IT’S not only the festive mood felt from the sparkling lanterns and joyful songs playing that should warm our hearts this Christmas season. It should be, more importantly, the celebration of the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ.
While this yearly festivity is marked across the globe, Christmas is mostly a religious-based celebration. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, “December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus in 221 and later became the universally accepted date. One widespread explanation of the origin of this date is that December 25 was the Christianizing of the dies solis invicti nati (“day of the birth of the unconquered sun”), a popular holiday in the Roman Empire that celebrated the winter solstice as a symbol of the resurgence of the sun, the casting away of winter and the heralding of the rebirth of spring and summer. Indeed, after December 25 had become widely accepted as the date of Jesus’ birth, Christian writers frequently made the connection between the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Son.
This is to echo the sentiment of fellow columnist sir Rox Peña who wrote in his column last December 19, “As a Christian, I don’t agree with that “generic” holiday greeting. I had the same experience three years ago in SM Baguio with a saleslady. It’s Christmas, so why not say Merry Christmas? Why take Christ out of the celebration?”
Let us not forget that while Christmas marks the season of giving and spending time with our family and friends, that we put Christ in our hearts in everything that we do. If we do gift-giving or missions for the less fortunate, do it for the glory of Jesus Christ and not just because this is the time to take some pictures and show the world what charity activities you are doing.
Jesus Christ served us even without being recognized, worst he was judged and crucified for the sins he did not commit. As we mark this season, let us celebrate his holiness and sacrifices so that we may be saved from all our sins. As they say, Jesus Christ is the reason of this season.
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I would like to greet my family a very merry Christmas! Thank you for the love you have showered me for the whole year and also, thank you God for all the blessing you have showered me and my family. Let us all enjoy the warmth and true spirit of Christmas in Jesus’ name.