Where Can We Find The Meaning of Christmas?
By Claudia Liburd
Nevis Reporter
In a quest to find the true meaning of Christmas, we at Sknvibes.com took to the streets to ask you:
What does Christmas mean to you?
For me Christmas is a time for merry making, it is a time for bonding with friends and family and you cannot forget that the true meaning of Christmas is remembering the birth of the Christ child. A little bit of eats and drinks, you cannot forget the eating with the roast pork and all of that good stuff for Christmas. You know that I am not forgetting to eat my roast pork this Christmas so tell Emmanuel that Sister C say that Christmas for me means eating a piece of pork and I will be back in the gym in January!
Carmen Griffin-Carey aka Sister C
Truly, Christmas for me means giving. I was brought up to understand that the ultimate gift was given at Christmas
time and that is the Christ and so God gave his only son so that man could be brought back to Him and He did it happily and unselfishly. That just goes to show for us as humans to understand that it is better to give than to receive and when you give you give unselfishly and of course the whole concept of giving brings receiving and so it is a time of giving and receiving. Ultimately, it is the foundation of our salvation and it is the foundation of our destiny and who we are, where we are headed and what we ought to be. Renford Dore
Christmas has become too materialistic and we have lost the true meaning of Christmas. It should be a family time and a time where families should look forward to getting together from wherever they are and coming home or being with your significant other. Do something special like making a photo album or do something of some significance rather than running out and buying something. I know that the stores have to get some money but if you want to do something, do something from the heart and give to somebody that does not have. To me Christmas has lost that warmth that you get from just being with your family members. Allison Guilbert
For me Christmas is lots of work, running here and running there and everywhere. Making sure that the children are
happy and that everyone is happy. It is all about your friends and family but most importantly, it is all about Christ. We have to put Christ first because He is the reason for Christmas and celebrating His birth. It is all about putting Christ first and that is very important to me. Joyce Moving
Christmas means a lot to me. It means happiness and joy. For Christmas I normally decorate, bake and cook.
I gather around with my family and friends to enjoy the hard work of the year. I just like to give, it is not about receiving and we must all remember that. Jean Kelly
From a literal standpoint the word Christmas comes from the old English Cristes maesse meaning Christs mass as Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. The actual birthday of Jesus is not known and so the early Church Fathers in the 4th Century fixed the day around the old Roman Saturnalia festival (17-21 December) that consisted of traditional pagan festivity. The winter solstice also occurs about 21st December each year and is the day of the year when the night is the longest and the daytime is the shortest. It was the traditional date for followers of many different pagan religions to celebrate the rebirth of the sun. Following the solstice, each succeeding day has slightly more sunlight than the previous day. Therefore the Christmas season was seen as a promise that warmth would return once more to the earth with the coming of Jesus Christ.
For me personally, Christmas has always been a very warm time for me as I look back on my childhood and reminisce on the way my heart would jump at the sight of the dazzling Christmas lights and the similar reaction that I had in my stomach when I sat at the Christmas table. My mother would prepare all manner of breads and cakes which would the highlight of my holiday. I also recall with nostalgia traveling into Port-of-Spain with my father to enjoy the sweet sounds of Parang music and the songs of Lord Kitchener as he sang out over the radio Drink a Rum and a Ponche Crema& (Mama drink if yuh drinking!!!). ~~Adz:Left~~
To me Christmas was always more of a feeling than a date. It was a sensation that you had in your heart. However, I think that the more we grow not only as individuals but as a society, the more we try to confine it to neat little marketing packages. A search on the internet for Christmas Spirit yields the results: Over 100 Marketing Experts Celebrate Christmas Spirit- The Christmas Spirit $5.49 at Overstock.com. You can find Spirit of Christmas right here. With over 5 million items for& It seems that Christmas is more of a commodity than a sentiment; we all want to wrap it up and package it nicely and give it to one another in sparkly paper.
Christmas in its entirety exceeds the regular commercialism that we cloak it in and is more about finding our peace and happiness as individuals than it is about presents. We should look inwards as we close out one year and move forward into a next and figure out how we can become better individuals. We should look at those negative habits that keep us back and stagnate our growth while we make a concerted effort to change. Ask yourself insightful questions that will enable you to individually figure out which barriers are preventing you from moving forward.
In my perception, Christmas is a time of newness and resolution when your year culminates and you move forward with greater understanding of yourself and environment. It is a time where you reconnect with God and praise Him for His blessings of abundance. It is a time for love and reconciliation regardless of the hatred and spite that may have gone down during the year and it is a time when we come together to celebrate the birth of Christ.
As we close out 2006 let us all pray for peace, prosperity and productivity for the New Year and as we grow closer to our true selves in 2007, I pray that we all fulfill our destiny and come to know God for the love He represents.
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE STAFF AND MANAGEMENT OF SKNVIBES.COM!!!
