My Sentiments About Christmas and New Year Celebrations In Society

[Cccgala]

Christmas

I honestly think that Christmas is predominantly seen as a secular and commercialized holiday at this advanced point of our civilization. Practically speaking, from gifts and living Christmas trees to food, everyone's been preparing for the Yuletide Season. Society has been incorporating Christmas as a time for reconciliation of relatives after a hard year's work. It also sees Christmas as a "bridge" to the majestic welcoming of the New Year.

People, regardless of religious affiliations, involve themselves into celebrating Christmas so often that they tend to be unconscious themselves that listening and/or singing Christmas songs and giving gifts to their relatives do constitute the culture affiliated with Christmas for so long.

Businesses take Christmas the opportunity to market their products which are frequently under the spell-like powers of two words placed side-by-side: "Christmas" and "sale".

This is a diversion as the modern culture implies a different implication from Christmas' intention of glorifying the birth of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem during the Biblical Times which was said to occur in the days of the town's then-king, Herod.

New Year

New Year countdowns somehow give humanity a sense of temporary unity when it comes to welcoming another start of Earth's revolution around the Sun.

People stay up late at night to witness the colorful fireworks in the night skies alongside the stars.

People also celebrate New Year with the use of firecrackers. This is one tradition we've inherited from the Chinese (as far as I can recall my History classes). This is a big deal in the country where I live (Philippines) because firecrackers are easily bought at affordable prices. Children as young as 3 years old are involved in the use of firecrackers (most commonly used is the "piccolo").

In worse cases, parents and/or legal guardians can be negligent at times because they're sometimes the ones influencing the use of firecrackers.

Fortunately, the national government diligently issues public safety measures in cases of "New Year casualties".

It sucks to know that there had been people that had undergone a bad start of their New Year last 2015 with open wounds, a skyrocketing hospital bill, and a risk of slow recovery. I don't want the same to happen on the 31st of December 2016 and the 1st of January 2017.

I haven't encountered a New Year Celebration with no accidents at all. I think a clean and crude 0% in casualties is virtually impossible as long as firecrackers are patronized and used.

Conflicting Beliefs

I've seen most people insist that Christmas is exclusively for Christians and that other believers should not meddle with such tradition.

The mentality mentioned above is not acceptable to me.

I believe and I bear in mind that celebrating any event is a choice made by an individual. It is someone's prerogative to either conform to traditions as a way of celebration or disregard conformity at all.

Let's all enjoy the upcoming events that will serve as this year's culmination! 😃

[glock33sig357]

It's a time to spend with family & friends and celebrate completing a year in good health and being thankful for the gift of life , help those that need it the most and be inspired to face the New Year with greater sense of purpose in your life spiritually, physically & financially in order to help others do the same. Christmas origins are pagan but the fellowship and goodwill to all is what Christ taught & what we as humans should practice all year round not just for a season.

[Anonymous]

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[Opinion Owner]

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[Anonymous]

thanks for sharing ur thoughts

[Cccgala]

You're welcome!