The whole idea of christmas...
is very confusing to me. Especially around this time I wonder a little about religion and god and church... I have never been baptised or confirmed and am actually quite happy about it, though I missed a bunch of very important presents around the age of 14 :). Guess you could call me a lost sheep. Somehow, I could never really make up my mind if I would like to do it now that I have the brain capacity to actually comprehend what I am getting myself into. But to my relief I discovered that Jesus himself was not babtised until in his 30 ies and all his apostles were not babtised at babies. So, I figure I still give it a few more years of thought before rejecting the idea completely.
And another thing. I have encountered many people telling me they deny to participate in the whole christmas celebrations, because it is just build on materialism nowadays. They feel it distracts from the crucial religious point of the season. People occupy themselves with presents rather than contemplating the birth of Jesus Chist and its significance. To all those people I would just like to say, that according to the bible: Jesus was born in MARCH!!! So I will continue being happy, looking forward to getting presents and really stuff myself with food. And the stress and presents will not occupy my time so much since I started shopping ages ago! So this year I will just celebrate the sun rising higher each day...
8 Comments:
Yeah, for me, the way we celebrate Christmas and the birth of Christ are separate things entirely... a Christmas tree, Santa and his reindeer, stockings, food, presents... that's all a really nice December celebration... and I do feel we should all have one big celebration a year aside from our birthdays.. but how about changing the birth of Christ date to March on the official calendar. Then we can have two big parties instead!! ;-)
i completely forgot that tiny little detail about jesus and march :) nice! quite like the idea about two celebrations a year, hell, wouldn't mind if life was one long party ... which it can be sometimes. and i'm rambling.....
--maría erla
That is what I think exactly. Besides, if you do not like the material part of the thing, you just let everybody know. Tell them that christmas means something different to you and that you would not like to get presents and will not give any either, and ask people to respect that. A friend of mine did that, and I am totally fine with that...a postcard will connect us over christmas.
They did, do it still? nicely in Holland: They exchange presents the 6.th of december and go to church at christmas, so everybody gets everything without distraction.
I love eastern, all these sweet bunnies and chicks, honour to mother earth and fertility...
Oh, My poor sweet Monika, you're going to BURN IN HELL FOREVER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't forget to pack some moisturizing creme!!
To say that one must celebrate a thing on the actual day it occurred in order to do it justice seems quite silly to me. The celebration is the thing, not the date, nor the material surroundings. One can honestly embrace the spritual essence AND enjoy the giving and receiving of gifts at the same time. Love is nothing if it is not both given and received. As physical creatures, we find physical ways to express our love. One of these ways is the exchange of gifts; it is not merely a material thing, but a gesture of love, in the spirit of one who loved so much that he gave his life for others.
Jen... for all I care, people can live in the holiday spirit all year long, and how much nicer this planet would be. I agree that you can celebrate the birth of Christ in December, which is just fine and we have done so for quite some time. It just seems as ridiculous to me that people are friendly and nice around this season and try to communicate the meaning of love more than on any other day.
I sincerely doubt that many people give gifts because they want to communicate some kinda rememberance about Jesus and his sufferings for us. People give to their kids because that is just what we do and kids expect it. We give gifts to others because you are afraid they are going to give you a gift and if you do not give one in return... you feel stupid. Sometimes we give gifts we really want to give and am excited about the faces we will see when a person opens them.
And I am just saying there are such people out there, and they are counter-balanced by exceptions to this rule. I am very happy for you if you and your family have the ability to give joy to each other and at the same time remember the original biblical christmas spirit.
Actually I was agreeing with you hon, 100%. I think I wasn't being very clear in my first comment (I have a hard time expressing myself in everyday prose, my brain and mouth and typing fingers do not play well together). I do better with poetry (but only with LOTS of time with a dictionary and thesaurus).
I guess I am more pragmatic in my spirituality; what I get from the Biblical writings of Jesus is to try, as much as I can, to be even half as loving and unselfish. And you are absolutely correct, this is and should be all the time, not just one or two times of the year. I think I also tend to try to assume the best in people; I am a bit naieve that way I'm afraid.
I think you are very right about many folks giving gifts to their kids just because it is expected. When my son is old enough to understand, I hope I have the strength to say to him every Christmas and birthday, "Sweety, if you got no presents at all, that would be OK. Things are of little consequence compared to people."
We had a similar problem here in the States, where groups of Christians boycotted stores that said "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". They said it was an over-commercialistic affront to Christians. So the stores changed it to "Merry Christmas". But we all know that they only did it because of the boycott; in other words, money. The complainers were satisfied, but isn't that hippocritical? Just like the folks that told you they don't celebrate Christmas due to overcommercialism. Whether or not someone's celebration of Christmas is based on material selfishness is entirely a personal choice; therefore, there is no need to boycott the celebration just because others misuse it.
And I agree with you on the baptism. If Jesus and God are really there watching over us, loving us, hoping we will strive to be good in this world, will they place a single ceremonial act above a lifetime of experiences? That seems more "human" than Godly :)
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