What's the 'It' About Christmas?

It's the season of Christmas and cheers are all around. Christmas Eve has passed and the season is still on. What's the 'it' about Christmas that it still survived after years of controversy about its conception? What is its x-factor that it has become a worldwide celebration that even non-Christians partake of the holidays in good faith and in good cheer?


What is Christmas anyway? Like as if you didn't know.


Christmas is the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and is celebrated every 25th of December. It is both religious and cultural and celebrated by billions of people around the globe, Christians and non-Christians alike. Christmas season closes the Advent and starts the twelve days of Christmastide, which finishes on the Feast of Epiphany in January and is a civil holiday on countries that celebrate it--which is virtually everywhere. It's a season marked by pretty decorations, lights, Christmas trees, buying of gifts, singing of Christmas carols and other practices that could be done in general or specific in a locality. Exchanging of gifts is on Christmas Eve and special food is prepared on the table and, yes, there's much laughter and merrymaking and reunions of families and friends alike.    


How did Christmas come about? Some of these, you surely don't remember anymore from your Christian Living classes at school. 


The first record of Christmas celebration on a December 25 happened in 345 AD in Rome, though nations in the East was already on it but on a January 6 in relation to the Feast of Epiphany. It was only later that they adapted 12/25 as their Christmas Day. There's a lot of controversy going on about why this date was chosen as Jesus' birthday and a lot of scholars has already theorized, explained and/or defended accordingly. The controversy revolved around the "coincidence" that Christmas Day is also celebrated in a winter 
solstice, the day marked by celebrations revolving around the pagans' worship of the sun god, like, err, his birthday? Sol Invictus, Saturnalia, Brumalia, Sankranti... all pertaining to particular gods, celebrated annually on a winter solstice before the dawn of Christianity. 'Course, defenders of the church argued that this date was chosen as a form of cosmic symbolism--winter solstice being the birth of Christ, summer solstice the birth of John the Baptist and their corresponding equinoxes their deaths. That should be fine, cosmic symbolism it is. Even living in a tropical country, 
I know that green grass doesn't grow in winter and grass is what them sheeps were munching when the angels came to announce in glorious song that the messiah has come. Except that... there seemed to be a Catholic feast that preceded every pagan feast there is in the book. There's a saint for every pagan that died a hero or a martyr. There's a pagan echo to every leaf or flower or fruit in that Christmas decor on your door. The Christmas Tree preceded a tradition of tree worship and Santa Claus is a merger of St. Nicholas and Father Christmas and his image immortalized by a famous cartoonist. Etc. Etc. In this age, when all information is just one click away, to argue about this is almost... laughable. Yet, those brainiacs aside, people will still celebrate Christmas. Like there's no tomorrow.


So why do we celebrate Christmas? Do you think it's still about religion?


For thousands of years, it has always been there. A collective desire to imprint, to secure, to identify, to symbolize. We exemplify this in our traditions, in our culture, in myths, in art. There's no religion to it--Christmas has become our own. It has become a symbol of family ties, of brotherhood, of prosperity. It's a symbol of hope that things will be better the next year; our own cosmic cycle. It has become a mythology of the perfect hero that would lead us, guide us and save us from ourselves. In it's evolution, it has become our evolution. 


For mainstream Christians who held it in loving esteem, "figures" doesn't count because Christmas is the time for giving and for caring. Christmas is kissing and bear hugs and forgiving. Christmas is good, positive vibes expressed in red, green and gold and lanterns and carols. That is why it's important. The way it has always been before it was given a different name.

   

How Do You Know You've Grown Up?

I started this blog for me to learn, to practice diligence, to keep at it, to think of ideas to write... and write, write, write. These days I have to focus hard because any tiny little thing can distract me. Pfft. 

Anyway, this idea came to me... when? As usual, I can't remember. Too many things to think about. One more thing to transfer to paper. So I have this opinion about what I think are milestones in lives of people that will say that, "Yay, I have finally, FINALLY, grown up.

1. When you don't complain about anything and everything that's under the sun because you know it's already there (you just can't do anything to change the situation and you knew that because you've tried) and you just have to do the best that you can to make it work;

2. When you know when to let go because there's nothing else that you can do (supposing you've done everything you can possibly do, again, and you've done even the impossible, and still no-can-do);

3. When you chose to eat veggies without a gripe (or maybe some because you are used to griping about green food) because you know it will prolong your life even when you hate it growing up (Ha-ha. Is that right? Of course, this is as opposed to people who eat veggies because it makes them look younger. But that's alright, too.) Actually, this only pertains to making decisions even for the most mundane things like food and sticking to it because you've always known it's the fair thing to do, you were just too immature to do it before;

4. When you finally realize that life is always calling on you to learn, learn, learn and that learning is everything to life. You will finally stop asking why, why, why...;

5. When you finally realize there's no real right or wrong thing to anything because right and wrong is always subjective, but truth is always constant and that's the only reliable way to base your decisions upon. Even when truth turned out to be bad. It's still the starting point. It's still the only way for you to set yourself free.


6. When you've become not a burden to anyone but someone to depend on, a leader, even if only a quiet one following on. 

I also tried to ask other people and tried to read articles from the net and here's what I find.

7. Being able to switch from serious to silly depending on companions (serious with other people and at work but silly and funny when with loved ones). I suppose this pertains to being confident in your skin with about everyone.

8. Oooh, I like this one. A mature person knows to praise others where it's due and not get all the credit for success done by a team. A mature person knows the success of the venture is praise itself for his participation and that is enough for him.

9. Being able to accept the consequences of your actions and not blame anybody else for the failure or worse, wash hands. Ahh... no balls, eh?

10. Being humble and mature enough to know you're not right all the time and saying sorry when you're wrong. Oh... right.

11. You know how to wait because the best things in life are not free. You dedicate time, effort, faith. You believe to achieve. Yay. I know it's not easy but this actually makes a lot of sense, don't it?

12. And last but certainly not the least, for a mature person, being right is not important. You will not sacrifice a relationship for the sake of being right. You will not clobber and kill anyone because you are right. You will not detonate a bomb, take a gun and shoot somebody, or flip the table over because you are right. You don't throw people to the lions or set them on fire alive. If you know you are right, absolutely sure about it, then you don't need to win an argument to prove your point. You already win and nobody else has to affirm that for you.

I realized I have a whole lot to learn still. But maybe I can start by affirming to myself that I am grown up. Then I can start with what I have a work with that. (Conjecture no. 1)  

And well, the truth is, with the death rate getting higher and higher these days, what with pollution and crime and sickness and calamities and stressful, soo stressful days and what-have-we--the list never ends--we should be clamoring to reach the stage when we can be called "mature" at once. Forget about religion, government, race, affiliation, geography, age, sexual orientation, sexual affiliation and another what-have-we. Just think that if there's about ninety percent mature people in the whole world right now, what kind of world would this be? Ninety-percent people to take care of the immature ones. And you're one of the ninety-percent. Think of what that could solve all over.

Hmm. Nice thing to think about. 

Thanks to my friends over at Facebook for the input. God bless! =)