For faithful Christians, no other holiday is quite like Christmas. The original and durable meaning of this day is rooted in the birth of Jesus Christ, and the promised gift of eternal life that springs from that event. But for most of us, and for those of other faiths who have come to celebrate the custom, Christmas comes wrapped with the universal sentiments of love and peace, and the joy of sharing gifts, time and closeness with our dearest family members and friends.
Fortunately for our society, many among us will share this day, and these sentiments and wishes, also with complete strangers whom they seek to serve in celebration of Christmas’ deeper religious meaning.
These kind Samaritans will leave their homes to serve meals to the homeless at the Community Kitchen and similar centers. Others will visit shut-ins, the ill in hospitals, the incapacitated in nursing homes, the lonely and the bereft, bearing gifts and raising spirits with welcome, loving smiles.
Most of us will simply celebrate a joyous and quiet morning – well, okay, perhaps a gleeful, noisy morning with happy children plowing through gifts. But the older we get, the more we know that Christmas isn’t really about receiving gifts, but about sharing the moments and tokens of love and kindness, caring and respect.
The celebration of Christmas, to be sure, is fused in time with the fall and winter rituals of Jews and Muslims. For Jews, it was the New Year, the Day of Atonement earlier in the fall, and Hanukkah, which concluded earlier this month. Hanukkah is a holiday that celebrates religious freedom and the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem that had been profaned by idol worship.
For Muslims, the seasonal focus is Ramadan, the time of fasting and prayer. That pillar of Islam was observed earlier this fall.
The beloved rituals of these three great religions have much in common at their core. Each recognizes the profound essence of faith, the power of prayer and the values of peace and goodwill.
The seasonal festivities of Christmas recall earlier times and long-honored winter traditions as well. They hearken to ancient customs at Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and our agrarian roots, when Yuletide gatherings and celebrations, feasting and caroling brightened winter’s darkest days and heralded the pending cycle in the new year of planting and harvesting.
Even among the most ardent adherents of Christmas today, however, there is plenty of hardship or suffering to blot the joys of the day.
Many families with members in the military will mark Christmas with a son or daughter, husband or wife, in an Afghan war zone, or at some other hazardous post. Some will be dealing with the loss of a loved one, or caring for one returning with grievous wounds. That’s been common this year in families with loved ones in Afghanistan, where the fighting and number of deaths has been the most intense of the nine years of this long war.
We simply cannot pretend that the hardships of life can suddenly be shucked aside at Christmas. High joblessness, record numbers of people needing food stamps, and the continuing foreclosure of homes in a fragile economy are all too present reminders that daily suffering is the lot of many.
Those among us blessed with better circumstances can offer prayers, time and gifts for the less fortunate. Many will do so today, and that is one of the many blessings of Christmas: It reminds us, in our most joyous moments, that sharing gifts is especially meaningful when we also choose to share our abundance with those in less comfortable circumstances. That has been the essence for decades of this newspaper’s Neediest Cases campaign for donations.
Our individual and mutual expressions of love, concern and caring enrich us all. They unite the broader community in a bond far stronger, more tangible and infinitely more caring than the sum of our individual deeds. For this, we can all give thanks on Christmas.
In this spirit, we wish our readers and others a joyous celebration, and a day filled with much love and abiding peace.