UNIVERSE: The true spirit of Christmas

Some time back, my 10-year-old daughter was reading an old book by a British author, in which a character greeted another on Christmas Day with ‘Happy Christmas!’ “That’s wrong,” my daughter remarked. “It’s Merry Christmas, not Happy Christmas.”

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I explained the difference between ‘merry’ and ‘happy’ to my child and reassured her that wishing people a ‘Happy Christmas’ rather than a merry one was perfectly acceptable, but this episode got me thinking about the tangled mess of religion, popular celebration, and more.

Today, the idea of a ‘merry’ Christmas is all-pervasive. Even people who know little or nothing about the religious background of Christmas — the fact that it commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, over 2,000 years ago — wish each other a Merry Christmas. But what is ‘merriment’? Not happiness, not the peace and contentment that is true happiness. Merriment is simply the trappings, the outward signs of rejoicing. The feasting, the singing and dancing, the decorations. You can be merry without being happy. You can go through the motions; you can even end up feeling quite elated — all without feeling any real happiness.

The true spirit of Christmas is not (as so many merrymaking punsters fervently assert) all about ‘spirits’. For the faithful, Christmas is all about the birth of Christ, the coming into this world of a saviour, a messiah. For those less devout, though, too, Christmas can be a reminder of all that Christ stood for: humanity, peace, goodwill towards all. These were the teachings of Christ, and they are a reflection of what drives most religions.

All religions, in some way or the other, aim to make us better human beings: to teach us to be kinder, gentler, more like the deities we worship. They also, in their own way, offer hope in the time of despair, light where there is darkness. A Christ born in Herod’s tyrannical reign is akin to a Krishna taking birth to save the land from the terrors of Kansa. The darkness that the Koran says will be dispelled by the light of Allah is the same that is indicated by the mantra, ‘Asato ma sadgamaya, tamso maa jyotir gamaya’, from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: a prayer that knowledge, and the peace and contentment that stems from it, will replace the darkness of ignorance and despair.

At this time of the year, with not just Christmas coming up but also a new year, we should remember this: that we are all, irrespective of the religion we follow (or do not follow), human beings. We have the same fears, the same challenges and problems. To accept that we are the same, and therefore worthy of respect, is essential if we are to truly let the light into our lives. To let that happen, too, it’s important for us to go deep down to the heart of religion: to aim to be better human beings, to emulate those we revere.

I do not mean a drastic cutting down of all the festivities and celebrations surrounding Christmas (or any other religious festival); not at all — but a more pronounced effort to remember what the festival really stands for, and to make that the focus of our celebration.

We can hope for a truly blessed festival, when we, too, can be a blessing to others.

— The writer is a novelist and short story writer