On other lists, many people are sending, "seasons greetings". My non
existent relationship with Christmas gives me some distance. Of course, I
didn't always feel unrelated. I was married to a man whose background was
Italian Catholic. Even though he was not a practicing Catholic, he
celebrated the holiday and we had children who needed to feel part of the
world and so of course, they celebrated the holiday. But actually, what we
celebrated, was what our fellow members of the Ethical Humanist Society
called, "the Winter Festival" or "winter solstice". But the holiday involved
pressures. It was never a purely joyful time. I was relieved when, after
Fred died and the children were grown, I could remove myself emotionally,
from the whole thing. I still attended some traditional family
get-togethers. I sent and received greeting cards. But I began, over the
years, to see this season in a very different way than it is represented.
What I see is a holiday, originally a time for religious worship, turned
into a commercial opportunity. For one thing, one is expected to give
monetary gifts to people like the mail delivery person, the garbage
collection people, and when I owned my apartment, all of the service people
in the building. Way back, when banks still gave people 5% compound interest
on savings accounts, each year they advertised a Christmas Club account. One
could put money aside all year in order to have enough to pay for Christmas
gifts. The catch was that these Christmas Club accounts paid no interest at
all. The banks got to use people's money all year without paying them
anything. Yet, people were taken in. People feel a lot of pressure to buy
gifts, and to attend work parties which are usually held in restaurants. All
these workers celebrate together and the restaurants make money. Everyone
donates a gift which they purchase. From October on, there is a concerted
effort to convince people to spend a lot of money for gifts and celebrations
and vacations in order to be part of the Christmas spirit. Every year, a
bunch of books telling stories that take place during the Christmas season,
are released, and people buy them. Christmas is an obsession and it is also
a distraction from one's real life problems, an escape from troubles. Of
course, it isn't always an escape. It's the time when alcoholics drink more,
when lonely people feel more isolated, when the suicide rate goes up. It's
the time when we are reminded, in case we managed to deny it, that
Christianity is the State Religion. There's the Christmas tree lighting at
the White House and there are similar ceremonies throughout the land. In
Westbury, there was a Christmas tree and a manger scene in front of the
Village recreation center. Everyone asks, "What are you doing for
Christmas?" If the answer is, "Nothing", they're shocked. You get a pass if
you give an explanation like, "I'm Jewish". But that is the only acceptable
excuse.
Miriam
