In Hitler’s Germany, the socialist, intellectual elite sought to take out the Christian aspects of the holiday and instead emphasize its Pagan roots and relationship to the Winter Solstice. Why does that sound so… familiar?
One of the most striking features of private celebration in the Nazi period was the redefinition of Christmas as a neo-pagan, Nordic celebration. Rather on focus on the holiday’s religious origins, the Nazi version celebrated the supposed heritage of the Aryan race, the label Nazis gave to “racially acceptable” members of the German racial state.
According to Nazi intellectuals, cherished holiday traditions drew on winter solstice rituals practiced by “Germanic” tribes before the arrival of Christianity. Lighting candles on the Christmas tree, for example, recalled pagan desires for the “return of light” after the shortest day of the year.
Scholars have called attention to the manipulative function of these and other invented traditions. But that’s no reason to assume they were unpopular. Since the 1860s, German historians, theologians and popular writers had argued that German holiday observances were holdovers from pre-Christian pagan rituals and popular folk superstitions.
The Nazis, y’see, thought religious superstition and belief in an invisible magical sky god were the atavistic traits of people of lower intelligence. They believed the Secular State should replace religion as the central focus of everyone’s life.
The “pagan origins” of the candle-bedecked Christmas tree would’ve come as a surprise to Martin Luther, who recommended the custom to German Protestants as a replacement for Nativity Scenes — which Luther considered too much like venerating idols!
Nazism is very much left wing in much of its ideology.
@ James: Nazism is far more “totalitarian” than it is “right-wing.” It was commonly believed in the West that the Nazis were indeed über-capitalists as the Soviets and the Nazis themselves claimed, and it was a source of genuine surprise when evidence of the deep collusion between government officials and business owners, and the massive involvement of the government in the economy. Nazism is barely right-wing; the only thing that stops it from being left-wing is that it permitted for private ownership of the means of production, but those private owners were heavily regulated and had pretty much everything dictated to them by the state, from how much profit they were allowed to keep after “donating” excess to the government.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had to refute the myth that the date of Christmas was set to replace Yule. And Saturnalia.
My Dad told me as a youngster that Nazis and Communists are alike. They meet together as totalitarians.
@6: same here.
These -isms are nothing but the same one thing:
a power race to the top for otherwise untalented control freak frauds, thieves, and eventually, murderers.