"Marduk is the reason for the season"

On a gray day here in southeastern Minnesota, it's fun to read Paul Zorn at the Chicago Tribune dropping a dollop of religious history on Christmas:

I've got your "reason for the season" right here, pal.

Just outside the window, to be exact: Sunlight.

No secret there. Civilizations all over the northern hemisphere have been making merry toward the end of December for thousands of years, with most of the celebrations linked somehow to the "return" of the sun --- the longer periods of daylight that begin on the Winter Solstice December 21.

Which is why the triumphant, even defiant slogan "Jesus is the reason for the season" -- seen this time of year on buttons, T-shirts, and bumper stickers and heard from those who grouse that secular society is at war with Christmas--- is so irritating.

(Via Norwegianity.)