Christmas and New Year thoughts

Thoughts from sun kissed Bali, how do they celebrate Christmas? Indonesia is mainly Muslim, but Bali seems to be more mixed. Many people say that Christmas is where it is in the year because, we had winter celebrations after the winter equinox and spring is now on the way. Which is probably true, up to a point, better a modification, then to try to ban something that is popular. But does it really matter.

The Romans had Saturnalia in December. The Greeks had Dionysus, which the Romans changed to Bacchus. God of wine, fertility, and rebirth. Throw in the Roman God Janus and the Greek God Orthros [these are my favourites] Janus is depicted as being two faced and Orthros as a two headed dog. Some of the Janus busts show the same face looking different ways, or the face of a youth looking one way and a much older man looking the other way. What doe it symbolise? A youth looking forward to the future [full of ideas, plans and still not disillusioned], and an old man, his past behind him looking back to his past life. [was it a good life, a wasted life, did he achieve anything worthwhile] Or what most of us do now, simply look back on 2022 and think will 2023 be any different, or better. Then we come to Orthros, the two headed dog, or even Janus with the same face on both sides. Could it be a modern depiction of our two-faced politicians, or the political system.

But whether, you call it Christmas, Midwinterfest [the PC version] or Saturnalia, Dionysus, Bacchus it was a useful exercise. It brought people together [at that time a small, dispersed population] which achieved two things.

1] People knew, winter was coming to an end and spring planting, lambing was not far off. They knew what food stocks they had to feed both themselves and their livestock. Young healthy animals the basis of replenishing the livestock was kept, whilst the surplus was culled and eaten and shared out, it was winter and meat did not go off so quickly [No freezers in those days and sharing meant if you shared with others when you had a surplus, they may share with you in the future]

2] People meeting together meant the bonds of friendship was renewed, as communal farming and hunting was the norm. Not to ignore, that families within the area would form relationships, widening the gene pool and closer relationships within the tribe would develop, useful insurance against other tribes.

That is why we have festivals in the northern areas of the world, were we can see the seasons change. How does a country like Bali, on the equator, with little seasonal changes mark the change of year.

It does so with a mix of ideas, most people in Bal or of Hindu faith, who have many deities. Bali is also a tourist destination [so a money making area for Indonesia, so it is left pretty much alone to do its own thing] it also many temporary residents who stay for a few months, try to live cheaply and quietly to recharge both the spiritual and temporal bank accounts before moving on elsewhere.