The holidays aren't really capable of becoming individual memories. It seems like a kind of unshakable habit or a recurring cycle. On one hand that means pie and on the other hand that means hearing the same family stories.
Everyone has their canon of family folklore. Everyone has it all memorized, and you can't help but be miffed at your brain for remembering every detail like it remembers every Sheryl Crow song from the '90s.
Studies in comparative mythology and folklore indicate how quickly widespread characters and plots can be identified in cultures throughout the world. The public is most familiar with this topic via Joseph Campbell's book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces."" Campbell's book evolved from a prompt from the famous Irish writer and modernist James Joyce, who coined the term ""monomyth"" in his novel ""Finnegan's Wake.""
The idea of ""monomyth"" says that important myths share a common framework. The folktales we are familiar with often possess characters or heroes that go through a number of similar stages such as a call to adventure, a road of trials, achieving a goal, a return to the ordinary world, etc.
Campbell has even earned some Hollywood admiration in the form of George Lucas, who modeled the plot of ""Star Wars"" after the structure Campbell details. More ""legit"" myths that follow Campbell's framework, which do not include a temporary lapse of Christmas special judgment, include the stories of Hercules, Buddha, Prometheus, Christ and Moses.
A large percentage of the world's cultures have stories of a ""great flood"" that devastated earlier civilization. Historians believe the reoccurrence of this tale may be an indication of historical legitimacy. (Which means we can also be legitimately peeved at Noah for not letting unicorns and dragons in on the two by two action.)
There seems to have been a common belief in a world tree/tree of life, which in Germanic mythology was an ash tree, in Hinduism a banyan tree and an oak tree in Slavic mythology. The version most Americans would be familiar with is the tree in the Garden of Eden, though several Native American stories of creation possess a tree with big kahuna status as well.
The eeriest instance of comparative mythology comes from central Nigeria, where European explorers discovered a tribe, the Efik, who possessed a creation story nearly identical to the Biblical story in Genesis. The tribe had had no previous contact with the West, but their story has all the makings of Adam and Eve. Serpent? Check. One Creator? Check. Source of Feminine Resentment? Check.
I'm not going to refrain from poking a bit of fun at my family with their unnecessary sweaters and all the questions about when I'm going to get married, but the same old stories about my family make all of us more comfortable with each other. It's the best way we can know each other. So enjoy a little mindless repetition that will stick with you while all the important facts you crammed in for finals about precipitates and the War of 1812 slip easily from your memory.
This Christmas, however, I should add, is going to be different from the norm. I'm going to be preparing for my own call to adventure and Campbell-esque journey to London. My column will be continuing from there. I'll let you know what's wagwaan and proper nang. In other words, I promise to try and not geek out too much about museums and Anglo-Saxon burial sites.
