Dr Nishant A.Irudayadason
Professor of Philosophy and Ethics,
Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune.
Christmas has always been the occasion to have a family reunion. Traditions evolve and change to adapt to changes in society, but the annual family reunion remains a benchmark in the calendar. Family is the most important thing in all cultures. Despite the occasional disputes, family bond always reassuring. In today’s fast moving life style, it is not always to bring everyone together. Christmas is an excellent opportunity to have a family reunion. This family reunion facilitates the need to share important moments around common values. Values are very helpful to return to the basics and to refocus. Sharing these is therefore also a way of going back to basics.
Sharing our values and returning to the basics during a family reunion therefore allows us to strengthen our sense of belonging to feel stronger to face the difficulties of everyday life and the challenges of an anxiety-provoking society. Historically, it is observed thatthe desire for family reunion in post-war times proves that even when everything is destroyed, humans will constantly seek to rebuild their families. Family reunions allow everyone to build a relationship with other members of the family and respond to common need for solidarity.
Spending time together allows us to get to know each other better. It enables parents to discover children’s interests and topics that fascinate them. It is taking time to listen to them; it is giving oneself time to watch children laugh and have fun. For children, it is an opportunity to relate to parents in a different context from everyday life. It is an occasion for children to see their parents without the preoccupations of everyday work. Christmas is therefore making a gift of oneself and one’s time to other members of the family.
Celebrating Christmas together as a family is also very important for the emotional development of children. The ritual and traditions attached to the Christmas celebrations are synonymous to reassurance and acceptance. This is what weaves and bondsrelationship between members of the family. Family celebrations are special moments when we find ourselves at home in the deepest sense of this expression. It is only when we are with our family that we totally feel at home. Each member of the family is a piece of a puzzle and that when we all find ourselves together, the puzzle is solved. What we experience is sheer happiness and an inexplicable feeling of well-being!
Christmas plays an important role within the family and for the individuals who compose it: it marks the entry into a family culture for the child who is born, allows the construction of identities within the family, the transmission of values across generations. For many people what matters most at Christmas is being together. Christmas remains the annual family celebration par excellence because it brings together several generations, the two main poles of which are children and grandparents.
Each Christmas celebration should be a moment we look forward to. The important thing is to make this celebration something unique and memorable. This does not mean spending a fortune and going through financial trouble for months. It is not the cost and the scale of the celebration that is important, but rather the simple fact of spending quality time together. This is even more important today in a society where we are lost in the world of personal gadgets of entertainment that ruins family relationship. Let us not forget that Christmas is God entering into relationship with us through a human family.
