{"id":121485,"date":"2021-12-24T17:38:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T00:38:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121485"},"modified":"2021-12-24T17:38:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T00:38:47","slug":"dont-let-covid-spoil-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/24\/dont-let-covid-spoil-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Let Covid Spoil Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Christmas\n2021 approached with several restrictions from the Sri Lankan Health\nauthorities due to Covid-19. Over two billion people celebrate the birth of\nChrist on 24 December every year. Christmas is the most joyful season in the\nyear. Generally it\u2019s an occasion for the family to reunite and everyone in the\nfamily joins for either lunch or dinner on Christmas: the menu is Turkey with\nstuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and vegetables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\ntypes of poultry, roast beef, or ham come to the dining table as extras. For\ndessert its pumpkin or apple pie, raisin pudding, Christmas pudding, or\nfruitcake. The Christmas tree a must for Christians, embellishes every home\nwith decorations that include bells, reindeer, candles, candy canes, garland,\nstockings, wreaths, snow globes, and angels irrespective of their faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas\nin Sri Lanka 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nChristmas is affected\nby the high cost of living: the public were spending frugally due to the sharp\nincrease in the cost of living, the floods, and the Covid-19 pandemic. The\npandemic forced the Government to shut down the country several times, the\nGovernment\u2019s dollar reserves weakened, declining the economy critically. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ncommon folk, particularly the farmers screamed about a bump on the ride, while\na few privileged VIPs got their hands up and enjoyed the gallop by holidaying\nin Nuwara Eliya, and others by travelling abroad<\/em> during the festive\nseason. On top of everything the LP gas explosions had a damaging clout on the\nGovernment; while, a person died from the gas explosion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas\narrives as\nusual at the end of the year to celebrate what Jesus Christ advised the\nmortals: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to\nconcentrate purely on accumulating wealth, but to realise that all living\nbeings devise ideas originating within  a person\u2019s heart  to\n tarnish him unless the person\u2019s  heart is pure, and mind is cleansed\n(Mark 7:21-23).\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nJesus Christ expected<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christians,\nespecially on Christmas, need to follow love and compassion<\/em> what Jesus\nChrist preached.  But it is ridiculous how people globally become victims\nof  a commercial hype. Christmas,\nof course, comes but once a year, and Christians declare year on year,\nespecially at mid-night Christmas Eve Mass, never to get bogged down in\ncommercial extravaganzas again! Yet they forget about it after a few\nmonths. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that\nsense during the festive season, Christmas turns into a contagious disease. It\nbecomes evidently clear with the congested traffic, shops and supermarkets and\njewellery shops packed to capacity to increase their turnover. People behave so\nludicrously as if the world is going to end<\/em><\/strong>! But this year Christmas is\ndifferent with the\nsoaring cost of everything \u2013 from vegetables to all household goods and\nmaterials in the building industry bearing an unreasonable price hike the\nbuying spree has abated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign\ncountries<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other\ncountries celebrate Christmas in style, irrespective of their religious faith,\nand get into the festive mood with decorations. The compulsory Christmas tree\nadorns the home with tinsels from the beginning of the month of December and\nremains until seven days after Christmas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\naspect of Christmas is the display of the vast amount of Christmas cards\nreceived by households as a means of exhibiting their circle of friends. Even\nmature folks begin to act like babies by playing alongside kids on Christmas\nwith children\u2019s electronic battery operated toys! The international shopping\nmalls and streets around get illuminated with scores of electric bulbs during\nthe festive season, akin to Vesak celebrations, spreading the splendour of\nChristmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas\ntree<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nhistory of the Christmas tree glittering with lights and decor goes back to\nancient Egypt and Rome, which continues to date. America managed to bring the\ncandlelit Christmas tree for the first time in 1800. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently,\nthe candlelit Christmas tree became fashionable in Germany. In 1846 London\nnews-stands illustrated Queen Victoria of Britain and Prince Albert with their\nchildren around a Christmas tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Before the birth of Christianity plants and\ntrees remained green throughout the year. Many countries believed that\nevergreen plants kept away ghosts, evil spirits, and illness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christmas\nstarted its celebrations universally since the 4th Century. Ever since, the\nyoung children were conditioned to believe in the ‘ jolly old man’<\/em>,\ncalled Father Christmas<\/em><\/strong>, with white whiskers, wearing a red robe,\nand a large sack containing gifts, visiting at homes at midnight through the\nroof or chimney. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nterm Father Christmas originated from St. Nicholas,  the Patron Saint of\nschoolchildren, after the death of Jesus. During the 17th century, Dutch\nProtestant settlers in New Amsterdam (New York) replaced St. Nicholas\n(Sinterklaas) with the name of the generous magician called Santa Claus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pre-Christmas<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\npreparation for Christmas, entrepreneurs concentrate on electronic contraptions\nand greeting cards printed in many forms to boost their income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At no\nother time during a year hypocrisy becomes so rampant. People spend money on\nChristmas presents and send Christmas cards even to immediate neighbours\nwhom they meet daily<\/em>. Sir Henry and John Horsley designed the first\nChristmas card with three panels \u2013 the outer two panels displayed people caring\nfor the poor, and the centre panel displayed a family enjoying Christmas\nlunch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently,\ncard manufacturers produce millions of Christmas cards throughout the world to\nincrease their revenue. Felling down trees annually for this purpose does\nan irreparable harm to the environment. The mince pie is regarded as a part of\nthe British culture for hundreds of years with Christmas lunch. Currently, over\n\u00a35 million (Rs 136,000,000) worth of mince pies, along with \u00a32 M (Rs\n55,000,000) million Christmas puddings get sold out during Christmas in the UK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus\nwas born an ordinary man and led a simple life by travelling from place to\nplace. Despite his teachings of kindness and forbearance, evil forces are\nat large leading towards disorder and a chaotic situation. Christ demonstrates\nhow to be tolerant, even during his traumatic moments on the cross by loving\nand forgiving the very people<\/em> who sentenced him to death! Therefore,\nenjoyment during Christmas should not be a commercial fun fare to kill pigs and\ndisembowel chicken and bring these as succulent dishes to the Christmas lunch\ntable, but to decorate people’s hearts with love, compassion and human\nfeeling for one another<\/em> and to ward off the worst impending disasters that\nare predicted in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

tilakfernando@gmail.com<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dr. Tilak S. Fernando\u00a0 Christmas 2021 approached with several restrictions from the Sri Lankan Health authorities due to Covid-19. Over two billion people celebrate the birth of Christ on 24 December every year. Christmas is the most joyful season in the year. Generally it\u2019s an occasion for the family to reunite and everyone in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-drtilak-s-fernando"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}