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I was actually wondering what atheists are supposed to celebrate? I've been calling it Xmas just because Christmas seems kind of wrong. Do we have our own version of the holiday or do we just call it the same thing as everyone else does?
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As Bullet Magnet pointed out, winter solstice celebration has existed since monkeys pointed at the sun and said
"Ook ook ook".* If you want to celebrate the ancient Saxon blood you're likely descended from in some way or another, Yule is probably the closest you'll get, but if you want something relevant rather than archaic, I'm afraid you'll have to stick with a dry literal name like "Midwinter" or "Sunbirth" or "Solisurrection". It's against the secular mentality to insist that everyone call it one thing.
There are still people in the world who depend on the favour of the seasons to maintain their lives and livelihoods, and we all depend on them for sustenance, so it's always something to celebrate (even if, like me, you hate summer).
Also, much like Jebediah Springfield Day, the sentiments associated with the holiday are now a lot more widely celebrated (and
much more sociopolitically powerful) than the events that we're supposedly commemorating. A day when an entire hemisphere of the Earth put aside their differences to exchange tokens of affection and idle pleasantries is a hell of a thing, even if corporations do see it as an enormous cashgrab. And let's be honest, can you even tell me off the top of your head when World Peace Day is?
So yeah. Here's to the farmers and the foragers, the builders and the brewers, the gardeners and the goatherds. May your winter be merciful, and your spring bountiful.
And here's to the seamstresses and the soldiers, the landlords and the lifeguards, the prisoners and the policemen. May your 25th of December be innocent and uneventful.
* "Hey, that was in the sky longer than it was yesterday!"