Merry Festivus and the like
Benns' Belief
The bare November days of Robert Frost have receded. Now we face December, a month of merriment and significant events.
First up is that perennial crowd-pleaser, the anniversary of the Statute of Westminster. That’s of course when an act of the British Parliament gave Canada its autonomy in 1931. Now we’re free to get our own decisions wrong without the United Kingdom’s help.
For instance, Exhibit A: Justin Trudeau and Exhibit B: Doug Ford. The first doesn’t know when to quit and the second thinks sending $200 cheques to millionaires and billionaires is good economic policy. (I wonder what Galen Weston will do with his $200? Maybe he’ll spend it at one of his own stores. At least he can fill one bag of groceries.)
After the merriment of the Statute of Westminster anniversary, we then acknowledge Dec. 21, also known as the winter solstice. That’s a Wiccan-sounding euphemism for when we start to freeze our bums and other sundry body parts right off.
If I’ve fully recovered from celebrating those two raucous events, my next favourite holiday is Festivus. As popularized by Seinfeld, it’s a secular holiday celebrated on Dec. 23 as an alternative to the commercialism of the Christmas season. (Keep in mind I simply love the cheekiness of the holiday; please visit our advertisers found in this magazine and tell them I sent you.)
And I don’t need to tell you about Christmas. You’re celebrating it for all kinds of reasons. Christian tradition. Familial pressure. FOMO. No matter your cultural orientation, it’s pretty hard to escape something called the Christmas season when it lasts longer than a Canadian summer.
I must admit, I do less and less for Christmas each year. As my kids started not to care so much about Christmas decorating, I followed their lead. You know those folks who put up Christmas lights on their house and leave them up all year long? First, I never bothered with that much effort, even at my Christmas-caring peak. But I’ve taken this idea to another level. I now have a one-metre-high Christmas tree that I leave decorated from year to year. I put it in a tall storage cupboard and then each year I can just remove it and set it in the living room. Challenge met.
This year, I also acquired two Christmas pillowcases, as accent pillows on my sofa. They are white on one side (for most of the year) and then I just flip them over when it’s time to celebrate the holiday.
While most of us celebrate Christmas in some form or another, not everyone celebrates Boxing Day. That’s when we go on YouTube and stream old videos of our favourite boxing matches. I’m partial to Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson, or Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson. I’m a sucker for pretty much any fight where a thug loses.
No matter what you celebrate – or why – I wish you the very best of the holiday season.
Interesting “view” of Christmas….given a “saviour” was born this day in Bethlehem” to “save” his people …but, the greater question remains from what? Sin? Or, the righteous anger of God from a peoples whom have gone astray and acknowledge not the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ? Your “holiday” your way your choice your peril…none from Canada shall stand before the throne of glory and claim “we had no choice”… Canada, the land of rights, and privileges and no personal responsibilities….let that be a pastoral proclamation one ye shall not hear from the pulpit in the land of the dead.
Consider the state of the day..as revealed from the scriptures: When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.
I confess. I love winter solstice, Orion hunting the night sky while snow falling softly against the street and other bright lights bravely suggests the possibility of peace on earth. I begin counting the lengthening days after that. It’s a tradition of mine. 😁 I was never comfortable with the Christmas tree tradition; as a child, I felt so sad for all the trees, living beings like the rest of us that, just days after New Year’s, lay at the curb, unadorned and cast off as trash. It seemed such a wasteful cruelty; I fancied I heard them weeping. And isn’t it kinda sadistic to lie to children about St. Nick (and Krampus, St. Nick’s sadistic foil)? Doesn’t that teach duplicity? As Tolstoy observed in Anna Karenina, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”. What is it about humanity and the stories we tell to keep at bay the horror of death and the mysteries of life; AKA the facts? Why can’t we embrace the virtues of truth and goodness? Oh right, mortality. The reason for the season. I celebrate the story of Christmas, the story of Jesus, the story of hope and love and the triumph of good over evil, the story of redemption and everlasting life, the story of selfless, anonymous giving, in my own quiet way. To shore up what I can against what I can’t. And I go for a long Christmas walk to admire the beauty and innocence of life. I may not have a Christmas tree but I do have a Festivus Tree that stays up, decorated, all year round, a needle-less, leafless twig reminiscent of a Charlie Brown tree, adorned with tiny, shiny baubles, the envy of every magpie scavenging for gifts for a god in a manger. Glad Tidings, everyone, and Happy Festivus for the Rest of Us to you, yours, and everyone everywhere, all year ’round. Because that’s Christmas, isn’t it, for all god’s suffering creation, all the time, the promise of eternity.