Christmas – Mystery, History or Myth?

A quote from Wikipedia:

The popular celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian and secular themes and origins.^[25] Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, Christmas music and caroling, an exchange of Christmas cards, church celebrations, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes, garlands, wreaths, mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore.^[26] Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

I suppose one could say that Christmas is a time of deep subliminal expectancy of some ancient promise or promises never fulfilled which people attempt to meet with gift-giving and pure hedonism. Feelings are heightened and expectations rise. As most people who care to know are aware, Christmas in the western Christianized world is linked to the birth of Jesus Christ, the [Christian] Savior of mankind. The date of birth was chosen to coincide with the Roman winter solstice celebrations, one of many political shenanigans employed by the Church to impose its beliefs upon “pagan” populations in the world.

Despite their willingness to participate in the secular madness of the season, most people are appalled, deep down, at the meaninglessness and shallowness of the performance. As with all such kinds of “celebrations” the outcome is not what the expectations led to. Expectations lead to change or to terrible disappointment. Christmas, as originally celebrated, meant a time of change for the world. The message of the angels over Bethlehem says it clearly:

An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ [Or Messiah] which mean “the Anointed One;” the Lord.

There is much more, for this story spread out throughout Galilee and eventually to the entire planet. If that were the only reason for anyone to celebrate Christmas, what does that say of today’s parody? Of course one could ask the same of Thanksgiving day, or Easter, or even Remembrance day. It seems that these remembrances have more to do with entitlement, even if it’s only a mere extra paid day without having to work for it, than with actually entering the mind within the events that brought forth the reason for the remembering.

So Christmas, contrary to popular belief, Christian or otherwise, has to do with remembrances of something meaningful if not terribly spectacular, that happened 2000 or so years ago. A child was born, and around that person were woven certain stories, or myths, and from those came the celebration of Christmas, or actually the Christ Mass, the gathering of the faithful around the belief that the child which was named Jesus – variant of Joshua, meaning in Hebrew “God saves” – was indeed the saviour sent by God to redeem mankind from the evil the species had fallen into.

It is sobering to also remember that the task of bringing this “good news” was completely entrusted to subsequent followers of this Way; the apostles, disciples and all others who came to accept this “myth” or “story” or perhaps “truth” and made it their way of life – no, not their way of talk, but their way of life- meaning, they lived it.

Christmas means the beginning of the terrible task, the awesome burden, for those who believe, of preaching definitely unwanted good news to a world given over to individual and collective selfishness so terrible as (one example only) to contemplate and implement wars against supposed enemies – when the message unequivocally calls for believers to love their enemies, do good to them and so on. And don’t we all know the drill, eh?

What a travesty, this day, this time, is! Who lives Christmas? Who really believes? Who really knows the joy of this event – when such must be drawn from having compassion; from engaging the sorrow that living in this place, on this world, in its current condition, cannot help but engender.

From what I gather in my shadow existence, observing much more than saying, this time is all about money and partying. It’s about temporal good times which can lead to a life sentence of debt repayment, or even repossession of baubles purchased in a moment of emotional instability. What good judgment and common sense still rattles in little broken pieces at the bottom of the individual soul is simply tuned out. The wrongness of it all, though felt, the disease, is studiously ignored.

Certainly, according to the record, the shepherds who heard the angels and went to verify that indeed the announced birth had taken place as claimed, also went into a state of emotional instability at the meaning of the news. But they didn’t rush off to Wal-Mart to buy a new barbecue. What they had couldn’t be bought, and the only way they could give it away was be risking losing face and spreading the news of what they had heard and seen. So they left their flocks, their animals, to fend for themselves and they went out to tell everyone they could reach, what they had just experienced.

Heard, seen and experienced. Indeed. And what do we, today, hear, see, and experience that would cause us to leave our comfort, our jobs, our way of life and go out telling people that salvation is at hand? And considering the example given by the various Christians sects, groups, and churches, how successful would we be in convincing anyone that we have a real and believable story that should be accepted? We have nothing. No one could be convincing. It’s all gone. A husk of old hopes dried up and blown away in the winds of organized religion and targeted marketing. We are just as lost today, despite all the hype, as were the people of Galilee, surrounding areas and the planet 2000 years ago.

Actually, I think we are far, far more lost today and far worse off. People are more likely to believe in their guns, their Rottweilers and their alarm systems for salvation, than in any promise of redemption that entails changing one’s ways in relation to others.

In closing let me re-introduce to you a truly politically incorrect and rather nasty word: sin. In order to understand redemption, and salvation, one must first understand the concept of sin. Once that is understood, then one can decide whether she or he, needs to be “saved” from such a thing. So, what is sin? I never quite understood it either until I got some help, not from religion, but from those off-world teachers who got me past my elementary steps in spirituality and Life.

Sin is the deliberate causing of harm to another in order to benefit or pleasure oneself when there is a clear and certain way around it. (By another, I mean all of life, not just another Earthian). To a thinking individual, that should give food for thought. Based on that definition, can anyone say, I am not a sinner?

Christmas has always been a sad and confusing time for me. I never understood the hype. Why? I would think. Why are people celebrating something they know little or nothing of when they have no intention of changing their ways? That doesn’t help, that only condemns.

Merry Christmas? For whom?