Specifically, how much weight to give it when you hear that some ancient culture celebrated this ceremony, or venerated this figure, or whatnot.

Like, I could say “Americans venerate a divine figure named Jesus Christ associated with life and rebirth”, and that would be correct. Even if we’re not all believing Christians, he’s a big part of the culture, most of us could give a fair sketch of his legend, and he plays a big role in two major seasonal festivals.

But I could also say “Americans personify the yearly cycle as a man, growing from infancy to senility as the seasons passed”. And I mean, recognizing what the old man and baby with the sash represent in early January cartoons is a minor part of cultural literacy, but it feels wrong to give it such weight.

And in between we have, say, Santa Claus. Whose current mythology is almost entirely developed in America, with storytellers developing new takes and refinements on it almost every year. Some share of the population is supposed to believe in him, but some share is supposed to not. So where does he fit in?

I’ve long believed that Santa Claus is in fact the appropriate modern American understanding of the Judeo-Christian God, actually.

God in the time of desert nomadism created food and water out of nothing and rearranged inconvenient geography to allow for straight-line travels; God in the time of early settlement influenced victory in battle and enforced tribal distinctions; God in the age where pastoral societies coalesced into Mediterranean empire was a fisherman/shepherd who united the tribes; God in the time of kings and a bureaucratic churchly world-government was at the head of an angelic hierarchy and people who did his work on earth would be rewarded with facetime with which to serve as an intercessional patron for their clients.

So of course God in the time of democratic industrial capitalism is a kindly factory-owner who rewards socially approved behavior with material goods.