With a week to go until Christmas, everything is kicking off. The shops are doing a roaring trade as Christmas shoppers search for that last gift to give to their mother-in-law, the weather is taking a turn for the worse in the Northern Hemisphere and Summer is in full swing in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet even in this festive season, there are things littered around to irritate and mislead us.
Ever since the invention of the Christmas Card in Dickens' time, Christmas has become more and more commercialised. Such things as 'Santa's Grotto' did not exist two hundred years ago, when it was but feasting and general merriment that took place, and even then it was on Christmas Day only. Nowadays Christmas has almost become a privately owned affair - companies squabble for the money of the masses, throwing in big fat Santas and badly drawn cartoon reindeer to mark th occasion.
It used to be that Christmas was a religious holiday that marked when the Son of God was born. Unfortunately, today's society has turned the tables and is exploiting this celebration into a time for mass producing useless things such as plastic light-up Santas for out on your lawn, or holly wreaths for your door. The sincere lack of anything remotely connected to the divine has become quite the point to make during sermons. Allow me to demonstrate.
Take a look at Christmas Carols. It used to be that songs such as 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' and 'Silent Night' were all the rage, but they have slowly but surely been pushed away by increasingly unrelated songs such as 'Frosty the Snowman', 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and 'Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree'. The latter set of songs mentions nothing to do with religion of any sort. 'Frosty the Snowman' doesn't even mention Christmas itself. Lovely as these songs are, they help the masses to forget about what the original message of Christmas was and should still be.
The lack of religion-related carols being sung at this very moment just marks how much society has changed since the Middle Ages. Back in the days when the monarchy actually ruled the land, nearly everyone treated Christmas as a religious festivity and took time to reflect upon its meaning. In the twenty-first century, most of the population of the Western world chooses to ignore the true meaning and instead turn it into a hectic time for present-giving and adding a little bit of extra weight to their already not inconsiderable masses. The baby Jesus has been replaced with a fat man in a jolly red suit who goes by the name of Santa. The stable animals have been replaced by reindeer. Gold, frankincense and myrrh have transformed into bottles of wine, expensive toys and jewellery. In truth, this holiday that we now call Christmas is but a ghost of what it once was.
This is possibly brought on by an over-awareness of what other people think. In the world of today, we are all too aware that atheism marks a large portion of the population of Britain alone. It is not impossible that in an effort to appease the critics who would no doubt pounce on a religion-centred Christmas like a cat upon a cat-sized mouse, we have removed all but the faintest traces of religion from the festivities.However, this raises a question: do atheists celebrate Christmas? It would certainly be an interesting paradox if they did. It would be like being a vegetarian who ate steak but no other meat. It would be a contradiction of the faith. And let's face it: atheism is a faith of sorts. It's just one without a leader; a figurehead; a God. It's like Buddhism in that respect. However, that argument's for another day.
But the point still stands: Is society deliberately skirting around the religious outlook on Christmas? You know what I think? If people aren't interested in religion as such, they shouldn't be celebrating a religios holiday. Why go to a party you haven't been invited to join?
What do you think of Christmas? Do you celebrate it? In what way? I would like to hear your opinions. If you have anything you would like to say or ask that does pertain to this post, contact me at theeternaleditor@gmail.com.
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