L IVIN G CHAPLAINCY
Christmas Spirit
M
uch as it might grate on those of us who know that the season of Christmas in the Christian Calendar doesn’t start until the eve of Christmas Day, Christmas decorations and Christmas music are usually in our shopping malls from October. Our society seems to need the positivity and feeling of goodwill that comes with the Christmas trees and the carols playing for a considerable time before the actual celebration of Christmas Day. This is most likely to tap into our consumerist attitudes and get us buying more. Retailers maybe think that it gives us the nostalgic feeling that comes with the Christmas lights, music and decorations. For many people, the idea of Christmas is a lot better than the actuality of Christmas. Surrounding the ‘idea of Christmas’ are feelings of happiness, gratitude, generosity and kindness. Whether or not that is the real experience of Christmas Day for most people is highly debatable, however! Christmas Day is one day of the year with a very high incidence of family violence, and many families end up in significant debt from the purchase of gifts, food and treats that they really can’t afford. In the Church, Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ. Christians meet together in churches all over the world to remember the story of God coming into the world in human form in the person of Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph in a humble stable in Bethlehem. The gift-giving that we engage in with those we love is reminiscent of the gift of Jesus, given to the world, and also the gifts the three wise men brought to baby Jesus, celebrated at the end of the Christmas season on the day of Epiphany. Christmas itself is quite a short season – 12 days in total, 11 of which are after Christmas Day. Advent, the four weeks prior to Christmas in the Christian calendar, is not a season of visiting Santa in the department stores and spending lots of money on presents. Advent is a time of preparation – prayer, fasting
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