What's the Point of Christimas - I mean Really!?!
Christmas has a long and convoluted history. To be honest, it is a mixture of paganism and Christianity really. The Romans has Saturnalia on December 25th, The Norse people had Odin on a sleigh, Saint Nicholas was born in Turkey, there's not evidence that it was snowing when Baby Jesus was born, nor, when precisely he was. The Three 'Wise Men' were astrologers I don't think it mentions a stable in the bible, and so on.
We place great store on 'peace on Earth and mercy mild' but overlook the slaughter of the the infants.
We also neglect to remember how much warmongering we are capable of on the other 351 days of the year. How we can relish the pain and misery that some 'deserving' people suffer, at the same time as we become outraged that other people experience pain and misery even through they are 'blameless'. Clearly the message of Christianity does not appear to feature highl in many peoples' minds. So why is Christmas so special?
I think it is because it reminds us of our family ties. Beyond the naked commercialism and the pressure and blackmail to spend, we succumb willingly to the pressure to visit our families - if only once a year.
Above and beyond the over-indulgence, the spending, the frenzy and the brain-washing, deep down Christmas is still essentially about family.
So, we can be a grinch if we wish. We can complain about the money, the commercialism and the debt, but deep down most of us a tiny bit grateful that we are forced to connect with our loved ones.
Perhaps it's a folk-memory. Once upon a time, all families lived cheek-by-jowl in the same houses or villages, and were in each others' pockets the whole year round. Gradually, as people began to separate, isolate and remove themselves from their homes, the lure of Christmas as a time to reconnect became stronger.
So let's consider that as a positive. That for some reason, we are 'made' to visit relatives and 'made' to reconnect. For that reason alone, despite the many forces of modernity which try to marginalise and diminish Christmas the festival itself remains a special time of the year.
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