Sarx

ER HOST IS Not alone in not-understanding the Calendar Schism. I agree with Fr Victor (memory eternal!) who said to me “such a division should never have happened”. But I don’t know what end or solution he intended by that statement: I think he only lamented thereby the sorrowful division in Christ’s body.

For most of the last few years (I was Chrismated in June of 2003) I’ve not cared about the Calendar. I picked Fr Victor’s parish out of the many in San Francisco listed on the internet precisely because it was noted as the only New Calendar/English Language parish in the Bay area. (That may no longer be true, but even 6 years ago, the other New Calendar parishes were far far too Greek- or Arab-language dominated to be called “English” parishes.)

But now I’m second guessing my reasoning.

I’ve read texts out there that speak of the division between Old and New calendar (the Julian and Gregorian, specifically) as if it is clear “the other side” is either nuts or blatantly evil. The logic used in support of the Julian Calendar is most often along the lines of either, “this is the Calendar Jesus used…” or else “the Gregorian Calendar was created by heretics and schismatics…” To the one I say, “No, Jesus would have used the Jewish Calendar and felt the Julian conception of Time to be an oppressive outsider’s heathenism.” To the other I say, “Scientifically, the Gregorian Calendar is more valid. There is no problem with a heretic or heathen speaking truth – it is only our pride that forbids us from hearing them.”

I don’t want to speak of partisan theology here, though. I want to speak of Salvation.

We’re in the season now of Consumptionmass. Shop until you drop. Stop working (in countries outside of the usa) for many many parties. I’ve heard it said that some places in Europe basically stop any real work in the month of December. And I confess I longingly eye the Julian Calendar as a way to distance my feast of the Nativity of Jesus from the orgy of shopping, partying and blinking electric sex.

One of the reasons the Jewish and Islamic calendars are largely unmolested by secular culture is because they are out of sync with the secular, Gregorian calendar. Now that all of the Western world and much of the rest of the world, as well, uses the Gregorian calendar, secular culture is able to co-opt just about all religious festivals save those that slide around out of control of Wal*Mart and Madison Avenue.

Imagine what would happen to Matel if all Christian churches pulled their Party over to 7 January!

First off, the TV studios and movie houses would *not* move over. December 25th is too woven into their scripts and minds. Secular American Culture would take several generations to move as well. Persons not going to Church would never notice. They’d still consume all manner of things all over the place.

But Christians could give a few presents on the 19th for St Nicholas, feast with friends on 25th December for St Herman, then wait until the orgy of spending was safely over, celebrating the Nativity of Christ on 7th January. We’d give up the school holidays, the midwinter silliness, the lights, the tinsel and the garish consumption justified by modern editions of red-and-green Victoriana.

And we’d have Christmas back as our own.

For a little while, anyway.

As a bit of Cultural Warfare, I’d suggest switching to the calendar Jesus used, allowing for certain cultural modernisms, and celebrating the Nativity on 25th Kislev, Hanukkah, a feast mentioned in the NT (along with the Greenery and Gold decorations noted in the books of the Maccabees). The constant shifting of the date (after the style of Easter) would throw the economy into a full-on panic. Christmas, this year, would be on 12 December, next year on 2 December, followed by 21 December 2011, 9 December 2012. In 2013 25 Kislev falls on November 28th which is ALSO, Thanksgiving! I’d love for 2013 to be known as “The Year with No Black Friday…”

Oh, God, if the world can nearly be destroyed by Greed, imagine what maddening chaos would arise if Christians stopped playing along! My Christarchist heart is over-filled with giggles!