The Devotions of Noel
Saturnalia, the pagan worship of winter solstice,
the darkest tidings of the year.
The birth of our Nazarene most likely
September 29th.
Like a used car dealer rolling back the odometer,
Pope Julius I moved Christ’s birth to
December 25th
to sign up more pagans
at the darkest tidings of the year.
For this, the Puritans never celebrated Yuletide,
a pagan holiday of sin.
Still, rituals of the festive season endure.
Sitting in solemn silence on the eve of every Christmas,
the Swedes turn their TVs to Donald Duck.
So too do the Japanese eat a bucket of KFC
while the Ukrainians decorate Christmas trees with fake spider webs.
In Greenland, men serve women whale blubber
and the Catalonian’s nativity scenes always
include a bare-bottomed pooping man.
These are the darkest tidings of the year,
Christmas is incomplete without them.
These are the devotions of Noel.
Copyright © Thomas Wells | Year Posted 2020
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