Cultural festivals, such as Christmas, are undoubtedly enjoyable and an important time for families and friends to relax together. Many have important religious significance. On the other hand, such events are often defined by excess and waste...lights, fireworks, over-packaging, excessive spending, over-eating and embarrassing self indulgence.
What do you think? Is Christmas sustainable? How would it all work in a changed world?
Or should all the 'do-gooders' leave our festivals alone!!!!
What Christmas means to me
For me Christmas is a special event in which I share quality time with those I love dearly. I can honestly say that now a days is not about presents, but about being together, being with the one's I love most. It is about appreicating one another. I will admit in previous years it was more about the presents and all the 'nice, posh' food. But times change. I have memories of piling up the presents, comparing with my brother and sister, who had the most, or who had the largest. I could never contain myself when my stocking was sat full on the end of my bed, I always had to peek before the morning. I remember being fustrated that we had to wait to open all our presents until everyone had been through the bathroom in the morning and we had had breakfast. Our breaksfasts on Christmas day use to consist of the chocolate in our stockings! - It makes me sad when I look back, those times were so happy. We don't tend to go to Church on Christmas day, but this year we are going to. It is strange what events that happen throughout the year can shape how you spend your time and how you can feel on Christmas Day. This is just about my Christmas Day though, and everyone's is different and has different meanings for each individual.
The True Meaning of Christmas???
The real meaning of Christmas is often forgotten. It has become a non-religious holiday! More children believe in Father Christmas than in Jesus. Christmas Day is a time for eating and drinking too much and watching television.
Please take a look at this link which provides an online video of 'The World to Come' by David C. Pack
http://www.thercg.org/landing/holidays.html?s_kwcid=TC7299the%20meaning%20of%20christmasS3271296331&gclid=CJKtyvyN2Z4CFUgA4wodDzibrQ
I agree that often the true meaning of Christmas is forgotten. From a religious aspect the real Christmas story is found in the Christian Bible. It is told in two different books: Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2.
Read the Christmas story from an ancient biographer, Luke (Chapter 2).
Luke's biography records how Mary and her husband Joseph left their home in Nazareth to travel to Joseph's ancestral home, Bethlehem, to enroll in the census ordered by the Roman emperor, Augustus. Finding no room in inns in the town, they set up primitive lodgings in a stable. There Mary gave birth to Jesus in a manger or stall. Jesus' birth in Bethlehem, the home of the house of King David from which Joseph was descended, fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah. This is confirmed to Mary by a visit from angels and shepherds.
Read the Christmas story from an ancient biographer, Matthew (Chapter 1).
Matthew's biography begins by recounting the genealogy and virgin birth of Jesus, and then moves to the coming of the Wise Men from the Orient (likely China) to where Jesus was staying after his birth in Bethlehem. The wise men, or Magi, first arrived in Jerusalem and reported to the king of Judea, Herod the Great, that they had seen a star heralding the birth of a king. Further inquiry led them to Bethlehem of Judea and the location of Mary and Joseph. They presented Jesus with treasures of "gold, frankincense, and myrrh."
It is here that we have developed many Christmas stories and practices, however today the stance of these traditional stories has taken a more modern day approach and diverted from the real teachings.
I believe that children are an important factor for Christmas, they make Christmas magical, and there is nothing so rewarding than to see my little foster sister's eyes light up when she see's Santa and all her Christmas parties! However, I think is also important that children (from a age of about 4 years and upwards) do know to some extent about the background religious story of Christmas and what it means. Sometimes it can be easily forgotten and spoilt children just associate it with presents. Without putting the dampers on such a magical event, this is a link to a website that is well worth a look at, it teaches Children the true meaning of Christmas in a child-friendly way without losing the main meaning http://www.woodlandsjunior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/meaning.htm, the most valuable quotation for me personally from this website is “Teach the children! Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that now-a-days Christmas has forgotten”
Blogs on ‘The Meaning of Christmas’
Whilst researching I came across this blog and found it rather interesting, so thought I would include a blog entry in my blog!
‘Here is an interesting exercise, list all the rules Jesus gave his followers. You'll find very few. I am sure you can agree Jesus gave no instruction for exploring space, none for heart surgery and never told anyone how to build a church building (architecture), neither did he say "don't do those things".
Jesus never said "don't celebrate my birth" and he never said "do". No where in the collective works found in the modern bible does it say "don't" or "do". If another religion celebrates an event on one day must I celebrate on another? What would happen if the pagans celebrate on all days, where would be a time for celebrating something else?
The argument "because it was pagan" is weak. Much of our culture, language and behaviors can be traced back to "pagans" and "barbarians" yet we don't throw them out. We use pagan months in our calendar, the stars are named after pagan gods. So If I don't worship the stars or the months or the gods of old or celebrate who the pagans did - how is it I am celebrating a pagan holiday?
