Posted on 12/07/2005 6:38:00 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham
C.S. Lewis on ‘Xmas and Christmas’
Some lessons from the barbarian mists of Niatirb
Fifty years ago C.S. Lewis published an ironic little essay called, “Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus.” In it, he reverses the letters of his home country, “Britain.” Then he writes about the strange winter customs of a barbarian nation called Niatirb.
It’s worth reading, as we get deeper into Advent. I’ll share with you just one passage.
“In the middle of winter when fogs and rains most abound, (the Niatirbians) have a great festival called Exmas, and for 50 days they prepare for it (in the manner which is called,) in their barbarian speech, the Exmas Rush.
“When the day of the festival comes, most of the citizens, being exhausted from the (frenzies of the) Rush, lie in bed till noon. But in the evening they eat five times as much as on other days, and crowning themselves with crowns of paper, they become intoxicated. And on the day after Exmas, they are very grave, being internally disordered by the supper and the drinking and the reckoning of how much they have spent on gifts and on the wine.
“(Now a) few among the Niatirbians have also a festival, separate and to themselves, called Crissmas, which is on the same day as Exmas. And those who keep Crissmas, doing the opposite to the majority of Niatirbians, rise early on that day with shining faces and go before sunrise to certain temples where they partake of a sacred feast.
“But (as for) what Hecataeus says, that Exmas and Crissmas are the same, (this) is not credible. It is not likely that men, even being barbarians, should suffer so many and so great things (as those involved in the Exmas Rush), in honor of a god they do not believe in.”
What Lewis wrote about in Britain half a century ago is increasingly true about our own country today. We’re already half way through Advent. What have we done to really live it?
The world has an ingenious ability to attach itself to what Christians believe; tame it; subvert it — and then turn it against the very people who continue to believe. Too many Americans don’t really celebrate Christmas. They may think they do, but they don’t. They celebrate Exmas.
The world — left to its own devices — has no room and no use for the birth of Jesus Christ. It has contempt for Christians who seriously strive to be His disciples. So we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by being the saints God intended us to be. We can at least seek to be holy by tithing our time to sit quietly with God; allow Him to fill our actions and our choices with His Son; and let Him shape us into the men and women He needs. We can get up and experience the dawn in silence as a reminder of what Advent and Christmas mean. We can prepare ourselves to be alert for the voice of God and to receive God’s word afresh and proclaim it anew.
We need to understand that in many ways America is no longer a Christian culture. Of course, that can change. Many good Catholics and other Christians still live in it. But if people really understood and acted on the meaning of Advent, the world would be a different place.
Advent means “coming.” What’s coming in the reality of Christmas is an invasion. The world needs the invasion but doesn’t want it. It’s an invasion of human flesh and all creation by the Son of God; by the holiness of the Creator Himself.
All of us in the Church were baptized to be part of that good invasion. The doubts, the failures, the mistakes of the past don’t matter. Only our choices now matter. How will we live our Christian faith from this day forward? How will we make our Catholic witness an icon of Christ’s Advent?
For our own sake, and the sake of the people we love, we need to pray that our yearning for God will truly reflect God’s yearning for us. And when it does, then the world will be a different place.
Entertaining, clever, and poignant. And makes a good point, to boot. Classic C.S. Lewis.
This is very witty - typical Lewis. What a writer.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength and with all thy mind - AND THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF." (emphasis, mine) the words of Jesus Christ our Lord - God incarnate, Saviour of the world.
I read that years ago and was thinking about it just today.
Thanks for posting.
I can't remember the name of the book it was in; seems like it was a collection of letters.
In a little Finnish book called "Tales from Moomin Valley" is a story called "The Fir Tree", which is about some little trolls who normally hibernate all winter but who are awakened one Christmas season and can't make out what is going on -- they decide that Christmas is a big frightening power of nature that has to be appeased with gifts, with a decorated tree, and with food. Everyone they meet appears to be frightened of what will happen if they don't get all these offerings together in time. When they have pulled together their Offering, including wrapping up their greatest treasures and placing them and the food around their tree, a family of poor, wretched trolls come to ask if they can look at the offering, and explain that what they are seeing is in fact Christmas. after a little consultation the trolls give it all to their poor neighbours and go back to sleep, figuring that when Christmas arrives, perhaps it will not find them there ... and it may be that all the people they heard had 'got it wrong' anyway. i have always loved that story.
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