Bertrand Russell, the agnostic, went out for a walk on Christmas night. Church bells were ringing, announcing the coming of the Saviour. A little later, he heard the wails of cattle from a slaughterhouse in the nearby market! Russell returned to his room and wrote in his diary: “They only made one mistake on Christmas night that caused them to wail. They were the first to see the Saviour born.” Shouldn’t we liberate Christmas from the market’s domination?
In recent times, efforts have been active to evolve Christmas from a festival of salvation to a festival of consumption, a festival of the market. This is because the Christmas period is the time when the most profitable economic transactions in the world take place. The Christmas season, which begins before the Advent season, ends not with Epiphany, but with post-holiday sales.
Coca-Cola branded Santa Claus as a red-coloured old man in 1931. By presenting Santa Claus as a red-coloured old man, Coca-Cola later marginalized and rendered insignificant the real Santa Claus, St. Nicholas of Myra. The transformation of Santa Claus into the Coca-Cola company’s “Coca-Claus” is an indication of how the market is swallowing Christmas.
There were always people in history who freed Christmas from its spiritual meanings and used it for ideological purposes. We read in history about the incident during the Nazi regime in Germany, when the government reinterpreted Christmas in racial and hegemonic terms, reducing it to a festival of the sun’s rebirth.
“The statement of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, a great Father of the Church, is noteworthy: ‘God became man so that man might become God.’ If that is Christmas, then those who need to see the face of God now only need to look at the faces of helpless people. The faces of the poor who are evicted in various places are the very likeness of Joseph and Mary who were turned away! The same pain felt by the Son of Man who had no place to lay his head is the pain of the poor people in protest grounds! The faces of the migrant workers toiling in dangerous conditions are the very likeness of the carpenter’s son who did woodworking for a living!”
In America, “Happy Christmas” changes to “Happy X’mas” and then to “Happy Holiday Season.” When we read that this trend is subsequently adopted around the world, we need to view with caution a Christmas season driven by marketing values rather than spiritual values. This shift from the festival of salvation to the festival of consumption is a dangerous change. It is a situation where Christmas shrinks from “the Word became flesh” to materialistic markets where only the flesh remains.
Church Fathers like Athanasius stated that Christmas is the miracle of God entering human history. We used to exchange gifts during the Christmas season in remembrance of Christ being the most excellent gift God gave to humanity. However, when thoughts about this excellent gift from God are forgotten, and only the market’s gifts become the subject of thought, and a gift-exchange culture (Barter System) centred around the market develops, the spiritual value of Christmas is lost. Christmas was an Economy of Grace. But now it is being transformed into an Economy of Profit.
The concept of Hyperreality by the French thinker Jean Baudrillard—the condition where signs replace the reality they represent—is also applicable to today’s Christmas celebrations. Christmas becomes a Simulation without its soul. The rituals of Christmas are separated from their value: snow even in malls in tropical countries, curated nostalgia, and gift exchanges in the barter method. The Christmas season becomes a business system for the circulation of goods.
The statement of St. Athanasius of Alexandria, a great Father of the Church, is noteworthy: “God became man so that man might become God.” If that is Christmas, then those who need to see the face of God now only need to look at the faces of helpless people. The faces of the poor who are evicted in various places are the very likeness of Joseph and Mary who were turned away! The same pain felt by the Son of Man who had no place to lay his head is the pain of the poor people in protest grounds! The faces of the migrant workers toiling in dangerous conditions are the very likeness of the carpenter’s son who did woodworking for a living!
“I am hungry, I am thirsty, I am naked” – these pathetic cries are now the word of God to you. From now on, you can see God everywhere: in classrooms, markets, farmlands, inns, and protest grounds. Because God created all humans in His own image and likeness. From now on, heaven is as vast as can be shrunk into a stable. The mythical gods dwelling on Mount Olympus are now irrelevant. This is because God manifests to humanity in the stable of simplicity.
How true the poet sings: “In every child’s cry, I hear a crore of God’s lament; In every burnt-out lamp’s eye, I see a crore of divine despair! He is knocking at the door of your heart, as in the Book of Revelation. Innkeeper, is there room in your life for God to be born? Or, like the census takers of Bethlehem, are you also busy calculating profits and losses?”
How right is the French theologian Teilhard de Chardin when he speaks of the Incarnation: “Christ became human to save humans; He became the broken bread to include even the non-living worlds within the scope of salvation.” Did not the one born in Bethlehem, which means “House of Bread,” become the Bread of Life in Zion? The bread that satisfies all of humanity’s hunger! For those caught in the market of materialism, this bread is just wheat bread; just as the Divine Child, worshipped by the wise men, became a victim to be killed by Herod!
