Content about Christmas

PILI, Camarines Sur Jan 05 2010–  With the lifting of the holiday ceasefire with the communist rebels a day ago (Jan 4), Army soldiers in the Bicol Region are now preparing themselves for their various deployments.

 Due to the recent flooding and landslides, the soldiers are now focusing their efforts in helping the people in various communities especially in Albay and Sorsogon.

It is often a spectacular scene to behold how the revered Christmas season lightens up the souls of people, enabling each one of us to sing a happy Christmas tune. For a time it helps us forget the daily grind and complexities of life. But then again the Christmas spirit is not simply a feeling to enjoy. It is an encounter with a person. Love which is the cause of this joyful season ceases to be a vague idea or feeling but is now born in flesh, in the person of Jesus.

Each year, the pope gives Christmas greetings to the leaders of the Roman Curia. This year, referring to the expanding scandal of the sexual abuse of children by clergy that was covered up and facilitated by bishops and superiors and until recently pooh-poohed by Rome, Pope Benedict told them, “We must ask ourselves what was wrong in our proclamation, in our whole way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen.”

“Simbang Gabi, simula ng Pasko sa puso ng lahing Pilipino,” thus goes a favorite carol, which resonates the joyous experience of Christmas in our country.

Indeed, we greet each other “Merry Christmas.” Not ““Happy Holidays.” For with Simbang Gabi, it is back to the Church where we look for and find the true spirit of Christmas: the baby Jesus who was born in a manger. Everything else is just to help remind us of that inexplicable great mystery of God who became Man, like each one of us.

A friend complained that his parish had not used the hymn O Come, O Come, Emmanuel on the first Sunday of Advent. I tried explaining that the hymn is not legitimately used until December 17, when the focus of Advent’s prayers and readings shifts to preparing for Christmas. He did not care for liturgical or theological niceties, however. He wanted his favorite hymn, and he was not willing to wait for it.

An enormous Christmas tree looms over passersby and motorists at Legazpi City’s Penaranda Park, signaling the advent of the holiday season. Photo: Dandale Carpio

With Christmas fast approaching, my 10-year old daughter Caitlyn kept reminding me to put up our Christmas tree. When I did so finally, she was very excited helping me. And as we put in the tree’s branches and leaves, I also sang her favorite Christmas song: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”

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She believes in Santa, and every year she gets a gift from Santa. But soon perhaps she may get into that situation Virginia O’Hanlon found herself in as an eight year old. Virginia then wrote The Sun: “Dear Editor--I am eight years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, 'If you see it in The Sun, it's so.' Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?”

Francis P. Church wrote this editorialof The Sun on September 21, 1897, which reply has become a classic—

“Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.”

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus!  It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias.  There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

“Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

“You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond.  Is it all real?  Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

“No Santa Claus!  Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever.  A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Daet, Camarines Norte (18 November) -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) here has conducted an enforcement activity for the substandard products like Christmas lights.

Beth Parro, Senior Specialist of the Consumer Welfare Division, said that of the 11 inspected last week, there were no apprehensions selling substandard products like Christmas lights.

She said that genuine Christmas lights should have an ICC mark with a control number reflecting that of the ICC certificate of an establishment.