It’s that time of the year when families, colleagues and friends gather to celebrate.
The Christmas season may no longer be as “religious” as it used to be years back, but traditions that are linked with the birth of Jesus, in what is still thought to be Catholic Malta (although practising Catholics are on the decline), are still prevalent among us.
Many homes are still decorated at this time of the year, gifts are still exchanged in the hope that the receiver is as happy with the present as much as the giver thought he or she would be, and there is a general slowdown as people are either on holiday or, at least, in holiday mood.
It would be interesting to know, for example, by how much the productivity rate drops in the last two weeks of the “old year” and the first week of the “new one”. But, on the whole, everyone deserves a break and, just as much as the middle of August is considered to be a time for holidays, so is the end of December and beginning of January.
There’s a time for everything, and as much as hard work is important, so is relaxation, and spending social time with people you work with every day, or relatives you hardly ever get to see during the year, is equally significant for a balanced life.
And so colleagues at work get to gather in social occasions away from the office, factory or other place of work, friends meet up to share some good time together and families sit around tables in what, for many of them, is a yearly event.
Malta is a small country and it should be much easier to meet up, and yet one finds that there are many constraints that prevent such happenings. People drift apart and, in spite of a physical geography that is a speck when compared to the rest of the world, there are people who have been at school together or worked together who have never met each other again since school ended or since one of them left that particular workplace.
In a day and age where commitments are back-to-back and, in spite of living in what is known as a globalised and connected world, person-to-person meetings are becoming rarer and rarer, the end of the year gives many the opportunity to catch up with their closest ones, even though the term “close” today has a different meaning to what it was not so long ago.
Over the years there has been a constant shift from the religious aspect of Christmas to a more secular way of celebrating.
It is safe to say that, for example, Midnight Masses are no longer as popular as they used to be, although it is also a fact that many make it a point to at least go to Mass on Christmas Day even though they do not go to Church on every Sunday as all practising Catholics are encouraged to do.
In a society that is changing – and with so many more foreigners of a different background and religion making Malta their home – this particular time of the year is more of “happy holidaying” than a “merry Christmas”, if you get the drift.
Still, we should not forget the real meaning behind what is being celebrated. The Church insists that Christ should remain the focal point, and His birth is, after all, the reason why we have a public holiday on 25 December, as the rest of the Christian world. The story, as narrated in the Bible, is similar to the many we hear about these days as migrants move from one place to another in search of a better life. When we hear the Bethlehem story we tend to be angry with the inn-keepers who did not have a room for Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus. Think about what we’re all doing today when we do not accept others – not only in our homes, but in society in general too.
This takes us to mention those people who do not celebrate Christmas like most of us do. They would like to, but they do not have the means. The inflation that we have experienced in the past two years is making life much more difficult for people whose income is on the low end. It is no wonder that Christmas meals organised by NGOs are attracting more and more people each year.
Then there are those for whom Christmas does not bring good tidings. They may have lost a loved one, or are passing through a difficult time, or simply do not like this time of the year. Spare a thought for them too, and do not attempt to force them into celebrating.