It Must be Christmas Time!!
Looks like the Winter Wonderland has arrived. Snow and -15°C. We must be in Canada, eh? But my topic is about Christmas. We went to my company's Christmas party last night. We lost the invite so we figured if we were there between 6 and 6:30 we should be OK. Seems dinner was supposed to be served at 6:30. But we made with minutes to spare. Everybody was in a good mood that I could see. People I work with shake my hand as if I hadn't seem them for months wishing us all the jingoistic phrases that come with Christmas. It was interesting to see all the spouses/girlfriends/boyfriends of the people I know at work. It brings home the human touch of work.
But really, what is it about Christmas that brings such joy? Is it the presents people are looking forward to? Is it the excitement of getting together with friends and family? Is it too much "sauce" that makes them forget their troubles until their credit card bills come in the mail? Is it the food and all the parties with rum balls? It doesn't seem to be the "Celebration of Christ" as I bet if you asked each person why they are so happy at this time of year you would get less than 2% saying it had anything to do with Christ. I bet you'd get more "I just enjoy the Spirit of Christmas"...Whatever that is. Hmm, wasn't there a book way back in the early 1900's that came up with that saying?
But a number of questions pop up for me. What is the origin of Christmas? Why is it celebrated? What is the history of some of the customs around Christmas that people do....Just because it's always done that way? I've heard it said that December 25th is Christ's birthday...But is it really? These and other questions and comments surrounding Christmas will be coming soon to this blog. (queue "Outer Limits" music here)
4 comments:
I think for me, even as a Christian, the Christian parts of Christmas are really more just an excuse to get together with friends and family, take some time off work, eat too much, give and get presents, and just luxuriate in being together.
I think the December 25 date is probably pretty suspect - Israel isn't quite like Canada when it comes to winter, but apparently it's unlikely the shepherds would have been out on the hills with their sheep at this time of the year. I think that, like a lot of Christian feast days and holidays, the date was just taken over from some old Pagan festival or other. But we can do with all the warmth and good cheer we can get at this time of year!
Of course, it'd be nice if we could appreciate one another and treat one another well all year round, but if something reminds us to do that in a particular season, I'm pretty happy with it.
I'm not sure I understand your Christian parts of Christmas description. If I understand you correctly you would be in the 98% of the population who Celebrate Christmas for all the things that have nothing to do with Christ. I would have to disagree that the list of things you mentioned are considered as the Christian parts of Christmas. We do those things too, except for the gift giving and actually celebrating Christmas, as Dawn is not a celebrator of Christmas. But we do enjoy the get together and good food ;-)
You are correct in the fact that Christmas is an old pagan festival that was "taken over" by the church way back when. Do a Google search on the words Christmas pagan and you only get 508,000 web pages giving their opinions, right or wrong.
I agree that we should be like people are around Christmas time all year round. Why doesn't that happen? If I had that answer....
Yeah sorry, I mustn't have written it clearly. My point was that the 'Christian bits' (Christ's birth) are just an excuse as far as I'm concerned for all the good stuff I listed - so I think you agree with me! On the other hand, I guess there is some value in celebrating Christ's birth and life, and as you know, the time is probablty wrong, but that's really not important. Whether you think he was God or not, he was a hugely influential teacher who taught peace and love (pity what's been done in his name since), and I think thats worth celebrating, some time!
For the most part I agree with you. I just don't like the way it is being "marketed". Personally I think that a lot of what people do for Christmas is just a tradition...it has nothing really to do with Christ's birth for if it did there wouldn't be so much commercialisation of Christmas. So lets get together and have a few drinks to celebrate...whatever we want to call it.
Post a Comment