The Christmas Feel

 Can anyone and everyone, anywhere and everywhere, even when  one does not have  a Christian friend, enjoy the Christmas Feel? Oh, Yes, absolutely, for sure! For one thing, the market forces would almost make it inevitable for you. 

 So many sales, rebates, 'one on one' schemes would get thrown at you that unless you follow a strict financial régimen, you are sure to get drowned in the Christmas special offers. Do not believe me!?! Just have a look at the overflowing street bazaars to swanky malls. My assertion would get more than (im)proved. 

The Christmas feel, however, is much more than this. Honestly, it is much more than the Carol Singing though that eventide vigil is sheer fun, too.  It is much more than the Christmas Mass which has its own gravitas. 

Remember Tolstoy's soul stirring description of the Easter Mass in 'Resurrection'? Believe me, the Christmas Mass is much more holier - yes, I am consciously using the double comparative - than that. I should know as i attended one. 

A hostel mate felt very lonely on Christmas Eve, far away from family. To cheer her up, we had all attended the Christmas Mass. Even when it was a Protestant congregation, wonderful was the Christmas decoration, the crib to the church rituals. The Catholic church sure would be more opulent and dazzling in capturing 'that magic in the air on this night' . 

The Christmas feel is much more than such rituals. To understand it better, yet again, as usual, we have to get back to literature. Remember Dickens' Scrooge? Remember how the Christmas spirit makes a new man of him? So, yes, the Christmas spirit is much more than the decorative tree full of lights. It is not merely the Santa gifts. It is not  just the lovely cake fragrance, either.

To understand the Christmas feel, i suppose, we have to get to know the Jesus goodness and compassion. He was innocence itself. Yet he was harassed most cruelly. He knew very well how one of his own inner circle, his seemingly pious disciple, was to give him away for a few ducats. Remember 'The Last Supper'? Yet his pity for the lost Judas, despite the knowingly cruel and vicious betrayal, never wavered.

He knew the difficulties of the downtrodden. Most all of his miracles consist of the hope he awakened in the lost. Despite being so very good, he was the sacrificial lamb for the evil. He bore that pain even when he was getting cruelly crucified. Yet his last words were, 'Forgive them, Lord. They know not what they do'. 

That pure state, that divine decency, that self understanding, common to all the religions, is what the Christmas spirit truly is. Even if we were to imbibe an iota of it, every day would be  Diwali, and every night the Christmas Eve!

Pratima@ Blessed indeed are the pure of the soul/Malicious ill treatment and jealous villainy of them taketh no toll!