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fat_chris · Joined: 10 Sep 2003 Posts: 3198 Location: Beijing

Tis the season to be jolly?

And so the Christmas season has come and I am in a less than festive mood. Every year it's the same old thing: stores packed to the gills, people rushing around buying gifts for people they hardly know/like but feel forced to do so anyway, snot-nosed kids crying and whining everywhere, crass consumerism and commercialism raging. It's nice to see my family and in the spirit of the season I will be nicer to people (but why would I need to be nice now and not on, say, June 12th?), but I don't really get excited about Christmas and I'd prefer to avoid all the Yuletide fuss.

Heck, maybe I should earn that MA in TESOL and then head to Saudi. Problem solved!

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

I had to stop giving Christmas presents to my nieces and nephews. They had so many of them, they had no appreciation. And then the parents work overtime before Christmas to buy their kids stuff, so they have no time to spend with their kids, and by the time Christmas comes, they are too tired to bother with their children...etc Not true in all homes, but cetainly in the homes of my brothers and sister.

As somone who believes in Jesus...I HATE IT Exclamation

But it is just as bad in China. They have embraced Christmas. Well, they have stripped Christmas of any true meaning, and have made it a day where you are supposed to buy lots of things. Children don't need things. They need parents.
I refuse to go to the Christmas parties sponsored each year by the english departments. I am very direct. "Listen", I say,"If you don't believe in Jesus, then you are kind of hypocritical to celebrate it. If you are celebrating it to honor us (the foreign teachers), then do it in a way that honors christ. What you are doing is an insult to anyone who believes in Christ"

My opinion to them, as I explained that no, I will not attend the fashion show that the Foreign Language Department is putting on on Dec 25th. "oh", they say, "don't you care about the students" "yes, I do, and i will share my care towards them by explaining to them that this is not what christmas is for, it is what big fat cat businesses want christmas to be about.

Wolf · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 1245 Location: Middle Earth

Recently it has become my mantra:

"I'm not a Christian."

Now, yes, Christmas/New Year was a big important holiday time, and all of my extended family are Catholics, so it was a fairly important event at that time. It was THE big family time of the year.

But now I live in a country that doesn't have a great many Christians. The day has no spiritual connotation, nor does it bring the strong sense of family and community that I remember from my childhood.

I remember my second Christmas in Japan. I was asked to dress up as Santa for the Christmas party. At the time I didn't think that it would bother me, so I agreed. Well, the day of the party came (parties were held four times a year, and on company time as a ploy to make attendance mandatory.) Well, the had chosen a nabe (hot pot) restaurant for the party. Beautiful large tatami rooms with traditional tables/seating arrangements, and sliding doors. And then we come in and stick a tacky, massive "Merry Christmas" sign. And I saw hundreds of Japanese people willingly abandoning that which was good about their culture to embrace something that has no meaning for most of them. And I was going to play an active role in helping to destroy the beautiful things about a nation that I had wanted to experience and appriciate. We could have (should have!) just had the party as a "bonenkai"(a new year party - literally a "forget the year party.") and left it at that. Anyway, I pretended to be sick and went home without eating anything.

What, is adapting to the culture we live in not foreign enough of us? (most of the teachers at my school had been in Japan for at least 5 years.) Must we do something so preposterous? Why not celebreate Ramadan, or Passover, or Naw Ruz instead?

If we are to be "honoured," then I can think of many other meaningful ways to go about this that do not involve such sharades. The celebration of Christ mass (good Lord, look at what the word means!) should be an important spiritual occasion for people, not mimicing what others do without stoping to think.

I would absolutely, dearly love beyond my ability to express to get a hold of DVD or VCD copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas to show to my students - complete with Chinese subtitles for the scene where Linus explains the "true meaning of Christmas."

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

I am not Christian, or any other religion for that matter, and I am not particularly materialistic (although I do admit that having a bit of disposable income at my...uh...disposal for the first time in several years is verrrrrry nice), but I still enjoy Christmas.

Why? Because of the family/friends association. Because of the lights, the singing, the sitting-around-by-the-fire/kerosene-heater-and-drinking-"soy nog." Because of the smells of my parents' house--a bit of pine tree, a bit of apple cider, a bit of the half dozen or so different treats that my parents bake and that I can no longer eat. Because of whichever cable network it is that has a 24-hour marathon of "The Christmas Story." Because of all of the kitschiness that someone more cynical (and I can be quite cynical at times) would turn his/her nose up at.

I do enjoy shopping for other people--much more than I enjoy shopping for myself. I don't feel compelled to do it (even though I do face certain obligations--a young nephew and niece, and people at whose houses I will be staying this year). I sometimes stress over it--what to buy, what to buy?!?!? But still, I really do feel that "'tis better to give than to receive."

No, it's not my favorite holiday. I don't have a favorite holiday. Any excuse to be with loved ones--be it a recognized holiday (religious or not) or any other random day of the year (I believe June 12th was suggested by a previous poster)--is fine with me.

