Glenda Simms
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2005 will mark the end of a week in which all the local print media penned a variety of stories on the meaning of Christmas, the traditions and history of the related celebrations and the roots of all the paraphernalia which decorate the halls and the banisters of homes in many parts of the country.
Some stories have been written by priests, pastors and lay persons of many religious denominations, age groups and sexual persuasions. Each writer would have put his or her particular spin on the rituals at this time of year and many of them will bore their readers with the same tired debates about the commercialisation of Christmas or the selective interpretation of the birth, life and times of Jesus Christ.
INTELLIGENT DESIGN
To add to the noise and confusion around the season, the local media would also have carried the story of a United States of America Federal Judge who ruled that "intelligent design" cannot be taught in biology classes in a Pennsylvania public school district.
The term 'intelligent design' is the current descriptor for the biblical creation story which suggests that an all-powerful being designed the world and all its fauna and flora in six working days.
Taken to its logical conclusion the 'intelligent design' test might be applied to the Christmas rituals which are being carried out in public schools in all Christianised countries at this time of year. For instance, the idea of the 'immaculate conception' might soon be revisited when the teachers put on their 'manger scenes' in the classroom on the last school day before the Christmas break.
Just as this reader was trying to find a 'make sense' story between the cake and sorrel recipes and the 'gripe sessions', the eyes were drawn to the headline "Christmas is cancelled this year!" which appeared on the feature page of the December 20th, 2005 edition of The Gleaner.
FROM THE MOUTH OF BABES
In this article, 12-year-old Sonam Khemlani, a grade-seven student of Immaculate Conception High School penned a beautiful and complex article on the meaning of Christmas for children. She detailed all the actions that put an end to the Christmas of her fertile imagination. She ended her article by stating that adults "just don't understand the meaning of Christmas for children".
This statement from a 12-year-old forced me to try and recollect the meaning that Christmas had for me when I was her age, and also the meaning that Christmas had for some of the children with whom I interacted. In December 1966, I had the privilege of experiencing Christmas rituals in the far Northern regions of Alberta, Canada. In a two-room school in Fort Chipewyan, a group of bright-eyed First Nation children were eagerly awaiting their Christmas treat while they practised their lines and songs for the school concert to which their parents were invited. I recall vividly my efforts at trying to keep their attention on the true meaning of Christmas the birth of the baby Jesus and all the mystery and wonder of this biblical occasion.
In this effort I asked if anyone amongst the 10 seven-year-olds in the room could recall what happened at the first Christmas. There was a defining silence in the room until one brave little boy named Robert Bruisedhead raised his right hand and said "me teacher".
"Ok Robert, tell us what happened on the first Christmas day," said I with great anticipation.
"Miss, Christmas is about the time when some people rolled away the stone from in front of this guy's hole and he came out, looked around, saw his shadow, and went back inside his hole," said Robert.
True to form, little Snookie Fraser intervened and attempted to correct Robert. She said,
"No fool, that is not Christmas, that is Easter."
GROUND HOG DAY
I stood in amazement as it dawned on me that the biblical stories of Jesus' birth and death had converged with the legend of the ground hog who heralds the beginning of spring when he leaves his hole and does not see his shadow.
Like the children of Northern Alberta, Jamaican children are being raised in a society in which the meaning of Christmas is defined by adults who create all the hoopla around bright lights, fake snowflakes, artificial pine trees, plastic baubles and ribbons made in China and Taiwan, and the hoarse voice of a fat, white man who slides his way across the frozen tundra on the backs of a group of repressed female reindeers.
In a real sense young Sonam Khemlani has a theory that could rival all the planks of the 'intelligent design'.
Dr. Glenda P. Simms is a gender expert and consultant.
