Magazine

Meaningful Christmas:

Time to rejoice!

Demi HEWAMANNA

Christmas time
Mistletoe and wine
Children singing
Christian rhymes
With logs on the fire
And gifts on the tree
A time to rejoice
In the good that we see
- Sir Cliff Richard

Yes it’s the season of forgiving and forgetting as this is the month that brings a closure to one year and makes plans for a brand new year. It’s also the month that Christians all around the world celebrate as it was on December 25 that Jesus Christ was born.

As the story goes, one night Angel Gabriel came down to Earth and told Mary that she was chosen to bear the Son of God. When Jesus Christ was conceived into Mother Mary’s womb, she was still a virgin. Soon as she was pregnant, she and Joseph left Nazreth and made their way to Bethlehem as Augustus Caesar ordered a census and they had to go there to register. When they entered the city, they went from house to house asking for shelter but were turned down as all were full and occupied for many Jews had come to register themselves. Soon they came to one place and there, the owner said they can stay in the manger – where Jesus Christ was born.

Following the birth, an Angel passed the message to the shepherds who were watching their flock, and they came to pay their respects and then spread the message around. The Three Wise Men who heard about the birth of Jesus Christ, believed that the King of Jews was born were guided by the star to the manger. The Wise Men paid homage by offering gifts of gold, myrrh and frankincense to the new born king.

As news spread, it came to the ears of King Herod, who was shaken up by the news and immediately ordered that every child born below the age of two was killed (known as the massacre of innocents). Joseph and Mary went back to Nazreth where he began his childhood.

Years went by and as He grew up, He travelled to Jordan river, where John the Baptist was baptizing people. There He asked John to baptize Him. After the baptism, Jesus, upon God’s request went to the mountains to fast for forty days and forty nights. When He was fasting, the Devil came to Him three times to tempt Him with many things. One – turning stone to bread to relieve His hunger, two – free himself and jump from a pinnacle to be saved by Angels and third – worship the devil in return for all the kingdoms in the world. After rejecting all three, the Angels came and nourished him.

With all this, Jesus created many miracles for people. One of them was ‘Feeding of the 5,000’ – where he broke bread into two halves and fed the 5,000 followers who came with Him. He directed the people to sit down and taking the five loaves and the two fish. He gave thanks and broke the loaves. He passed it to his disciples and they passed it to the people who all ate and fulfilled their hunger.

Message of God

Jesus healed and cured the sick, poor and worked many miracles to bring out the message of God. After all this he went to the city of Jerusalem during the passover when a large crowd gathered to meet him shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the Kind of Israel!”

When he walked into the temple he was so angry to see that men had set up shops in Herod’s Temple and chased them away. Later on, after the passover meal, also known as the Last Supper – Jesus foretold that he will be betrayed by one of his own and would be executed.

While praying in the garden, soldiers come to arrest Jesus. This happens so when Judas Iscariot one of his apostles betrayed Him by identifying him to the guards with a kiss. As this happens Simon (Peter) attacks one of the soldiers by cutting off his ear and here again Jesus does another miracle by healing it. Judas who felt ashamed by his betrayal, committed suicide.

After the trial of Jesus Christ, His captors stripped him, put a crown of thorns on His head and tortured Him and made Him carry a cross through the streets. When he came to Calvary, he was crucified to the cross he carried in which it was written that he was being executed to be aspiring to be the King of Jews. In His last breath He asked God ‘Father Father, why has thou forsaken me?’ and then He asked God to forgive as they know not what they do.

It is said that from the time of his crucifixion to the time of his death, there was great darkness in the skies.

Three days after His death, Jesus Christ resurrected. When the people went to his tomb, they were shocked to find that it was empty and at that time He already went to spread the message to his disciples to keep continuing to teach what He taught them.

Today, there are some people who really don’t know how to celebrate this special day and even don’t know the real significance of it.

As usual, some people take days like this to sell what they can by spending money on things for themselves and for stuff that will last for just a couple of days and sometimes even minutes.

When you ask a child, what is the significance of Christmas, most of them would say “it’s the day that Santa Clause comes bearing gifts” or its when snow falls and its very rare to hear a child say “it’s the day of celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth.” Even when I search for information regarding Christmas, most of the paragraphs are about everything else with a few lines explaining the birth of Christ.

I’m not asking you all to stop having a colourful a Christmas, but am just telling you’ll not to forget the true meaning of Christmas and teach the younger generation about the significance of Christmas so that they know how to celebrate it and help the needy people and give them a share of Christmas and pass the message of peace and happiness to their lives.

