I think not.
If you want to talk statistics, most people fight at Christmas. In fact, the most people fight at Christmas time that at any other time of year. And I bet suicide rates go up too. The charity appeal ads were hinting at this ever so subtlety. In the future I think I might boycott this holiday right along with Valentine’s Day. New Year’s I can handle. At least that is only a day of personal disappointment, they don’t make people get together and be miserable together.
Stupid Halmark holidays, which seem to start earlier every year. How did Jesus’ birthday, which used to be a religious occasion; become all about Santa? I remember watching this episode of Doctor Who (in researching the Estuary English accent) and hearing a mangled history of Earth tradition (which also doubled as a brilliant commentary on commercial culture). The tour guide, whose education in ‘earthenomics’ was somewhat substandard, said “…human beings all worshipped the great god ‘Santa’, a creature with fearsome claws; and his wife Mary. And every Christmas Eve the people of
Few people realise, and I only remembered this when my grandmother brought up Saint Nicholas last night; the true origin of the tradition. Many people believe that there are two sides to Christmas. On the one hand you have Christ; and his birthday and the ‘true message of Christmas’, one all about love and unity and Christianity. And on the other hand you have Santa and presents and elves and a whole lot of red and silver tinsel, and the marketing that is steadily eroding the sanctity of the other side.
But it seems the whole sordid lot of them were in cahoots with each other about it from the start.
Christmas is, in its origin, a solely Christian festival, which celebrates the birth of Jesus. December 25th was chosen and declared by Pope Julius I as the date of the Nativity, to facilitate the missionary desire to convert members of other religions which also held festivals around that time of year. These pagan celebrations included the Roman Saturnalia, which honoured the god of the harvest, Saturn, with seven days of riotous merrymaking and feasting; the Roman New Year; and the northern European festival of Yule, which was celebrated by burning giant logs, trimmed with greenery and ribbons. Having incorporated these elements, the Christian Church subsequently added, in the Middle Ages, the Nativity crib and Christmas carols to its customs. All this came to an abrupt end in Britain at least when in 1652 the Puritans banned Christmas, which led to Pro-Christmas rioting in several cities, where protesters decorated doorways with holly and shouted royalist slogans. Christmas returned to
Christmas as we know it today is wholly an invention of the 19th-century. The decorated Christmas tree, common in German countries for centuries, was introduced to
And so it seems that the conversion of people via this Christian festival lives on in its many and mangled forms. Who doesn’t spend big into that deadweight financial and marketing loss that is Christmas? Who, regardless of their beliefs, can avoid being massed with their relatives sometime in late December? Who doesn’t expect a little something extra around this time of year just because it is Christmas? And let us not forget
The only thing I don’t hate about Christmas is whinging about it and sharing commiserations with friends. I’m all for the unity and goodwill of it; the world could do with any injection of kindness we might care to produce; but the rest of it I couldn’t care less about.
I hate to be; no, in fact I only mind if you mind my being a wet blanket about it, because I would hate to ruin Christmas for the one person who might actually be enjoying it.
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Sharing commiserations of Christmas with me will not work with me, I'm afraid my dear, because I might actually be this one person who is actually enjoying it. But this description doesn't ruin it for me. I'm aware of how awful an obligation it can be for many. I actually think some of my family members might resent more than i do, my mother especially when we do christmases with my father's numerous sisters and brothers and all their children. But I've always been one of the youngest of the whole extended family, by far, and while tension, resentment and family feud might have passed behind masks in this yearly family reunion, I just sat there innocent and delighted, seeing only happy people and love.
ReplyDeleteIf you wonder how it can be, let me tell you about my version of Christmas. It starts with the hunt for presents. I never resent it as an obligation or a money waster, because I love finding presents. Thinking about what would be right, what would make them happy, raking my brains for something they said and might have forgot themselves, and would surprise them with delight, or some symbolic gift showing how much i know them, or a token of friendship i hope they keep around. I yearn to please. I never look for the most expensive gift, and when i have time i actually like making more than buying, but as the ideas accumulate, i always end up spending more than i had planned, and am happy for it.
Then the days of christmas come, and i welcome it, because in the cold days of winter, people put up lights and decorations, and everything feels warmer and gentler, even in the cold wind, rain, and early nights. Christmas also means holidays, and those recent years, it meant taking a break from revising for the january exams and enjoy some free time.
The days around christmas, we always travelled with my family, though not far, nothing huge, but it always meant going somewhere and leaving the routine. We used to go to Paris to see my extended family and spend the day before christmas and christmas with them all. We would generally take the occasion to go see some monuments or exhibitions, go shopping. I would spend time with my favourite cousin, whom i was in love with, and follow the lead of my older cousins in going to see movies, wide eyed and happy. Then on the day of christmas, we would all get together at one of my aunt's place, and eat delicious turkey, and ice creams, chat in small groups all around the living room. In recent years, we got to the habit of costuming ourselves, out of a theme, for each christmas, to actually have something to talk about for a little time. At midnight, when we were young, the adults would send us to a room and put all the presents in our shoes, and call us back. With the size of my family, i would always be spoiled, and find my shoes back flooded with nice presents. Older, we would still leave our shoes and chase around the living room trying to dispatch the presents. My favourite part now is more seeing people opening my presents than opening them, i still love this part, the shiny paper, and everyone shuffling around opening the carefully packaged presents with laughter, and finding the pile, smaller now, awaiting me. I love this reciprocity, that you don't find in birthdays.
Those last few years, we do every other christmas somewhere else, and this somewhere else for us is my sister's place, in Brighton, UK. Another trip, which generally brings me to London, with glee. And this year, well, was to some extent the introduction to your post : my parents, sisters and I sitting around the table, with ambient lighting and fairy lights, nice loungy music, turkey and pudding on the table, a bit too much champagne, laughing about things and others, and playing games (we played the celebrity game, with the post its on our face, at the end of the night. I was Victoria Beckham... go guess that O_O). It was not totally smooth, and i think there might have been some tensions during the trip, but christmas was spared and sacred.
I hope you and everyone will have the chance to get this kind of christmas once.
Sorry for the very long comment once again, I just wanted to share.