone becomes so awful, the world needs to start again. One theme of the book is how the corruption of Lamech, and his entire city, intertwines with the earliest paganisation of worship. In the background, there’s the same assimilation of practices that muddy the waters that we see in the combining of Yuletide and Christmas.
And it doesn’t end there, does it? Because a more traditional Yuletide has seen a huge resurgence in recent years thanks to the prevalence of Wicca and other paganistic religions. The process that happened in the 8-9C where Christmas was incorporated into Yuletide is being reversed as Christ steadily gets removed from our festivities. And this isn’t just among those who profess to be pagans. It’s in almost every Christmas movie and Christmas Song out there.
However, I’m certainly not here to be a grinch or to rain on your Christmas parade! There are so many good things about the season that we can, and should, enjoy.
It got me thinking though. We’re Christian writers, and I expect we all write in different genres and to different audiences, trying to share our faith in any way that we can, sometimes obviously and sometimes subtly, trying to be “all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22, NIV) Because yes, Paul said that too!
This means we probably face these questions on a regular basis. How subtle should I be in my writing? How much should I distance myself from secular works? Should I write into the general marketplace or the "Christian” one? I especially feel this, when I really want my books to touch the lives of people who wouldn’t walk into a church, and yet my primary audience for sales purposes is the very Christian Biblical fiction market!
Christian writers, we need to be writing alternative stories to the ones full of witchcraft and evil that our children are being flooded with. We need to be writing good Christian literature that doesn’t paper over the cracks but helps people through their darkest times. But we also need to be writing Jesus into the secular marketplace, in as many ways as possible! So if you are a King Haakon in the secular marketplace, please keep going! Keep shining Jesus’ light into the darkness, because, my friends, we need you to. After all, shining light into darkness is a huge part of what Christmas is about!
The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined…For unto us a Child is born.
(Isaiah 9:2,6a NKJV)
Lets all of us, whatever and to whomever we write, shine a great light into the land of the shadow of death this Christmas. And, from me to you, I hope you have a most excellent one!
Natasha Woodcraft lives in a slightly crumbling farmhouse in Lincolnshire with her family of boys and menagerie of animals. She believes stories have power to communicate deep truth and transform lives. Her novels explore God’s redemptive purposes for ordinary, messy people living in biblical times.
Thank you Natasha encouraging
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