Magic of the Christmas tree

Aditha DISSANAYAKE

Living in the backwoods of Talawakelle has its plus points. We get to select and cut our own Christmas tree.

Say that again? How can we be so cruel? So heartless? Relax. We never cut the whole tree. We cut the topmost branch of the sixty-something cypress tree outside our bedroom window, affectionately called Caly, to honour Tintin’s Professor Calculus, knowing quite well if we don’t do the trimming now, during the next monsoon he will lose his bearings and topple over. Better to stand minus one branch than grow too tall and land flat on one’s back come next October and the howling tearing Northern winds.

The real battle begins once the branch is brought to the sitting room, with a long line of questions and directions that would have muddled even old Mr Muddle. “Is it straight?” My father asks holding the top part of the tree while I lean at the bottom craning my neck to see what he is doing. “Move it a little to your left” suggests my mother standing directly in front of the tree. When we do so, she says “too much to the left. Move it a bit to the right”. But the tree is still as lopsided as the leaning tower of Pisa. “Too much to the right, a bit more to the left...” when my mother is finally satisfied we step back to admire our efforts only to realize the branch we had cut is much too high for the sitting room. The leaves at the top are crushed against the ceiling. “Let’s remove the ceiling” jokes a visiting Uncle. “Take it out of the basket and chop off the lower part” my eight year old niece advises in her sweet,old-granny-voice. “What a great idea! To think we almost took off the roof”, we slap our foreheads thankful for these words of wisdom.

It is almost lunch time when the tree stands in one corner of the sitting room, looking unclothed and desolate. My nieces and I decide to skip lunch and decorate the tree, so sad does it look without the tinsel and the (fake) snowflakes. Each glittery piece, as we take it out of the old shoe boxes kept in the store room for eleven months every year, has a story to tell. The first to reach the tender branches of the tree are the oldest, handmade paper balls wrapped in silver and gold paper which we had hung on our very first Christmas tree, fourteen long years ago. This had been our first Christmas in Talawakelle;our first Christmas with a real tree, and all we had were a few homemade decorations. Since then, we have collected an assortment of baubles, bells, snowflakes, two or three at a time, and now our tree looks as superb as the ones we see at popular shopping malls in Colombo, (so we think).

This year I take a back seat when it comes to decorating the tree. This year I sit on the carpet peering into my laptop having handed the responsibility of dressing the tree to my two nieces. This year, I am too busy writing about Christmas trees to gently slip the pink and red baubles, (a gift from a neighbour who donated her Christmas decorations to us when she migrated to Canada) and the paper garlands (made by a cousin on holiday, three years ago) onto the leaves of the cypress bough. When my father comes to wrap the strand of bulbs round the tree I read aloud to whoever who would listen, a description about the history of Christmas lights. “The first trees were lit with candles, and because of the risk of fire, the Christmas tree was usually decorated on December 24, with one member of the family assigned to hold a bucket of water to douse it in case of emergency. Newspapers were filled with accounts of tragic accidents in the days following Christmas. Thomas Edison created the future of decorative Christmas lighting at his “invention factory” in Menlo Park, New Jersey. In 1880, he laid out 8 miles of wire and strapped electric globes to posts. Two years later, Edward H Johnson, an Edison employee, hand wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs into a revolving Christmas tree in his New York City home. The effect was “a continuous twinkling of dancing colours, red, white, blue all evening,” an entranced reporter wrote.

My eldest niece sighs. “When will you get to the point” Tell us about the origins of the Christmas tree”. I type “history of Christmas trees” on my search engine and the best website I come across about, “Christmas Tree History” says “Legend has it Saint Boniface, a 7th century monk from England, used the triangular shape of a fir tree as a symbol to teach Germans about the Holy Trinity. Those who Saint Boniface converted in the modern German states of Hesse and Thuringia began revering the fir tree as a religious symbol.” According to Christmas Archives, “The first decorated tree was at Riga in Latvia, in 1510. In the early 16th century, Martin Luther is said to have decorated a small Christmas Tree with candles, to show his children how the stars twinkled through the dark night”.

“In the mid 16th century, Christmas markets were set up in German towns, to provide everything from gifts, food and more practical things such as a knife grinder to sharpen the knife to carve the Christmas Goose! At these fairs, bakers made shaped gingerbreads and wax ornaments for people to buy as souvenirs of the fair, and take home to hang on their Christmas Trees.”

