tradition
Explanation
This comic explores the idea of returning to traditional holiday celebrations, progressively peeling back layers of history to reveal increasingly chaotic "traditions."
A man announces: "Christmas has gone too far from its roots." When asked if he means the 17th/18th century Puritan tradition of not celebrating Christmas (since Puritans considered it a pagan holiday and actually banned it), he says no. When asked about the Victorian-era push to remake Christmas as a gentle, family-centered, commercially-oriented holiday around Santa Claus, he also says no.
He means "specifically the early 15th century period in which the Feast of Fools vibe was still going" -- a real medieval tradition where Christmas celebrations involved anarchic revelry, social inversion, heavy drinking, street fights, and general mayhem. The final panel shows a chaotic scene of people rioting and brawling, captioned: "And so, finally, the true spirit of Christmas."
The humor works by subverting the common conservative complaint that Christmas has become "too commercial" or has strayed from its roots. The comic points out that the actual historical roots of Christmas celebrations were far more wild and disorderly than anything modern critics are imagining. The "return to tradition" crowd typically envisions a wholesome Norman Rockwell scene, but the real old-school Christmas was closer to a drunken riot. The Feast of Fools and similar medieval Christmas traditions (such as the Lord of Misrule) are well-documented historical phenomena that most people are unaware of.