Creative Minority Report among others have noticed a peculiar article in Time. See his entry Time: Triumph of Culture Over Religion
Here is the quote by Amy Sullivan:
Millions of Americans go to church on Christmas Eve. They crowd shoulder-to-shoulder in pews to sing "Silent Night" and light candles and listen to soloists belt out "O Holy Night." More than a few watch nativity plays that recreate the birth of Jesus with a cast of 10-year-olds in bathrobes. When the service is over, they exchange hearty "Merry Christmas!" wishes before getting in their cars and heading home. And they stay home the next day. Or they drive to Grandma's, or go to the movies.
But however they spend Christmas Day — "the feast of Christmas" on the Christian liturgical calendar — one way most Americans don't celebrate it is by going to church. While demand for Christmas Eve celebrations is so high that some churches hold as many as five or six different services on the 24th of December, most Protestant churches are closed on the actual religious holiday. For most Christians, Christmas is a day for family, not faith.If that sounds like the triumph of culture over religion, it is.
By the middle of the 20th century, Americans had embraced a civil religion that among other things elevated the ideal of family to a sacrosanct level. The Norman Rockwell image of family gathered around the tree became a Christmas icon that rivaled the baby Jesus. And Christmas Eve services — with their pageantry and familiar traditions — became just one part of the celebration, after the family dinner and before the opening of presents.
Ok there is a lot of things strange about this article. For instance how did Christmas Eve Evening Services all of a sudden not count!!!
She notes elsewhere:
Some traditions, including Catholics and Anglicans, hold midnight masses on the Saturday before Easter to usher in that holiday. But everyone still shows up the next morning for the traditional Easter celebration, just as Christmas Day remains a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics, who are likely to be found in church the day after attending a Midnight Mass. By contrast, the Christmas service everyone thinks of as “traditional” is the Service of Lessons and Carols that many Protestant congregations use on Christmas Eve.
First as a Catholic I am not sure of that at all. If I attend the usual two or two and half hour Easter Vigil I generally not going on Easter morning. I have in the past but if one attends the Vigil it satisfies one's "Sunday" and Holy Day Obligation. To many Catholics, including mysel,f the Vigil is EASTER. It has arrived. Also I don't think most Catholics are at Mass on Christmas Day if they are attend Midnight Mass. I know I am not and there is nothing bad or un Catholic about that. Though it would be a great thing to do if one wishes to put the extra effort forth.
We see part of the problem in the article wording itself when she says "But however they spend Christmas Day — "the feast of Christmas" on the Christian liturgical calendar — one way most Americans don't celebrate it is by going to church"
First a whole ton of Protestants are not Liturgical nor have a liturgical calender. The closest Holy Day outside Sunday and Easter Sunday many protestants have is sort of an unofficial one. That is good Friday. Now I come from the Christ soaked South that is very protestant and very evangelical. As a convert most of my family comes from this tradition.
Among the Protestants that went to Church on Christmas (by the way I am counting Christmas Eve here) were of course Episcopalian and the Methodist usually had candlelight Communion service. Perhaps the Presbyterians that also practice a form of Advent might have something but that was still rare as I can recall.in the bigger southern cities the Lutherans would have something.
Now this not some recent development either. I can never recall the older parts of my family talking about going to Church services on Christmas Eve or Christmas day. Norman Rockwell had little to do with it.
What is missing is a important piece of history. The celebration of Christmas was often forbidden by the more puritan parts of the Christian community because well it reeked of Catholic stuff and people were not doing it in the Bible. Even today you have a fringe of Fundamentalist and Evangelicals that are "anti Christmas". Still most Protestants are well aware of the reason fore the season. They don't exactly have a Liturgical outlet in most cases to celebrate it. While Amy Sullivan dismisses kids in Bathrobes that is still a serious attempt in some ways to mark the occasion.
I do note that at times Evangelicals and Protestants here and there try to change this. However it is hard to suddenly do things that are not part of your Christian tradition. Plus I expect that a whole ton of Pastor's and Preachers wives's sort of put their foot down behind the scenes on this new innovation. They would like one day that is special for them and their family ..
Update I- Get Religon looks at this article at Putting the Mass in Christmas
UPDATE II- Also let me note this part -" By the middle of the 20th century, Americans had embraced a civil religion that among other things elevated the ideal of family to a sacrosanct level. "
I really have no idea what she is trying to get across here. As the Catholic Catechism notes
VI. THE DOMESTIC CHURCH
1655 Christ chose to be born and grow up in the bosom of the holy family of Joseph and Mary. The Church is nothing other than "the family of God." From the beginning, the core of the Church was often constituted by those who had become believers "together with all [their] household."[164] When they were converted, they desired that "their whole household" should also be saved.[165] These families who became believers were islands of Christian life in an unbelieving world.
1656 In our own time, in a world often alien and even hostile to faith, believing families are of primary importance as centers of living, radiant faith. For this reason the Second Vatican Council, using an ancient expression, calls the family the Ecclesia domestica.[166] It is in the bosom of the family that parents are "by word and example . . . the first heralds of the faith with regard to their children. They should encourage them in the vocation which is proper to each child, fostering with special care any religious vocation."[167]
1657 It is here that the father of the family, the mother, children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way "by the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity."[168] Thus the home is the first school of Christian life and "a school for human enrichment."[169] Here one learns endurance and the joy of work, fraternal love, generous - even repeated - forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life.
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