BLOG 74: Tis the Season...

How touching to have the meaning of Christmas brought to us by cola.... Who'd have ever guessed that product consumption and spirituality would mix so harmoniously? ~Bill Watterson, Illustrator and writer of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip

Ah… Charlie Dickens may well be my hero… but my fellow Kent Dweller, Political Stirrer-upper and Thought Scribbler has a lot to answer for at this time of year. So much of we like to think of as traditional observances for the Yuletide period are actually nothing of the sort. And thank to Charlie you HAVE to observe them now or the words BAH HUMBUG and the title SCROOGE be with you forever!

We are very good at forgetting festivals (or masses as they are properly called) here in the UK. A hugely popular mass here once was the ‘festival of the strong’ also known as Michael Mass (pronounced Mikelmas) Michael Mass falls on Sept 29^th and is a festival in which the principal celebration is of Michael who was a kick-ass warrior (Michael is the greatest of all the archangels and is honoured for his defeat of Lucifer in the battle for the heavens). The settling of debts and scores, the candlelight processions, the bosses serving a banquet for the workers AND a goose being prepared which will be followed by a special cake. This is a festival every man, woman child and yapping dog on this island had looked forward to, observed and enjoyed for some 1700 years. I’d call that a tradition wouldn’t you? But it didn’t have a champion to bring it back… and now al but a handful of Lutheran Christians even observe the day. Not all events on the calendar get a champion like Charles Dickens to bring them back and make them bigger.

So, given that background you can see how it was that Charles Dickens lived in a Victorian world where the celebration of The Christ Mass was very much in decline. The Christ Mass fell on Dec 25^th and was a festival in which the principal celebration is of the birth of Christ who was the founder of Christianity. For some 1800 years a festival which combined the celebration of the birth of Christ with the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia (a pagan celebration for the Roman god of agriculture), and the Germanic winter festival of Yule was the big end of year knees up here in the UK. But by Dickens time, the traditional had gone the route of Michael Mass and was barely observed.

Some rich people wanted to bring it back for themselves…Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols (which had all but disappeared at the turn of the century) became popular in drawing rooms and under lamplight, and the first Christmas card appeared in the 1840’s. But it was all a little top brass…Christmas had stopped being a festival for any but the wealthy. The Industrial Revolution, which was in full swing in Dickens' time, made sure of this as it allowed workers little time for the celebration of Christmas. It was the wide reading of the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas. No employer wished to be cast as Scrooge! Coming together as individual families to eat, exchange gifts and sending messages of good will to all became the backbone of the Christmas that we still celebrate today.

And Christmas today is big business. I doubt if many even know that the festival is a Mass, let alone observe it in any other way but commercially It’s more to do with the trucks of Coca-Cola rolling into a snowbound main street USA and the launch of the Argos catalogue.

I do understand that few care that the medieval Yule logs man (in his green forest outfit) who used to bring gifts to sleeping children has been turned into a corporately branded (red and white) Santa for Coca-cola. Why should they when the green forest outfit isn’t a patch on Cokes red one and the bells jingle and the choir pant “The Holidays are Coming” so breathlessly?

I do understand that for many Christmas has more to with keeping the 1840’s tradition of sending greeting cards to everyone they have ever met. Why should they not take part in something that has been going on for 170 years to mark and event that happened 2010 years ago… why should they be bothered about the maths when sending a card brings such joy?

I’m not going to go on about the commercialisation of Christmas. I’m not going to be a good Baptist girl and go on about the true reason there even is this Mass.

I am going to say that on the 13^th of December every year my son and I go the garage and get out our many boxes of decorations and argue over which of our three trees go where. I am going to say that from 13^th December to Twelfth Night, I enjoy the decorations and twinkiling lights of not just my own home but the entire neighbourhood. I am going to say that I ensure that no one spends Christmas alone and that the places around my table are full. I am going to say that I drop cards round the neighbourhood and read with interest the ones that drop on my mat (“Ohhh… THAT’s what her name is at no. 47”). I am going to say that displaying my received cards makes me feel connected and remembered when I glance at them

I am going to say that I’ll be thinking about the pleasures of other people more than myself, and I’ll be doing my best to let those I care about know that I do. You see Charles Dickens fought through his Christmas Stories (do get them out and read them) to bring back Christmas as it is a time of fellowship.

Fellowship is an odd word. It does make me think of rows of church pews… but I don’t think that is all the word means. Oh yes, I will go to church Xmas Day to tip a nod to the guy who’s Mass the day is for but fellowship simply means being socialable, associating yourself with others. Charles Dickens did good wit making us remember that we should, even if we only remember in that last week of the year be nice to each other.

Eric Sevareid got it so right when he said "Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we're here for something else besides ourselves."

And you know what…. I can’t see ANYTHING at all too commercial about that!

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