Trappings is also a weak argument, it shows me that those who thought of it are put off by comparisons. Yup, there are lots of celebrations in historic and modern religions of renewal and rebirth, the birth of a special god and the creation recycled but that does not mean Jesus was not born, and it does not mean we should not celebrate his birth; it only means there are lots of other uses for December 25th. What would happen if I told your boss at work, you practice pagan rituals in your office during work hours? Oh yes "tapping", "chanting", "reciting the names of the gods"; yet you don't do this as a pagan celebration, you call it typing, memorizing things, and reading a calendar.
Okay I admit, Jesus was likely NOT born on December 25th, the biographers of the day record "shepherds being in the field" and December is too cold for that, so since we celebrate "as often as we do theses things" atonement / Eucharist / communion, which proves you can celebrate something; why cant we celebrate anything we want, whenever we want - make up celebrations we feel good about and worship God with freedom and freedom of criticism and condemnation? Did not the Father celebrate the return of his lost son? The widow the lost coin? Luke 15.
Jesus used these words: "Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the Son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:34-36)
It is not harder then that unless one makes it so.
I will celebrate Jesus birth, I love the idea, and the season. Thank God for it. '
This blog is courtesty of a bloke named Victor Emmanuel - Thankyou Victor!
Source http://www.jesuscentral.com/ji/lands/christmas.php
Studies about Christmas
There have even been studies into questioning 'Should We Celebrate Christmas?' for example
CHRISTMAS: Somebody's Cooked Your Goose! A Study by Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. © 1998 Tricia Tillin.written in 1984. I have included an entry from the introduction of this book.
‘It is almost impossible to be impartial about Christmas
. So much of the celebration is now fixed for us by popular entertainment, commerce and the Church that the most we can do is to avoid the worst examples of bad taste and put our own particular mark on the food and decorations. The study looks into media influence; family pressure; the hypocriscy of Christmas; Christmas as a Christain festival and arguments for and against the celebration of Christmas.
Media InfluenceI am in agreement with Tricia that the media present Christmas as an idylic day. It becomes almost a crime to mention a mean or selfish act at Christmas. We are taught to believe hostility must be forgotten; goodness and kindness must flourish. The real world no longer seems to exist. But yet, as Tricai reports 'we all know that the usual hooliganism, robbery, drunkenness and vice will soon afterwards be reported, and the figures for suicide and divorce will rocket as ordinary mortals try to reconcile the fantasy with their reality'
Family Pressure
'The enormous pressure on families to spend more than they can afford, coupled with the encouragement to ‘eat, drink and be merry’ at any price, is no part of a genuine Christian festival.'
Hypocritical
Is this not a hypocritical stand to take? We, who are generally so careful to avoid pagan practises, and who pride ourselves in being biblically accurate, somehow switch off our powers of discernment at Christmastime, and "anything goes". The time for such self-indulgence is now over. We MUST now make a stand!
Is Christmas a Christian Festival?
Christmas has become big business, and undoubtedly it is a festival of self-indulgence for many, but, despite this, can Christmas still be a holy festival, full of meaning for those who celebrate it as the birth of the Lord Jesus? Can the religious undertones of crib and carols, nativity plays, candle-lit services and midnight mass raise Christmas to a higher level, above the bleep of electronic toys and the clinking of glasses? Unfortunately not; and this is nothing new, for the Church has been fighting a losing battle against the rites of the Winter Solstice for many centuries.
As we hear yet again the annual lament that the Christian aspects of the festival have taken second place, let us pause to wonder if this is because Christmas is, after all, a pagan festival.
For and Against
Since the beginning of the Church, there has been a sharp division of opinion on the subject of pagan customs, including the festival of ‘Christmas’. On one side were those who wanted to ‘christianise’ the practises in order more easily to win over the heathen as converts, and on the other side were those who abhorred idolatry in all its forms and sought to eliminate the customs root and branch.
For example, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan (339-397) says of December 25th, the Roman Birthday of the Unconquered Sun, "Well do Christian people call this holy day on which our Lord was born, the day of the new sun".
