Time of writing is 15:37, Dubai, UAE.
Back home, people would be rushing already. Rushing to sweep the last dusts and dirt off the floor, rushing to finish the cooking before the evening Christmas Mass starts, rushing to buy and wrap those gifts and more importantly, rushing to celebrate.
But what is the occasion?
Christmas. CHRISTmas. The birthday of Jesus Christ our Lord and redeemer, or at least as Pope Julius I have decided a long time ago.
Far-cry from Paganism
There has been debate as to whether Jesus’ birthday is really on December 25. For others, this makes the celebration of Christmas day non-legit. But I do not really understand the fuss because for me, what matters is that He came, He was born, and saved us all.
Other arguments include the celebration of Christmas as some sort of paganism simply because no one is sure when His real birth date is.
But in the Philippine context, Christmas is actually that time of the year where people are kinder and more generous. That time of the year where employers give 13th month pays to their employees so they could spend it on gifts and Christmas vacations and food and wine, just some of the many things that paint Pinoy Christmas. Most of the time people forget what we really are celebrating on this day but it doesn’t matter. If they give gifts and cook and eat too much out of tradition, let them. After all, these things we do during the season of Christmas also brings families closer.
It can be merry-making, or reunion time or pigging out season while still a celebration of Christ’s birth but it is NOT Paganism.
No one believes in multiple gods here. That’s exactly why we call the Celebration as Christmas, the birthday celebrant’s name is right there.
It is NOT A MERRY CHRISTMAS for all
The street children at the city’s parks, those who make livelihoods out of scavenging trash, those who earn below the minimum wage, those who toe the poverty line, those who are separated from their loved ones, those who have a hard enough time already in making both ends meet even during the usual days, those in the homes for the aged who have no one to care for them anymore….. they are not MERRY.
I hope not to come off as romanticizing poverty and people’s misery but, let me just say this again.
Christmas is about Jesus Christ, and Jesus has always been about those who have the least in life./WDJ
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