By H H Mohrmen
We are in the second week of the first month – at the threshold of the New Year, the moment in time which is special than any ordinary time of the year. We have heard it said that this particular time of the year is the time when we need to look back and forward and hence the name of the first month was taken from the Roman god Janus which is the god of beginning and the end and it was depicted as having two faces.
Instead this time of the year can also be called a time for reflection and ‘reflection’ does not merely mean looking and seeing only oneself in the mirror. Prof Satish Despande of the University of Delhi in the recent conference of Indian Sociology Society defines reflection as seeing oneself from the other people’s eye and he also said reflection is also trying to look around and realizing what is happening around us.
Indeed, what is happening around us? Christmas trees and decorations are now safe in the cupboards and perhaps in some places the three magi’s star is still hanging somewhere but did we really have time to reflect on the Festival that we had just celebrated? The message of the Nativity celebration is ‘peace on Earth and goodwill to humankind,’ but have we experienced peace on Earth? Or is there any good will amongst humankind? This is a pertinent question that we all need to ask ourselves whether we celebrate Christmas, New Year or any festival that coincides with this time of the year.
Or do we agree with Thomas Hardy’s reflection in his poem Christmas 1942, when he said “Peace upon Earth! Was said/ we sing it/ and pay a million priest to bring it/ After two thousand years of mass/ We’ve got so far as poison gas.” In the same note Samuel Longfellow a Unitarian composer of hymns who lived when the American civil war was rageing also made a similar observation when he said: “And in despair I bowed my head/ There is no peace on Earth, I said/ For hate is strong/ And mock the song/ Good will to all and peace on Earth.”
The other moot point is if we agree with the above two observations then why do we continue celebrating Christmas? Or why do we continue to celebrate any festival for that matter? If there is no peace on Earth and goodwill amongst humankind is still a far cry, what is the point of celebrating Christmas or celebrating any festival at all? If one looks at many of the popular festivals; be it Christian, Hindu or even Traditional religious festivals, the underlining theme of most of these festivals is – ‘hope.’ Even if one takez ‘saturnalia’ the festival from which Christianity borrowed what we now celebrate as Christmas day, the highlight of celebrating the festival is hope that light (Sun) will triumph over darkness and in Christian tradition also we continue with the same theme that the birth of baby Jesus is a symbol of hope for entire human kind.
In the Hindu tradition too people continue to celebrate festivals like Durga puja, Deepavali etc because they continue to hope that good will triumph over evil or light over darkness. The traditional festivals that we celebrate every year, be it spring or autumn festivals also has hope as one theme that is all pervasive – such as hope for a good harvest and good health of individuals and the community.
All the above mentioned festivals revolve around the same theme and that is hope. We therefore continue to celebrate these festivals because we still have hope. We celebrate Christmas because we still have hope amidst despair, we celebrate Durga puja or Deepavali because we still hope that light will one day dispel darkness or good will triumph over evil. We celebrate our spring and autumn festivals in the traditional religion because we still hope for a good weather that we will be able to harvest bountiful crop and the common good of the entire community.
For that matter, we celebrate festivals, birthday, and weddings or any other occasion because we have hope. Hope like they say is what makes the world go round. Imagine how the world would be if people did not have any hope. The world will not be as it is if people live in despair and no longer have any hope at all.
Even if we despise what is going around but the very fact that we still read newspapers and continue to read this article testifie to the fact that we still have some hope. In spite of what is going around us; the rising crime against women, the supply and export of mineral which was illegally mined with support of government agencies and the continuous onslaught on the nature, despite all these yet, there is hope with many of us even if it is just a tiny speck within us.
A short two minutes video which was shared on the internet tells a story of two young siblings of 5 and 6 years old who were playing and collecting seashells from near the ocean. The brother and sister came from the beach and walked across a souvenir shop nearby, the girl saw a doll which she liked very much and told her brother that she wished to have the doll. The brother took his sister inside the shop and took the doll from the shelf and gave it to her. He went to the counter and pulled six shells (which he had collected from the shore) from his pocket and asked the keeper if that is enough? The owner of the shop took only four shells from the boy’s hand and returned the remaining two shells to the boy and said ‘this will do.’ The boy and his sister went out of the shop and the girl kissed and hugged the doll tight while her brother looked at her with a big smile on his face.
The salesman who saw what happened went to the shop owner and asked him why he did that? Why did he exchange an expensive doll for few shells? He replied saying, “Those kids may not know anything but when they grow up they will certainly remember this incident and they will know that there are still good people around. This is how we keep hope alive- the hope that peace will reign on earth and good will prevail.
At this point in time we look forward to a New Year, but what is 2017 really? It is only a piece or a block of time isn’t it? We divide it into twelve months, to 52 weeks and 365 days and further divide and sub divide it into hours, minutes and seconds, but is it really just the way we calculate time for our convenience? Surely, our ancestors had the concept of season because the traditional calendar is based on the change of seasons in a particular area. The calendar which is based on the seasons also influence what people do particularly the agrarian activities that they are engaged with. But the question is whether our ancestors had any concept of a year ending or year beginning or did they have any concept of New Year? Or is time just a change in day and night and a cycle of seasons by which they lived and worked?
Whatever the case may, we are now being influenced by the Gregorian calendar and the beginning of this piece or block of time we call year is here with us and we have more than 300 days before us. Now the celebration is over; the work of bringing peace on Earth and goodwill to human kind for the people who still have hope has also begun. How do we usher peace on Earth and goodwill to human kind? Like what Howard Thurman meant when he said, “When the song of the angels is stilled/When the star in the sky is gone/When the kings and the princes are home/When the shepherds are back with their flocks/The work of Christmas begins/To find the lost /To heal the broken/To feed the hungry/To release the prisoner/To rebuild the nations/To bring peace among people/To make music in the heart.” Peace will prevail and goodwill will happen only when we start acting and let it begin from each one of us today.