Coincidentally, one of my classes is watching "A Christmas Carol" right now, and they read a short bio of Dickens yesterday. (My other class is getting "How the Grinch stole Christmas.")

edit: Oooops--that *beep* should be the author of "A Christmas Carol." Silly me--trying to squeeze that one past the censors!

d

george61 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 59 Location: china

Ok, I don't like "going overboard" with everything,but I do enjoy buying presents for my family and friends. I have a theory about gifts...."If I would like to get it, it is good enough to give". As for Xmas in China,why not??? Everything else has been adopted. I don't particularly teach about it unless asked, but I accept their acceptance of it. Our school had a blurb about Thanksgiving, on a board in the canteen.I was asked about it and said it is an American thing that we Australians don't bother with. No problems.Yes, I believe there is to be a Christmas party... Will wait and see. There you are, I really am a Sentimental Bloke.

joe-joe · Joined: 15 Oct 2003 Posts: 100 Location: Baku, Azerbaijan

Christmas for me is basically a holiday in which I can catch up with people, especially when I was back home in the UK (distance and time permitting). I had a bit of a 'complicated' upbringing, and because I wasn't a Christian, I didn't actually celebrate Christmas as such, until due to a series of family 'hiccoughs' (hiccups?), when I was 9 I went to live with a family of farmers who were Methodists. I ended up a little confused regarding religious festivals/beliefs and basically those I had follwed as a small child were quietly disposed of.

Anyway as an adult I eventually ended up as an atheist, after much contemplation. I do still enjoy the opportunity Christmas affords me to visit people I haven't been able to see throughout the year, or at least for many months. It has no religious meaning for me, but I do hate the way it has like Easter been hijacked for commercial reasons, and as someone else pointed out families are more focused on having a very successful material festival, rather than spending time with their family. I get extremely annoyed that by late September there is already a ton of Christmas goods in the shops.

jud · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 127 Location: Italy

I am not Christian and I have no qualms about celebrating and enjoying Christmas. It's my favourite holiday, on a very deep spiritual level.

There are so many things that have been co-opted from one culture and used differently in another culture. When other countries co-opt the materialism of Christmas they are adopting our crass materialism. But hopefully we can manage to take the best rather than the worst.

Yoga, for example, is not just exercise in India. It has many culture and spiritual connections. Shall we stop doing it in the West?

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I am agnostic, probably because there is a missionary uncle in my family. As a child, I never got Christmas gifts, though, and that's one reason, I suppose, why CHristmas holds some promise of family life for me - the family life I did not have as a child. All others had it, and they got presents.
The Chinese are somewhat schizophrenic: they claim Christianity is unscientific superstition and "spiritual pollution", and for this ideological reason, Chinese were banned from attending Christmas Mass together with non-Chinese until a very few years ago.
But over the past 4 or 5 years, the rule has been drastically relaxed, even ignored and forgotten. Now, it's the opposite: Chinese not partying on Christmas look silly and "out". And the better if they have a foreign face to show off on this particular day.
I want to have my little privacy and commune with those around the globe that carry the same surname. The time differences are enormous enough, and on this special occasion we are more likely to overcome hurdles imposed by geographic location.
Chinese sometimes prefer to take offence when I say, in true Christian spirit, that this is the day par excellence for family reunions.
They seem to be believing only CHinese have a family life!

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

I am agnostic, probably because there is a missionary uncle in my family. As a child, I never got Christmas gifts, though, and that's one reason, I suppose, why CHristmas holds some promise of family life for me - the family life I did not have as a child. All others had it, and they got presents.
The Chinese are somewhat schizophrenic: they claim Christianity is unscientific superstition and "spiritual pollution", and for this ideological reason, Chinese were banned from attending Christmas Mass together with non-Chinese until a very few years ago.
But over the past 4 or 5 years, the rule has been drastically relaxed, even ignored and forgotten. Now, it's the opposite: Chinese not partying on Christmas look silly and "out". And the better if they have a foreign face to show off on this particular day.
I want to have my little privacy and commune with those around the globe that carry the same surname. The time differences are enormous enough, and on this special occasion we are more likely to overcome hurdles imposed by geographic location.
Chinese sometimes prefer to take offence when I say, in true Christian spirit, that this is the day par excellence for family reunions.
They seem to be believing only CHinese have a family life!

Gordon · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Posts: 5309 Location: Japan

I am a Christian and like Arioch feel disgusted at the consumerism of Christmas. Jesus has been forgotten and the true meaning has been twisted. One benefit of living in Japan is that there isn't as much Santa crap as at home. However, I do miss my family at this time of year.

george61 · Joined: 19 Sep 2003 Posts: 59 Location: china

leeroy · Joined: 30 Jan 2003 Posts: 777 Location: London UK

Mostly, I'm tired of people saying how tired they are of christmas Wink

Although I hardly love it - I find it difficult to see how people can despise it with quite as much veracity as they claim...

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Read "A Christmas Carol". That tells us more about how Christmas should be celebrated. And you can still celebrate it without going for all this consumerist stuff. If you object to the "Christian" side to it, then just celebrate, Yule, the traditional mid-winter festival. It is after all, a pre-Christian festival taken over by the early church. Nothing scriptural tells us that the Man from Nazareth was born on 25th December !

dreadnought · Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 82 Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

jud · Joined: 25 May 2003 Posts: 127 Location: Italy

Wow, I have to thank Scot 47 for mentioning what I was afraid to.

Many historians place the date of Jesus' birth around April.

This of course doesn't lessen the celebration of his birth whenever one would choose to celebrate it, but it does allow us heathens, pagans, and others to co-opt (or re-coopt) the celebration.

In any case, I've already got the tree up (another pagan ritual).

Happy Holidays to all, whatever your creed!