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True meaning of Christmas

What is the “true” meaning of Christmas, and where does Christ fit in? Is it really about “Christ,” or has it become more about “mas?” Does suffix trump prefix?

The International School of Port-of-Spain (ISPS) recently created mas of its own when it was alleged it had banned use of the phrase “Merry Christmas,” replaced the name of its Christmas concert with “holiday play,” and in effect enforced a bias against Christians.

Parents, Christian ones I deduce, wrote letters to the editor and carped hotly that the school was inflicting its profane prejudice and political correctness on pupils, who, it was made to seem, were bent on singing praises to the Lord on high.

Others wrote in arguing that, in general, the “true meaning of Christmas” has been exorcised in favour of impious consumerism and irreligious secularism. One Guardian letter writer, Paul Kokoski of Canada, even ventured to suggest that greeting someone with “happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” was, “taken to its logical conclusion, a wish for anarchy.”

Hidden agenda

But expressions such as “true meaning” are fluid concepts subject to variation over time and, it can be argued, must necessarily change over time as civilisation transforms itself. And in a society such as ours, and in a world like the one in which we live, which are complex, compound and constantly changing, “meaning” becomes less of an historical accuracy and more of a shared concept. The rightness or wrongness, consequently, both moral and historical, becomes an often moot and unsolvable point of contention.

Alas, when it comes to the perilous matter of religion, some things never change.

ISPS principal/director J Barney Letham (I love how the mighty initialise) said, “ISPS has not banned students, staff or members of (its) community from saying ‘Merry Christmas.’”

He repudiates the notion that ISPS’ provision of “an international education based upon a US curriculum model” somehow denotes an effort at spreading “some hidden US foreign policy agenda of immorality.”

The point is, as Letham noted, that “ISPS is a secular school” that teaches its students “to embrace, celebrate and respect all cultures and religions…celebrate all major cultural and religious events (including those specific to T&T)…and focus on respecting the customs and celebrations that have developed around these events…as espoused in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.”

Sounds good to me.

The problem, however, lies in its espousal of the “spirit” of Christmas rather than the “meaning” of Christmas. And this, some parents construe as bias.

Instead of sponsoring concerts and plays and decorations and treats for its students, the school has done what it considers to be the “spirit” of Christmas. ISPS has opted to host or advocate for numerous charity and donation drives, encouraging its students to give food, toys and clothing to schools and homes in need.

Similarly, as one parent pointed out, the “children, for the ‘Holiday Concert,’ are learning songs about attitudes that are part of the elementary school curriculum…co-operation, integrity, independence and tolerance.” She, however, does not seem to find it “agreeable to substitute a Christmas-themed celebration with a play that spends 90 per cent of its time singing about character traits unrelated to the birth of Christ.”

And, in what I can term only a precondition of fairness, ISPS appears to halt its support of “cultural and religious events” at a certain point; these events “are normally sponsored by a group of students, staff and/or parents,” not by the school.

That, unfortunately, is a new and divisive concept in T&T.

Over the generations, we have grown accustomed to the class party, the light up, the re-enactments and the singing, all as a matter of tradition and pleasing certain sects under the guise of respecting each person’s religion and culture.

Better lessons

Yet how often, really, is each man given his due? Is due regard paid to the Shouter Baptists, the Orishas, the Baha’i, the fundamentalists, the atheists? Is the same “respect” always given to Eid as it is given to Christmas? Is it even possible, financially and otherwise, to “respect” each and every body?

In a gesture of fairness and equality, the school says no, and rightly so.

Additionally, in a secular democracy, no one religion can take precedence over another.

Unfortunately, in T&T, we have a long tradition of Christianisation, and Christianity often determines our ethical standards. When the head of government was being installed, he was sworn in to the sounds of the Hallelujah chorus and Battle Hymn to the Republic. Any foreigner looking on would swear some Christian denomination was T&T’s national religion.

So, too, Christmas has long has a well-established place in the social topography.

ISPS realises that, as a secular school, preference cannot be shown to one and not others. Thus, instead of celebrating certain religions’ festivities, it explicitly teaches, according to its principal, how to celebrate and respect them.

Arguably, that is far greater a tool for children to learn than simply “Christmas is about the birth of Christ” or “Divali is about light over darkness.”

In fact, I would venture to suggest that its push for students to learn “co-operation, integrity, independence and tolerance,” its push for children to get involved in helping the needy, and its push to for its students to learn exactly what these festivities are about rather than mindlessly celebrating them are much more valuable not only for them, but also for the country as a whole.

The aforementioned qualities and activities benefit society and better the individual.

They are altruistic, noble, honourable—hell, I would even say divine. They are higher than religion, higher than tradition, and higher than celebration.

And, I dare say, that is the “true” meaning of Christmas.