Many people have their own experiences, ideas and traditions during the holiday season.  Staff writers here at ACED Magazine are no different. 

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

The Christmas season is upon us once again… Where did the year go? I remember taking down last year’s Christmas decorations and tree as if it were yesterday. Like most of us nowadays, my life is fast paced and incredibly busy, so I thought it would be nice to stop for a few moments and jot down some thoughts on the meaning of Christmas. First and foremost, why must this wonderful holiday which speaks of ‘Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all Mankind’ continue to be the reason for such a huge year end materialistic frenzy? Throughout the centuries, many people have condemned the excessive practices surrounding Christmas as being contrary to the true spirit of the holiday, and I think they have a good point. If an alien blipped down on our lovely blue planet at this time of year, it would probably be scratching its pointy little head and wondering about people’s behavior as they rampage through stores like herds of wild animals, not to mention the Boxing Day ‘push and shove’ nightmares on December 26!

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young

No, the true meaning of Christmas is beyond anything that can be bought in a store. I believe that it is first and foremost the essence of a season in which most of us tend (or at least try) to come forward to help those around us who have so very little, no matter what our religious beliefs or practices are. I guess it bothers me that in general this kind of ‘need for generosity’ is almost exclusively displayed at Christmas time. Don’t the old, the poor, the sick and the outcast suffer all year round? Almost every day I see some of the outcast first hand when I finish classes at university and leave the downtown campus: the runaways, the addicts, the homeless… a lot of them camp out near the underground station where I take the metro to go home. I had no money on me when I was approached by a beggar the other day, so I did the next best thing I could think of and gave him my supper. It was a small gesture and it wasn’t yet Christmas, but the spirit was there.

And so Happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

The true meaning of Christmas lies beyond packages with colorful bows and huge festive meals that force one to eat turkey leftovers for weeks thereafter. Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy receiving presents and eating Christmas trifle as much as anyone else; but to me, Christmas means so much more: it is a time for giving. Not just presents under a tree, but rather a helping hand to those who need us the most, whether it be for moral support or the essentials to survive. Since music plays such an important part in my life, it means going out caroling for charities such as Demelza House and La Corbeille, a local soup kitchen, on a cold December evening with people like my good friend Adam, who is a Jewish Anglophone. Adam always makes me smile when he jokingly insists that one day God will zap him with a lightning bolt as a reward for his mixed up allegiances; nevertheless, he joins me every year as we go from door to door singing about angels we have heard on high, the birth of the Christ Child and decking the halls with boughs of holly in French, Latin and (thankfully for Adam) English. When it comes to charity, there are no boundaries or divisions. The true meaning of Christmas is the joy in children’s faces when they listen to us caroling on their doorstep, or the tears in the eyes of a dying man’s family as we sing around his bed one last time.

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

I opened the paper this morning and saw a small photograph of a young woman embracing a soldier leaving for Afghanistan. When I looked more closely, I realized that I knew the woman from school; we haven’t spoken in months, but we were in the same class and we used to be best friends. The man she is embracing is her boyfriend, and my heart goes out to her.

Maybe if mankind actually made an effort to care and to look beyond race, creed and religion, the world would be in a state of ‘perpetual Christmas’. . Maybe then the true meaning of Christmas would be clear to everyone as there would no longer be wars or terrorism, hatred or social inequality. I know that I am an idealist at heart. Harmony, friendship, love… those are, after all, what make up the true essence of Christmas.

I wish you love, good health, laughter and happiness this Holiday Season, as well as loved ones to share these true blessings with.

War is over if you want it
War is over now

---

Comments

Add New Search RSS

shani   |2007-08-16 21:39:46 [smiley=evil][smiley=happy][smiley=laugh][smiley=w ink] Reply 0   0

vetgieqvan   |2007-07-06 07:09:20 Hello! Good Site! Thanks you! clxdvoeydvc Reply 0   0

Write comment
Name:
Email:	do not notifynotify
Title:
	Please input the anti-spam code that you can read in the image.

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."