Decorating for Christmas and Remembering the Birth of Jesus
Jesus was born in a manger. In our commemoration of this salvific event, we seem to overdo things. For one, we tend to overly decorate the manger until the manger is no longer a manger.
The Orchard Road in Singapore is simply fabulous these days! Almost the entire stretch of street is lined up with lights of different colors and sizes and designs, the sidewalks have figures of the traditional personae dramatis of Christmas, the shopping establishments outdo one another in putting up the largest and most beautiful Christmas tree(s) just outside the facade of their buildings.
I had an occasion to walk through the Orchard Road with my sister who came over to the Lion City. The atmosphere was really feastive!
Coming to my mind, too, as we marvelled at the decorations was a conversation that I had with a fellow formandus years back. He was not telling me about Christmas, but about the niche that was built by his siblings for their parents. He was mentioning about how it appeared now after marble slabs were made to cover the formerly roughly cemented “resting place” of their parents. His descriptions were quite graphic, that I could have a vivid picture of how the niche now looked like. It must be elegant, and appears sturdy. But what I cannot forget was his wry remark: “I knew my parents are not happy.” Curious, I asked why. His answer was: “Our parents were so simple persons. They never dreamt of living in a marble structure.” Then, he continued: “I don’t think they (referring to his siblings) are honoring our parents.”
My co-formandus is known to me to be of queer character. He’s endowed with very good voice, a rather sharp intellect, and “weird” traits. Anyway, this post is not about him. It’s about his comment. When every one of his siblings thought that by decorating the niche of their parents they do them honor, he though otherwise.
Yes, this conversation came back to my consciousness as I saw the lights, the decors, the extravagance of celebrating Christmas. If this is not disrespectful, I would say it’s ironic. The Lord was precisely born out of the limelight. He was born as poor, and actually did not have a space fit for human resting much more for delivery of human life. His body was kept warm of course by the body of his mother, and the straws of animal feeds unto which he was layed.
Then comes the abundance that we’ve become accustomed to celebrate Christmas…
My moronic question: are we not committing sacrilege against the first Christmas?
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User Comments
cluves
On December 31, 2008 at 12:51 am
you are right!
puree
On January 9, 2009 at 9:29 pm
yes, celebrating christmas in any part of the world is very very elegant. we are going to change the true meaning of the manger -that nobody accept them during their hard times. Nowadays most children know that celebrating christmas is buying expensive toys, dress and preparing lots of foods, etc. Going to church to greet jesus Happy birthday is enough to celebrate Christmas.
SJ Dickens
On February 2, 2009 at 1:48 am
Perhaps decorating even in the eyes of some, we may appear to be extravagant can not really be totally “sacreligious”, provided the true spirit of Christmas is not overlooked. Out of so much gratitude we give the best we can in commemorating the Lord’s birth though not forgetting that He was born in a literal “manger”. Nevertheless, I find sense in your view that there could be a lot of other meaningful ways of celebrating Christmas apart from extravagant and luxurious decorations. How many street children can we feed perhaps with the big amount we use in buying expensive decorations? This could be only one among the many ways we can re-live the Christmas experience with greater spiritual significance.
Very nice observation, I salute you.
Shalom.
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