A new book says gathering around the radio at Christmas garners such a sense of community that it turns celebrating the season into a secular religion.
In Christmas as Religion: Rethinking Santa, the secular and the sacred, (Oxford University Press 2016) Dr Chris Deacy suggests the impact radio has had on generations of listeners is so great that Christmas comprises as much of a ritual as devotion to established Christian traditions.
He compares many of the characteristics that people associate with religious belief to those of the rituals of Christmas time. This includes songs that have become part of the fabric of the festive season becoming hymn-like to those that follow the traditional concept of religion.
Dr Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies in the University’s School of European Culture and Languages, cites the example of the fandom and sense of community generated each year by Christmas Junior Choice on BBC Radio 2.
Presented by the late Ed Stewart, Dr Deacy says this programme might be as fertile as those made within religious broadcasting when it comes to exploring matters of faith, identity, beliefs and values. Joining an audience to listen to a particular radio programme evokes the same feelings as those of churchgoers attending a particular service.
Dr Deacy concludes that in an era when fewer people participate in Christian religious ceremonies people will find religion through the secular, even using what some may consider to be trivial entertainment.
