Culture Has Symbols

[HagiaSophia]

Dennis Prager writes on the importance of cultural symbols among which are Christmas decorations:

"Among the most foolish ideas to emanate from the foolish '60s is that what you feel in your heart is more important than what you publicly express. According to this thinking, to cite one example, patriotism is a feeling, not a flag displayed on national holidays. On the contrary, such displays are derided as “flag waving,” which has been rendered a pejorative term.

We have lost an appreciation for the monumental significance of public ritual in maintaining our national identity and values. We have also greatly overstated the ability of feelings to be maintained without public expression of those feelings…"

"…That is why many of us want the Pledge of Allegiance with the words “under God” said in schools every day. The argument that anyone can do all the God-talk they want at home or at church is no more convincing than the argument that anyone can sing the national anthem at home, so why have people do it at baseball games? Public expressions of societal values are crucial to keeping those values alive.

An America without its flag displayed on national holidays is an America that has lost its sense of self. I am not arguing that displaying the flag guarantees patriotism, only that (a) it is an indispensable aid to its survival, and that (b) never displaying the flag will eventually kill patriotism.

Which brings me to Christmas decorations. A Christian can feel deeply religious and personally celebrate Christmas with great fervor without hanging one light bulb in front of his home. But society suffers from such a self-directed faith. It will be a very sad day in America if Christmas decorations are entirely absent. I am a religious Jew who deeply bemoans the absence of Christmas decorations (or menorahs in windows) in large parts of my city, Los Angeles. My city and I are the poorer for it. "

worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41920

 

[juno24]

Wow! How timely is this post! I have actually been sitting here considering whether or not I was going to put up Christmas decorations this year. I had almost decided against it until I read the column quoted in the post.
Thank you so much for reminding me that outward displays are actually quite necessary to maintain the inner sense of devotion.
I will put up my decorations this week!
Thanks again.
Have a great day!
Judy

 

[Almeria]

Wonderful! I can definately relate. My hometown in New York always put up decorations on the lampposts. The decorations themselves dated back to a time when our town was prosporus (sp?), and when I was a child, had already started to look dated. To me, though, seeing them shimmer on a moonlit snowy night helped make the Christmas season special. It was a physical representation of the town itself wanting to make everyone’s Christmas a little more joyful.

They don’t have the decorations anymore. And as Prager says, the town is much the poorer for it.

 

[jlw]

As a convert to the Catholic faith, one thing that “seemed right” as I was reaching my theological conclusions about Catholicism, was the outward signs of faith:

Sacraments and Traditions
Rituals or customs (“smells and bells”, traditions)
*Icons, statues, or art, *crucifixes

All of these are a part of our faith, whether they be actions (sacraments, etc), or reminders (Icons, art, etc), they keep GOD present IN ALL THE SENSES–not just “feeling”–visual, auditory, touch, smell.

The beauty and richness of the Catholic Faith is such a gift.

The lights and decorations were always great when I was a kid in my new-agey secular home, but it’s has taken on new meaning now that we decorate our home with hope and joy for our Lord.

 

[jlw]

How many of you take Advent traditions/rituals seriously? How many of you “do” Christmas from Dec 1st-Dec 25th. How many focus on Dec 25th- Jan 6th???

 

[GilKobrin]

I find the imperative within such religions - Judaism, Catholicism - to engage in social interaction and not cut one’s self off from one’s community to be quite interesting.

It seems to me a completely inward focus - and the consequent ignoring of external forces and influences, both positive and good - is a primary factor in leading one’s self down a path of sin.

I do not believe that Man can be an autonomous entity, isolated from all else; the more someone believes such a thing, the more someone becomes wrapped up in a world of fantasy. And that’s not a good thing.

 

[The_Hidden_Life]

jlw:

How many of you take Advent traditions/rituals seriously? How many of you “do” Christmas from Dec 1st-Dec 25th. How many focus on Dec 25th- Jan 6th???

I think our family was the only one in my child’s RE class not to have a Xmas tree up yet. I try not to buy a tree til the last few days before the 25th.

I did relent and hang up a wreath (mostly to avoid the glass ornaments getting broke by kids sitting on the box) and we have a few strands of lights up outside. We are new to our neighborhood and apparently we’ve moved into the local equivalent of a Candy Cane Lane or something. Nearly every house for three blocks or more has not just lights but animated figures, inflatable Grinches, etc. So we put up a few strands of lights to be neighborly. One neighbor even has “Happy Birthday Jesus” in giant white lights on the front of his house, kinda nice.

The sad thing will be that all the decorations will start coming down by the time we are ready to celebrate!

Other than that, we have a Nativity set out (no people in it yet), an Advent calendar (the chocolate kind, a gift), and our collection of small St. Nicholas figures on a shelf in the dining room (since we celebrated St. Nicholas day already–the kids got candy and a doll dress in their rainboots).

We are not as good as we should have been about lighting the advent wreath every night at dinner, but when we do it, the kids love it. We eat by the candlelight and that first week it was kind of interesting! My kiddos are too young to really appreciate a Jesse Tree but we made one last year to enjoy later.

JLW, I have to agree with you, the externals of the faith are one thing that I was so happy to embrace. In fact, the externals are one thing that I was purposely looking for when I was at the beginning of my search for a more history-aware Christianity.

I am so lucky to live in a town that at least acknowledges Christmas. Just tonight “Santa” and his helpers drove by our house (in a decorated shed towed by a firetruck) and collected food for the needy and stopped at each corner and visited with children who came to see him. The Rotary club does this every night for a week or more. Very cool and my kids were so excited.

Our local public school even put on a musical program that included both secular and religious Christmas songs (albeit in German and carefully chosen not to contain the name of Jesus), along with the Hanukah and Kwanzaa and happy winter songs.
Santa made an appearance at the program and there were many Christmas trees (but with charity tags instead of ornaments) in the high school where the concert was.

We missed the tree-lighting downtown, sponsored by the city, but Santa was there again and there was even a sermon by a local pastor! I hope the character of our town doesn’t change!

 

[BrianDay]

jlw:

How many of you take Advent traditions/rituals seriously? How many of you “do” Christmas from Dec 1st-Dec 25th. How many focus on Dec 25th- Jan 6th???

At our house, we do not decorate until after the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Traditionally, decorations would go up on Christmas Eve. We don’t want to wait that long so we compromised and wait until after the last Sunday of Advent.