{"id":117399,"date":"2013-12-25T13:15:01","date_gmt":"2013-12-25T07:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=117399"},"modified":"2013-12-31T15:17:50","modified_gmt":"2013-12-31T09:47:50","slug":"christmas-outside-reveillon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/christmas-outside-reveillon\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Outside R\u00e9veillon"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Malinda Seneviratne<\/a><\/span>\u00a0–<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Malinda<\/a>

Malinda Seneviratne<\/p><\/div>\n

Christmas came to me as cards, the colours green and red, and pictures of snow.\u00a0 This was when I was a child.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know back then that Jesus Christ was not a blond-haired, blue-eyed, white man who was born in a snow-covered day in December.\u00a0 It took me a while to understand that history can be read as a process of appropriations, re-crafting and the re-crafted being marketed as truth.<\/p>\n

I am a Buddhist so I could be forgiven for growing up thinking that Christmas was a festival; made up, as I said, of greeting cards, Christmas trees, carols and such.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long, however, for me to understand that there was a lot more to Christmas than the glitter. After factoring out frill, myth and appropriation, there\u2019s still so much of value in the story of Jesus Christ and not just for those who see him as \u2018Son of God\u2019, \u2018Saviour\u2019 etc.\u00a0 At least, that\u2019s my impression, from my reading of the Bible and understanding of relevant ecclesiastical matters.\u00a0 This is perhaps why Christmas appears to me as a monumental fiction.<\/p>\n

No, I am not opposed to the celebration, the cheer and festive spirit, not at Christmas nor on any other day.\u00a0 That\u2019s a right and it is healthy too. Down-in-the-mouth is not exactly my cup of tea.\u00a0 I worry, though, whether this is all it is for the vast majority of Christians.\u00a0 I have no way of knowing of course about what Christians do in the in-betweens, befores and afters of \u2018Christmassing\u2019.\u00a0 I see a lot of crass commercialization, spectacle and bucks exchanging hands.\u00a0 Maybe what is not seen outweighs several time what is seen. Maybe not.<\/p>\n

I can only speak of how I, a Buddhist, understand Christmas or rather what I do on Christmas.\u00a0 This morning I got a Christmas greeting. From a Buddhist.\u00a0 Jinadasa Liyanaratne\u2019s email message was as follows: \u2018This is to wish you and all members of your family a merry Christmas and a very happy and bright New Year.\u00a0 Although I am a Buddhist (or because I am a Buddhist!) I have great respect for Jesus Christ and his message of love.\u00a0 It is rather a pity that Christians pay more attention to the R\u00e9veillon (Christmas supper) than to the spiritual aspect of the occasion.\u2019<\/p>\n

As I said, I don\u2019t know what the average Christian does before and after Christmas supper.\u00a0 I had never heard the word \u2018R\u00e9veillon\u2019 before either.\u00a0\u00a0 As I always do when encountering the unfamiliar, I \u2018looked up\u2019. \u2018R\u00e9veillon\u2019 means \u2018awakening\u2019 in French and refers to an elaborate meal taken after attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 Apparently, in the past, it marked the end of the four-week \u2018Advent\u2019 fast.\u00a0 I never thought, until today, that \u2018fast\u2019 was even remotely associated with \u2018Christmas\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Fast\u2019 is made of a certain kind of denial and is usually associated with a determination to devote time to reflection on the fundamental tenets of one\u2019s religious convictions.\u00a0 It is a time to reflect on frailties, on error to self, other and (if one so believes) to god.\u00a0 It is a determination to devote time to meditate on the eternal verities, obtain a sense of proportion on worldly and spiritual things.\u00a0 It is a time to be penitent; not just ask for forgiveness (from those who are believed to possess the authority to judge and confer forgiveness) but to grieve, to sigh (if one went to the relevant Hebrew word) and commit oneself to changing ways, call it \u2018to see God\u2019 if you will.<\/p>\n

One does not have to be a theist to do all these things, or at least to obtain from Christmas that something that makes one a better Buddhist or Muslim, for example.\u00a0 We all have things to grieve over. We all have done and said things we ought to feel ashamed about.\u00a0 We all have reasons to reflect. We can all be better than who we are right now.\u00a0 Jesus Christ\u2019s life was one of generosity. It was one of humility.\u00a0 He sighed.<\/p>\n

This Christmas I will reflect on Jesus Christ, the beautiful man that he was and the remarkable life he led.\u00a0 I believe feasting would interrupt or disturb my meditation. I shall fast.<\/p>\n

*Malinda Seneviratne is the Chief Editor of \u2018The Nation\u2019\u00a0and his articles can be found at\u00a0www.malindawords.blogspot.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":105560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nChristmas Outside R\u00e9veillon - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/christmas-outside-reveillon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Outside R\u00e9veillon - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/christmas-outside-reveillon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-25T07:45:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-31T09:47:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Malinda-Seneviratne-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"130\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"COLOMBO TELEGRAPH\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/christmas-outside-reveillon\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/christmas-outside-reveillon\/\",\"name\":\"Christmas Outside R\u00e9veillon - 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