'Tis The Season

On this day one year ago I posted something on Facebook. Big surprise there. I do it all the time. The difference with this post was that, unlike most other posts, I actually still remember it without having to go through my timeline.

I had posted “‘Tis the season for mindless consumerism falalalalalalalala!”

I don’t usually post social or political commentary, so I expected a bit of a reaction, but it really didn’t get much at all.

The reason I posted it was because with the beginning of December began the Christmas season for most people. I wanted to point out that most people seem to equate Christmas with consumerism (and eating).

One of my profs (not my philosophy prof this time) was explaining to us the Christian calendar as opposed to the calendar we’re all used to, Today is the first Sunday of Advent, in four weeks it will be Christmas day. We are supposed to be looking forwards to and preparing for the wonderful day that the Divine Christ Child is born. Of course, businesses saw an opportunity to make some capital off this celebration. It was not them who started the tradition of giving gifts, but they did move the whole of the Christmas celebration to the days leading up to the big day.

You see, the Christmas season only starts on Christmas day. After all, no one knew Jesus was coming before hand. (unless you believe that the wise men had been there the day of, which means that the star had appeared sometime before hand to give them the time to get from Persia to Bethlehem…) Christmas day celebrates the birth of the Lord and marks the beginning of the Christmas season that lasts twelve days until Epiphany.

Yet nowadays the Christmas season starts the day after Halloween (sometimes even earlier though I like to wait until December 1st) and goes until Christmas day. Boxing day means sales, and then the Christmas season is over. We buy our fireworks, celebrate New Years, then go back to work and wait until the next Christmas.

Now I want to make it clear that I’m not saying away with the capitalistic driven season of self-indulgence, but I do think that we should remember what this time is all about, let’s remember the birth of Jesus, and let’s remember each other as well.