The early trees were biblically symbolic of the Paradise Tree in the Garden of Eden. The many food items hung on the tree were symbols of Plenty, the flowers, originally only red (for Knowledge) and White (for Innocence).”

By six in the evening the decorating is completed and the soft glow of the lights on the tree in the corner of our sitting room creates a magical, fairy tale atmosphere. The smell of the cypress leaves, the glitter of tinsel, the solitary star on the top of the tree make me recall other Christmas trees, other sitting rooms, other writers who penned similar tales.

In “Roundabout the Christmas Tree”, William Makepeace Thackeray writes “The kindly Christmas tree, from which I trust every gentle reader has pulled a bonbon or two, is yet all aflame whilst I am writing, and sparkles with the sweet fruits of its season. You young ladies, may you have plucked pretty gifts from it; and out of the cracker sugarplum which you have split with the captain or the sweet young curate may you have read one of those delicious conundrums which the confectioners introduce into the sweetmeats, and which apply to the cunning passion of love.” In Aron’s Rod,D H Lawrence describes a tree decorated in the garden. “What Josephine said,” explained Robert, “was simply that it would be pretty to put candles on one of the growing trees, instead of having a Christmas-tree indoors”....

Soon they were busy round a prickly fir-tree at the end of the lawn...A match spluttered. One naked little flame sprang alight among the dark foliage. The candle burned tremulously, naked...”But the best description goes to Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Tree”:

“There was everything, and more.” This motley collection of odd objects, clustering on the tree like magic fruit, and flashing back the bright looks directed towards it from every side...Being now at home again, and alone, the only person in the house awake, my thoughts are drawn back, by a fascination which I do not care to resist, to my own childhood. I begin to consider, what do we all remember best upon the branches of the Christmas Tree of our own young Christmas days, by which we climbed to real life.”

If you are searching for that “something in Christm” Ben Logan describes as “fragile as the laughter of children, awakening the sleeping goodness in us, making it easier to feel, show, and say I love you, “ this is surely one place where you will find it. Right there, wrapped in imaginary paper, tied with imaginary ribbons, under your Christmas tree. Unwrap it and be a part of this conspiracy of love.

Finally, “Kala Christougenna!”.

(Sounds like Greek? It has to. It is Greek. Tell you what it means next Christmas. Till then, stay well!)

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Story of Christmas

Greatest story ever told:

Chris DEFONSEKA

You are not the least – Judah – for out of thee a great event. A young maiden will give birth to a child who will be the Messiah – he will save the world

Judea was a large Jewish province under the rule of the Roman Emperor Tiberius Caesar and Pontius Pilate was the Governor of this province. He had appointed Herod as a King to look after the affairs of the local Jewish people. Jerusalem was the largest and most important city in this province, where both resided. Galilee on the border of the sea, was a fishing district, where the village of Nazareth lay.

King Herod was a weak man and surrounded himself with astrologers and soothsayers. However, he had a passion for building magnificent structures and came to be known as – King Herod the great. The Jewish people resented the cruel Roman rule and the arrogance of their king and from time to time minor rebellions broke out.

The whole of Judea, including the authorities were well aware of the ancient biblical prophecy that God would send a Messiah to deliver the Jewish people. All the Jewish people eagerly looked forward to this day and King Herod was uneasy. It was a bright morning in Nazareth, a small village nestling in the hills of Judea, where Joachim, Anne and their young daughter Mary lived. Although of limited means, they had a small orchard where fruits were grown and a few animals.

Since her parents were old, Mary looked after the outdoors work and would often be helped by her close friends. On this day, Mary as usual went out to the orchard and since her friends had not come decided to go ahead and do all the work herself.

Around noon, she felt tired and sat under one of the trees. She felt at peace and had just closed her eyes when a rustling noise awakened her. Suddenly there was a bright light and when she saw an angel in dazzling white appear before her, she was terrified.

The angel spoke to her and identified himself as Gabriel with a message for her from God. She was told that she was selected by God to give birth to the promised Messiah, who should be called Jesus. Although confused, she agreed and after blessing her, the angel left.

When Mary returned home, she was still very confused and reluctant to tell her parents what had happened. She decided that she would go and seek advice and help from her cousin, who lived in the hill country one day’s journey from her house. She knew that her cousin Elizabeth was also expecting a baby and she thought she would be able to help her.

