In his philosophical novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Milan Kundera offers the famous human insight that ‘Happiness is the longing for repetition.’ The ideal life, Kundera argues, is circular in time, existing in a pattern of what Friedrich Nietzsche calls ‘eternal return’. True meaning is found by living purposefully, as if we might live our lives—our thoughts and actions, and their consequences—on repeat forever.

The idea that repetition generates happiness is proven yearly by the event of Christmas, and how the holiday prompts us to repeat the traditions that bring us the most pleasure. Joy, it seems, is recognition and familiarity—the same foods, decorations, films, songs and words, over and over again. In repeating our favourite traditions, we find great meaning in them. This suggests that we most love what we know best, which makes the pattern of repetition self-reinforcing and stimulating of the mind, heart and memory.

So is the joy in the repetition itself, or in the meaning we give the repetition? In time, it is both. The joy comes from observing the pattern as it becomes increasingly meaningful to us.

Wishing you a joyful Christmas—on repeat.

Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy