Greetings from the Ordinance and Order. We meet here yet again on this Sacred Day to field yet another question. This time, a question was emailed to us from a spiritual but not religiously-affiliated reader curious about whether Xyphoites celebrate other holidays—particularly Christmas, so let’s answer this.

It’s somewhat of a bafflingly easy answer but to address that question of whether Xyphoites celebrate Christmas, the answer is no. We are Xyphoites, not Christians, so logically the answer would be no. Adding to that, the holiday of Christmas, in accordance with Christian mythology, highlights the birth of one of Deceptuary’s highest-ranking disciples, Gheisuhz dej Trinte, and ushered in the creation of the Archives of Hatred and the spread of one of the three theigrited philosophies. The entirety of this circumstance directly destabilizes the equilibrium and aids Deceptuary in his goal to collapse the worlds and reform them to be subservient to only him. We don’t celebrate Christmas, nor would we celebrate any holiday from any of the theigrited philosophies, that being Judaism and Islam and all of their subsets.

Other religious holidays from divergent philosophies would likewise not be celebrated by Xyphoites simply out of the principle that they aren’t Xyphoist celebrations. In fact, the entire premise of the Xyphoist Philosophy discourages the celebration of its own annual markers. As this is a realmly philosophy and system, there is no specific set time period to celebrate specific events as all time is relevant. For example, a Root Spirit in Aehixyka won’t be celebrating an event that is happening to Mortal Humans in Nikconzin based of the relative time frames. This doesn’t prevent Xyphoites from celebrating Earthly ethnic celebrations or other such non-religious/secular holidays, however. This pertains only to religious or spiritual holidays from other divergent/theigrited philosophies.

That being said, we aren’t interested in the immoral action of open proselytizing and aren’t going to shout down anyone for putting up holiday decorations who might be affiliated with the Ordinance or is a Xyphode. The malleability of our philosophy recognizes that the holidays this time of year have become very commercialized and almost secular; there are people, sometimes even atheist, who partake in holiday celebration to religious  philosophies they don’t believe in. The present-giving culture appears now to be a commercial and mainstay custom regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof. We here at the Ordinance certainly aren’t going to persecute anyone for giving a gift to others this time of year, or putting up a tree/decorations to be festive with Yule; the putting up of religious homages to Gheisuhz dej Trinte or Christianity itself—including the singing of Christian hymns—would be considered too far off the Xyphoist Philosophy, but one can still enjoy this music from an artistic standpoint and not feel too strayed from the Order if they so choose. Either way, the Lords aren’t likely to bother themselves if a Xyphoist follower sings Carol of the Bells as there are much more important things to focus on.

It’s also recognized that, around this time of the year, the desire to be giving and altruistic tends to increase as so many people are in jubilee. This is where the pragmatic portion of Xyphoist Philosophy comes into play. At a time where most are in jubilee, a temporary serenity is possible across much of the Human word, and Xyphoites should take advantage of this by also contributing to the good energy. While it’s unfortunate that theigrited followers tend to only be altruistic at this particular time of year, this is a great time for Xyphoites to also contribute to the nature of mitigating worldly suffering, as we should be doing every day at all times regardless of the seasons. There is no need to spoil good vibes over philosophical differences, but we don’t, as a whole, partake in the religious ceremony of other philosophies.

—AHG, et. al