Why Parties are Essential to Christianity
In For the Life of the World Alexander Schmemann writes that food is central to human identity. Adam and Eve were placed in a garden and given directions about what they could or couldn’t eat. It’s through food that humanity fell away from God (eating the forbidden fruit) and through food that humanity is saved (Christ’s sacrifice and the subsequent celebrations of the Lord’s Supper).
But a disordered approach to food (and, by extension, the material world) has left us caught between rigid asceticism and reckless gluttony. Schmemann comments that both the prohibitionists and the hedonists impose a false dichotomy between the physical and spiritual (15). We put God in the box of “religious practice” and either lock ourselves in with the Fundamentalists, or lock the box away in our churches while we hit the bars.
“The world as man’s food is not something ‘material’ and limited to material functions, thus different from, and opposed to, the specifically ‘spiritual’ functions by which man is related to God. All that exists is God’s gift to man, and it all exists to make God known to man, to make man’s life communion with God” (Schmemann 14)
Our calling is to restore and affirm the truth — that the created world is a sacrament and symbol of God’s presence and love. This doesn’t mean that sending up a few silent prayers between the fourth and fifth vodka shots. When Christians throw parties, there is, or should be, a deeper tenor to the celebrations.
It’s communal
Feasting is not the same as “indulgence.” It’s not a cheat-day second bowl of ice cream; it’s friends and family crammed around a table passing the potatoes and pouring the wine. Communities share celebrations because they derive joy in the same things. Sometimes this is structured into the Church calendar — like Christmas and Easter. But it can also simply be the celebration of achievements, milestones, or just one another’s company.
It’s in contrast to fasting
Feasting is relative — one man’s feast may be another’s famine. Living in America, every day has the potential for indulging in food and drink. If the days are filled with excess, it’s harder to appreciate a specific time set apart for enjoyment. Historically, there were days of fasting as well as days of feasting. There’s a distinction between enjoying the material world and becoming dependent and enmeshed in it. Fasting and abstinence increase our appreciation for the days of feasting and remind us that food, drink, and good company, are gifts, not guarantees.
It’s full of humility
The best partygoers don’t take themselves too seriously. As Chesterton said, “Pride is the downward drag of all things into an easy solemnity. One ‘settles down’ into a sort of selfish seriousness; but one has to rise to a gay self-forgetfulness.” A party is a reminder that we can rest, relax, and remember that the world’s salvation doesn’t entirely depend on our personal attempts at asceticism.
Throwing parties, or feasting, affirms the created world’s goodness and directs our enjoyment of it towards God. Parties are a crucial way for Christians to live “in the world, but not of the world.” When Jesus was on earth, He didn’t just tolerate celebration — He supplied the wine at a wedding reception.