I have only taken the most relevant abstracts from this website, but please feel free to investigate further:
Source http://www.intotruth.org/misc/xmas1.html
Christmas and Sustainability
Western countries celebrate Christmas very differently to less economically developed countries and I would argue it is becoming quite unsustainable. In many countries of the world, the celebration of Christmas on December 25th is a high point of the year. From November onwards, it is impossible to forget that Christmas is coming. Coloured lights decorate many town centres and shops, along with shiny decorations, and artificial snow painted on shop windows. In streets and shops, 'Christmas trees' (real or plastic evergreen 'conifer' trees) will also be decorated with lights and Christmas ornaments. I confess I buy my Christmas presents throughout the year! I do question how sustainable christmas is though. For one factor, most homes will also be decorated with Christmas trees and coloured lights and most homes around where I live have some sort of lighting outside aswell. There is one particular close around the corner, called Summerhayes, which is actually featured on the local news. It is a whole cold-de-sac where every house is covered in lights, singing blown-up santa's, dancing snow men, little runaway trains - it is quite an experience. Every Christmas eve and Christmas Day Evening as a family we walk round there to soak up the atmosphere. When the lights are turned on on the first weekend in December, my brother plays in the local brass band and everyone gathers for mulled wine and mince-pies, it is very much a community event. However, I admit until recently I had not even considered the electricity so many lights use for this display and even though money is raised for the local Willen Hospice Charity, the whole thing must be unsustainable! These days, so many more people decorate garden trees or house walls with coloured electric lights - just think of the electricty.
Then there is the issue of Christmas Cards! In UK this year, the British
Post Office expects to handle over 100 million cards EACH DAY, in the three weeks before Christmas. The custom of sending Christmas cards started in Britain in 1840 when the first 'Penny Post' public postal deliveries began. (Helped by the new railway system, the public postal service was the 19th century's communication revolution, just as email is for us today.) Traditionally, Christmas cards showed religious pictures - Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, or other parts of the Christmas story. Today, pictures are often jokes, winter pictures, Father Christmas, or romantic scenes of life in past times. I am beginning to object to Christmas cards! I hate writing so many, I hate recieving so many (where to we put them all!) We hang ours using ribbon and then they all fall down and it gets so fustrating as we have to keep hanging them up, then we run out of room to hang them! - All the same I do recycle my Christmas cards, we is more to say that the majority of people!Here are a few interesting facts to think about:
- In Britain we create over two million tonnes of waste at Christmas. Once the presents have been unwrapped, we dispose of five and a half million Christmas trees, over 20 million bottles, over two million aluminium cans and over 80 square kilometres of wrapping paper!!
- In the UK over the Christmas period we consume 5.5 million jars of mincemeat, 12 million jars of pickles and 6.5 million jars of cranberry.Thinking about a sustainable Christmas?
Ideas prior to Christmas,
- when buying wrapping paper, look for recycled paper or save your paper from the year before.
On Christmas Day itself
- With extra visitors and extra cooking your home will feel warmer, why not turn your thermostat down by 1degree. Maintain this temperature throughout the year and by next Christmas you could have saved around £30.00 on your energy bills.
- Decorative lights in your home and on your tree - Lessen the impact on energy use by turning off more lights elsewhere – you will get a lovely atmosphere as well.
After Christmas
- how many items you can recycle
I'm Dreaming of a Green Christmas! - Twelve ways for a sustainable Christmas
Penrith City Council’s Dreaming of a Green Christmas campaign celebrates the fun and festive aspects of Christmas while encouraging people to think about ways to make it more sustainable, this is Penrith City Council's guide for 12 ways for a sustainable christmas
Source http://www.penrithcity.nsw.gov.au/index.asp?id=2833
1. Shop locally
2.Shop with companies with a fair trade ethic
4.Give a gift that keeps on giving
5.Wrap presents with recycled paper
6.Turn Christmas lights off overnight
7.Spend lots of time with family and friends
8.Buy locally-grown or organic produce for your Christmas lunch
9.Give charity, recycled or e-cards
10. Make a donation to a good cause
11. Buy Green Power for your Christmas event
12.Pool your Christmas shopping into fewer bags
I guess Christmas could be made more sustainable that it already is, however I do question to what extent it can ever be regarded as a sustainable event. And I predict in the years to come it will become more and more unsustainable as we as humans are becoming more and more unsustainable!
My Conclusion to Christmas
To conclude Christmas in my opinion is a time for celebration, giving and spending time with family and friends. For most, it is a positive time, but it can also be a time of great stress, loneliness and expense. For many it has religious meaning; the Birth of Jesus, but sadly it has equally become for a large proportion of people now-a-days a day of greed and selfish celebrations. As previously mentioned I don't believe Christmas can ever be regarded as sustainable, however I am of the opinion that we can change small practices to make the event a little less unsustainable, as the future looks bleak in terms of sustainability if we continue the path we are currently taking. I don't want to be a scrooge, so I think individuals should take their own responsible steps. I think 'do-gooders' take things to the extreme and if they are hell bent on celebrating their Christmas' differently then that is up to them, but they should not ruin it for others. Equally, at the other end of the spectrum, those that are obsessively greedy and selfish should consider how they are ruining the Christmas celebrations for others.
I have expressed my own thoughts about Christmas but Christmas has 1001 different meanings to so many people, it is not for me to judge or comment on the outlook of Christmas for the world as a whole. I shall leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions.
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