The Business of Christmas
In recent weeks I've been taking some fellow teachers out to tea just to chat and hang out. It's my attempt to connect on a more personal level with some of my Chinese educational peers instead of only hanging out with students. It's also good for my Chinese. On the way to the tea house we walked by a hideous, life sized, electronically powered, dancing Santa Claus. As it shook its hips from left to right, I sighed quietly. One of the teachers turns to me, "When you see those things does it make you think of home? Isn't it nice?"I reply with a fairly straight-forward "no." Even commercialized Christmas in America isn't nearly as tacky... at least I hope not. I tell her I'm not at all interested in people celebrating a holiday with no understanding of it beyond making money. She thinks about my response and nods.
"It's just for fun really. It's a kind of fascination with cultural differences," she adds, "Maybe the Santa looks dumb and meaningless to you, but I guess it's something like how Westerners are really intrigued by Chinese characters or dragons. It's just different enough to be interesting and fun, even if we don't get the meaning." Yea, maybe that is it, but I still think there is something more.. .
So if it's not about money, if it's not about cultural fascination, then what is the business of Christmas?
I think it has to do with the beginnings of the deepest kind of relational connections. It's reflected in the incarnation, his desire to connect again with a world that has long forgotten him. At the least Christmas is celebrated, even by those who don't believe, in a search to connect with loved ones.
The business of Christmas is connecting in order to redeem. We here in Wuhu hope to be about that business.
In the upcoming weeks we will be actively seeking to connect with our students and fellow teachers in order to share this greater ideal of Christmas. This week we're hanging out with our student librarians to bake cookies and make ornaments. Next week we'll be with like-minded students celebrating alongside other students just becoming more interested. The week after that there will be an invitation to administration and new teachers to come over for tea, coffee, cider and other Christmas treats.
Maybe at that party the fellow teacher I chatted with about the dancing Santa will see something more.
And that's just a small sample of what's going on this season. There are all kinds of other similar, idealistic celebrations being held by family throughout the city with the aim of deeper connection. It seems each year such celebrations just get bigger. That's something to be thankful for.
So please be lifting up all these parties and events. May they be places where Christmas is lived and celebrated in the manner it deserves. May they be places where students, teachers, and this city can connect with one another in deeper ways than lit up trees and sales.
posted by Unknown @ 12:13 AM
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