By Barnes Mawrie
Christmas season is in the offing and there is an air of festivities all around. Christmas is perhaps the most universally celebrated religious festival. Christians and non-Christians all celebrate this feast with equal gusto. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of the Saviour, Lord Jesus Christ, the long-awaited messiah prophesied in the Old Testament of the Bible. The immense significance and impact of this event in human history, is seen in the fact that with the birth of Christ, a new reckoning of time began, from BC to AD (Anno Domini or Year of the Lord). Thus the new reckoning of human history began with the birth of Jesus Christ in 1 AD and today we are in 2022. In these two millennia and more, Christianity has grown from being a religion of the twelve apostles to a religion of 2.56 billion believers, that is 31.2% of the world’s population today.
Christmas therefore marks a very decisive event in the history of Christianity. Unfortunately, with the passage of time, the true significance of Christmas appears to have waned away. Like many other religious festivals of other religions as well, Christmas too is getting more and more secularized and commercialized. It is a common phenomenon that pilgrimage places often become commercial centres where often the mundane activities overtake the spiritual. One can witness such a transition in the celebration of Christmas. Today even Christians are inclined to think of Christmas merely as a time for sending cards to friends, renovating houses, putting up Christmas trees, Christmas festoons etc. Children associate Christmas with the arrival of Santa Claus with a lot of gifts for them. For many others, Christmas is merely a special occasion for celebrations with friends, fellow students or fellow employees.
The association of religious festivals with particular objects or commodities conceived of as essential to them, is what has facilitated commercialization of most festivals. Thus when we think of Diwali in India, it is associated with fire crackers and lights. This has resulted in the industry’s creative production of a variety of fireworks and this in turn has enhanced the fireworks businesses. There are other religious festivals associated with particular food preparations and thus business would thrive along those lines as well. Christmas is probably one of the religious festivals associated with a number of things and objects like Santa Claus, Christmas tree, Christmas star, cribs, lights and decorations as well as special cakes and cookies. It pays to know that the tradition of Christmas tree goes back to Martin Luther who put up the first tree. This was in association with the prophecy in the scripture which says “there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots” (Isaiah 11:1). Since then the custom of erecting a Christmas tree has remained.
On the other hand the tradition of the Christmas crib is associated with St. Francis of Assisi who organized the first live crib in Greccio in 1223. It was an attempt to re-enact the scene of Bethlehem and this tradition has persisted to this day especially in the Catholic and Oriental Churches. The tradition of Santa Claus however is an offshoot of a popular feast of St. Nicholas a bishop in Turkey in the third century AD. He was known for his charitable works and would secretly deliver gifts to poor families. In the course of time, St. Nicholas evolved into Santa Claus and he is still associated with clandestinely giving gifts to children.
These are definitely positive elements of Christmas tradition and they have very valuable significances for Christians. Unfortunately, due to one reason or the other, the important and core message of Christmas seems to have shifted from Christ to Santa Claus or to a tree or to gifts or parties. Thus whenever Christmas comes, the children think only of Santa Claus, families think of Christmas trees, cakes and parties. It is strange to note that even Christmas cards seldom carry the image of the Bethlehem scene but rather they bear images of Santa Claus, Christmas trees, bells or snowman etc.
This I would call a kind of degeneration of a religious tradition which does affect the faith and belief of people. What we witness today is the advantage taken by the business world to capitalize on such developments. Thus Christmas has become highly commercialized and people are engrossed in Christmas shopping just like Puja shopping in India. China is one country that has capitalized on this. Mass production of Christmas articles and goods are being manufactured by Chinese companies. One can witness these in shops all over the world. Many Christmas wholesale shops are found in Guwahati and the business continues to thrive. China must be making billions of dollars each year on Christmas goods alone. The danger is that such a phenomenon may generate a good economy but it will result in a superficial religiosity. The commercialization of Christmas consequently results in commoditization of a deeply religious event. Is this not an emerging trend today where religions are becoming victims of a materialistic and consumerist culture?