Thoughts!Non-ThoughtsThoughts
| Commercial Christmas[1998-12-20]Christmas... What an interesting concept it is. Supposedly celebrating the birth of a child who is claimed to be the son of a god, given birth by a woman that is supposed to have become pregnant without the help of her husband; in fact, without the help of any mortal man. Maybe insemination was invented even back then? No, I think it's unfair to kick on the Christianity and their belief because of the somewhat improbable story. After all, religions are based around super-natural events and/or beings, and thus those not believing cannot possibly claim that it's bullshit. Of course, we can question it on other grounds, and I probably will do this some other time, but I don't intend to do so right now. Well, anyhow... Each year, panic builds inside us. Because we haven't done all the shopping we were supposed to do, we haven't bought and prepared all the food we intended to, we haven't sent all the Christmas-cards we wanted, etc. Yet, somehow, on Christmas Eve, in some countries, or Christmas Day in others, everyone seems to have fulfilled all our "duties" and taken care of everything. Of course, we might have a bit bad conscience when receiving Christmas-cards from people we forgot to send anything to, but that's not a big enough event to rattle the ground for our Christmas joy. A joy that soon subsides, as we begin preparing for the New Years Eve, with promises that we won't keep and all. But that's another story. The twist about the thing with Christmas is, that it's not the religious Christmas we celebrate. If it was, I for one wouldn't celebrate it. Then what do we celebrate? Well, cynical as I am, I would say that we celebrate Giftmas. What we do is to spend an obscene amount of money on gifts to eachother, and an, not quite as large, obscene amount of money on food. And does it make us happier? Maybe. At least for the moment. However, whilst many people that have realised this fact seem to detest the notion of celebrating Giftmas, I for one don't. Think of it: What time of year makes people act friendlier towards others than any other? Christmas. What time of year makes people more prone to give to charity? Christmas. Is this because of the religious background of Christmas? I think not. I think it is based on the influences of the so called market. After all, the notion of giving gifts to eachother isn't exactly something that the Bible tells us to do, and the Church has always preferred the notion of getting the money themselves, for causes they consider worthy. So my point is: do not detest Christmas because it's a commercial hype. Oh, it is a commercial hype. But I think it's a good one. If you do think that people forgetting about the religious part of Christmas is a bad thing, then by all means, celebrate it religiously instead. And leave the commercial, peaceful and generous Christmas to all us heathens who like it this way... |
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