So, when Mary asked her parents to go on this trip, although they were troubled, they agreed and arranged a young man from the village called Joseph, whom they knew well to accompany her for her safety.

Joseph was an excellent carpenter and a very humble and hardworking young man. Because of his skills, he had many people as clients. Since, Joseph had built his own house and also had modest means and also well known to them, Joachim and Anne favoured him as a possible husband for their daughter and decided to ask her on her return.

Mary stayed with her cousin Elizabeth for some time, until Elizabeth gave birth to a boy, later who became known as John the Baptist. Although they were old, both Elizabeth and her husband Zachariah knew that God would bless them with a child, as foretold many years ago. So, they were not surprised but rejoiced when Mary told them her story and by now she had also conceived. Being very religious and knowing the age old prophecy of a birth of a saviour to a young woman, they assured her to tell her parents immediately on her return.

So, when Mary returned home she told her parents, who were disturbed but accepted it, being God fearing people and also being well aware of the ancient prophecy. When Mary was proposed to Joseph, he was very glad and being assured by an angel in a dream that she had conceived by the Holy Spirit, he took Mary as his wife.

Rome had a system of keeping a periodic count of all its people and now it was time for a census it required that all families should be registered at the birthplace of the head of the family and so, Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem, a small village off the city of Jerusalem. Since it would take about four days travel and due to Mary’s delicate condition, Joseph borrowed a donkey from his father-in-law for Mary to sit on, while he walked on foot. Since most Jewish people at that time where of limited means, this was the mode of travel.

Progress was slow and they were not alone on this journey as others were also travelling in the same direction. Whenever they broke their journey, they were astonished how people around them were so kind and supportive by helping them in various ways and giving them food also and they felt at peace.

It was as if a protective mantle was around them and Mary often found Joseph with a knowing smile. He had grown in stature and Mary although heavy with child and with discomfort, felt reassured and their love grew for each other.

When they reached Jerusalem, Mary was taken by surprise to see so many people and the hustle and bustle of that city. Joseph on the other hand, having visited here before knew the possible dangers also and after a short stop, decided to go ahead to Bethlehem, which was another half a days travel.

It being the month of December, it was cold and Joseph wanted to reach Bethlehem before dark. When they were still a little distance from the town, it started to snow lightly and Mary and Joseph had to hurry to reach their destination.

On arrival, Joseph to his dismay found that it was very difficult to find lodging and in desperation because of Mary’s condition, he approached a small innkeeper.

He was informed that the inn was full but he could only offer the manger where he kept a few animals. Joseph accepted it and did his best to make Mary comfortable for the night.

In a far off country, three prominent seers, Balthazar, Melchior and

Gaspar who met regularly to study astrology and astronomy had seen a special star in the sky. They had been studying the age old prophecies and was waiting for this particular sign in the heavens, which they knew signaled the birth of a king. They had teamed up and set forth following this special star, which went before them guiding them. When they reached Jerusalem, King Herod heard of it and being rich and powerful men, he invited them to the palace.

His astrologers also seeing the unusual star in the heavens had warned Herod. Though skeptical, he was worried about the story unfolding before him and the arrival of the three wise men made him furious.

He had already sent out spies to collect information regarding the birth of a new born and since they looked in high places, they drew a blank. The three wise men were also curious to find out whether King Herod had any news of a newborn. The King requested them to search diligently and to come and inform him, so that he also may go and pay his respects. It was cold in the mountains where four shepherds watching a large flock of sheep, huddled around a fire. Suddenly there was a bright light and many heavenly bodies singing and music filled the air. The shepherds were terrified but an angel in dazzling garments appeared and assured them. They were told that a baby was born in a manger in the outskirts of the town and they should go and see.

They immediately left their flocks and coming down from the mountains found a small manger, full of light from a unusually glowing star above it. When they entered, they found the newborn baby, just as the angel had told them.

The sound of camels and shouted commands, heralded the arrival of the three wise men, who had followed the guiding star. When they saw the child they knew the age old prophecy was fulfilled and there lay the promised Messiah.

They fell on their knees and worshipped the child and presented Joseph and Mary with gifts of gold, myrrh and incense, which were the traditional gifts offered to kings at that time. The three wise men being warned by an angel, that Herod was trying to harm the child, they took a different route and went back to their country.

A few days later, Joseph was warned by an angel and he took baby Jesus and Mary and went secretly to Egypt and stayed there, until King Herod died, before returning to Nazareth. Thus, the glory of the birth of Jesus.