… ho ho ho

…. as Santa would  say…

So what is really a traditional Christmas celebration? Is there a global tradition or are we individually following our own traditions. By inventing Father Christmas or Santa we gave Christmas a face, he has a great white beard, has elves working for him and lives in the North Pole.

Most English speaking countries the day following Christmas day is called Boxing Day because of a custom starting 800 years ago. Churches would open their `alms boxe´(boxes in which people had placed gifts of money) and was distributed to the poor people the day after Christmas. This tradition is followed even today.  

In Finland Christmas starts with Christmas Eve, where where everyone gathers at 5:00pm at the cemetery to pay a visit to his or her deceased loved ones. The visitors place candles on the graves and a service takes place. While this may not seem like a very happy way to start Christmas, later on, Father Christmas visits the homes , asks the children if they’ve been good and gives gifts. For the Swedes the world stops functioning at 3 pm, everybody gathers in-front of the telly and watches Donald Duck. Almost the same episodes shown every year…

Since before 400 AD, Christians have celebrated the birth of Jesus. Maria and Joseph travelled from their home in Nazareth to Bethlehem to register their names with the ruling Roman Government . There was no room at the hotel, so they stayed in the stables where Jesus was born that night.  After Jesus was born, wise men came to look for him. They had seen an unusual new star in the sky and knew that it told of the birth of a special king. They followed the direction of the star and found the place where Mary, Joseph and Jesus were staying.   Even though we refer to them as the three Kings, this is nowhere stated in the Bible, but we most probably conclude this as Jesus was brought three gifts. These gifts tell us three key things about Jesus:

Gold: a gift fit for a King

Frankincense: burnt in worship of God

Myrrh: a sign of mortal human-ness - it was used to bury the dead

If we ask most children today, or even adults, the real reason celebrating Christmas is not known and often connected with Father Christmas or any other commercial event…

The rain has washed away most snow and the winter landscape from the other day is long gone. Good food can however brighten up the day and the fire place in the kitchen keeps the cold away.

Merry Christmas to you…

Let this be the time of year to be with your family, enjoy and don’t fall for the Christmas stress created by commercializing this originally peaceful holiday.

So long - stay safe

/S

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