Who is Afraid of Christmas?

Wishing you an inclusive Christmas season.

You can wish me a Merry Christmas, and I won’t be offended.

Every year at this time, we hear the complaints from all sides about the secularization of the season when Christians traditionally celebrate the birth of their Saviour. There are those who complain that saying “Merry Christmas” excludes those are not Christian, something our pluralistic, multicultural society rejects. So public areas like city parks and schools cannot put up “Christmas” displays or anything about the Christian celebration in particular.

Image Courtesy: www.vykort.com

Some Christian groups and individuals then complain that this takes the religious meaning out of the season. This usually gets conflated with the complaint about the commercialization of the season.

Personally, I like to celebrate all of it.

Many people have pointed out how many cultures and religions use lights at this, the time of year when the nights are longest: Christians, Jews, neo-Pagans, Wiccans, the list goes on.

And it’s useless to whine about the commercial, secular celebrations. I can’t help but complain about the reruns of lame Christmas-themed movies and bad, really, really bad Christmas — or winter-themed songs on the radio. How many musicians have hacked through a version of Jingle Bells and Sleigh Ride? How much are we expected to endure?

Image Courtesy: acelebrationofwomen.org

But my whining hasn’t had an impact. So we might as well enjoy what we can. It’s going to happen whether we like it or not.

Let’s look at it this way: we all like to celebrate. What difference does it make why? We live in a multicultural, plural world. Rather than argue with each other over what to call the celebration and how to celebrate it, let’s celebrate everything.

So, put up your Christmas decorations. I have no problem with seeing a Nativity scene beside a Yule tree and a Festivus pole. Wish me a Happy Hanukah. If it’s the right time of year, say Happy Eid.

I’ll take it, and same back to you.

*

Happy Yule

Happy Sadeh

Happy Kwanzaa

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Saturnalia

Happy Diwali (a little late)

Happy Eid (whenever that happens)

Have a happy season, whatever it is, and a very good new year.

Scott Bury

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Scott Bury is a journalist, editor, and writer living in Ottawa, Canada. His articles have been published in newspapers and magazines in Canada, the US, UK and Australia, including Macworld, the Ottawa Citizen, the Financial Post, Marketing, Canadian Printer, Applied Arts, PEM, Workplace, Advanced Manufacturing and others.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario. He holds a BA from Carleton University's School of Journalism. He has two sons, an orange cat and a loving wife who puts up with a lot.

He is a recipient of Maclean Hunter's Top 6 Award and a member of a team that won a Neal Award for business reporting.

The Written Word published his first novel, The Bones of the Earth, in 2011. His first published fiction was a short story, Sam, the Strawb Part, the proceeds of which are donated to an autism charity. 

In 2013, the Written Word published his second novel, One Shade of Red, a spoof of the inexplicable bestseller that is mostly made of emails. 

His latest book is Army of Worn Soles, a memoir in novel format that tells the true story of the author's father in law, drafted into the Red Army in 1941. He is now working on a sequel.

Celebration in Music

                                 (To my lifelong friend Linda, who is a musician) 

When I think about celebration especially around holiday times, I think of music.  Our hearing sense, stimulated can summon emotion.  A sound can alert us to a sense of all-rightness, or not, or even a memory.  When we hear a song from our youth or one we first heard at an important event, we are transported back to that time by our memories.  Yes, it can be a sad memory as in the passing of a loved one or the marriage of a young relative with the inevitable moving away.  But more so we interpret it as being so personal as to be specific to our history and a reflection of our feelings and personality, alone. 

Everyone has a favorite song.  It may change through time, but at a given moment you do have one.  The song seems to have been written just for you.  You may even think that by some strange twist of fate, the writer has “tuned” in to your feelings and crafted this piece to reflect your on-going trials and tribulations; and maybe even to “guide” you.  My favorite song now, is “If I Die Young” by The Band Perry.  Although I knew this song was perfect as soon as I heard it, I tried very hard to NOT like it.  After all, the theme is about a young woman’s death and her Mother carrying on.  To any Mother, there isn’t a more emotionally charged issue than something that affects her child.  Then I have to ask myself, if it wasn’t the subject matter that endeared me to it, what meant so much more to me than the words meanings?  I decided it had to be the voice of the singer.  So beautiful, clear and even a little haunting, it “spoke” to me, a person with limited technical musical skills, by joining with the unkind words into a delivery that was received as personal and heartfelt.

Is it something that is “wired” in our brains that makes us feel like this?  And here I am assuming that everyone is touched by a particular song.  A song that they identify with more than any other, that perhaps was written and performed “just for them”.  Or is it just human nature to be sentimental or “weepy” when we are audience to a particular musical piece.  Is it perhaps the combination of instruments, skill of the conductor, or the perfect acoustics that can bring on our emotion?  I think we make it personal because some of us realize that music can feed our souls, nurture our desire for these specific feelings, and make that part of our mind whole again for a while, by these alternating cravings and sustenance.

And what better to feed ourselves on than something so “high minded” and eternal as music.  Yes, eternal.  After a song is born it lives on through other artists and performers.  We all have strong feelings about “remakes” of music we are attached to.  When a musician passes, we all know whose song it really is when we hear it in its updated or reworked forms.  Now with electronic and web capabilities of clarifying, storage and “global” transmittance, it seems music is indeed eternal.  What better than music not to stand as a memorial to its creator, but to be a moving inducement, a shared celebration from its creator out to everyone.

Connie Neff

Clear Path Writer (her website is under construction;see Facebook link to contact her.)

The Charm of Christmas Markets

Let me take you on a little pre-Christmas trip today from your PC or EZ-chair to the lands of Christmas markets, Germany and Austria.

Also called advent or christkindl markets, they originally gave towns and their burghers an opportunity to stock up on provisions at the onset of the cold season. Historical records name Dresden, Germany as the first in 1434.

Now they are a staple celebration of Christmas traditions drawing millions of visitors in the four weeks of  Advent, leading up to the fest in many towns all over Europe; some immigrants even brought  the concept over to Chicago. Often situated in the old market place, within historic city walls or other pedestrianized town areas, they invite to stroll around, socialize, shop, and eat.

Christmas markets have become popular seasonal tourist destinations. You can book trips to several cities in one weekend to see the famous markets in Vienna, Nuremberg and Munich in one weekend and do your Christmas shopping at the same time.

On opening night and, in some towns, every night, onlookers welcome the Christkind or Christ child, in the form of a golden-haired angel played by a local youth.

Winter reigns in this land of bustling shoppers and onlookers (if global warming is not interfering in a freaky way). What a disappointment if it is mild!

Anticipation of festive things to come fills not only the minds and seasonal spirits of the young. A particular joy on your senses after dark, the cold air is redolent with a myriad of smells associated with Christmas like toasted almonds and chestnuts, chocolate-covered or candied red apples (called paradise apples here) and mulled wine.

Wooden stalls with straw-covered roofs display a vast array of handmade crafts and art: old fashioned dolls, fragrant soaps, bees wax candles, silver jewelry, or environmentally correct wooden toys, (no lead, paint  please). Nativity scenes add to the festive nature of the markets, which otherwise have become very commercialized.

Vendors, clad in woolly caps and fur lined boots grab hot chocolates and lattes like the intrepid strollers and determined shoppers, and fortify themselves with bratwurst or increasingly doner kebab (introduced to the scene by Turkish immigrants years ago). When the fairylights illuminate the scene after dark, even the Yuletide- challenged find it hard to escape the allure of Christmas markets. It’s bliss if it actually snows!

Siggy Buckley