Summary: Christmas
is not only a religious theme, it is also a cultural
feature of who we are. Hence it is a fundamental
right, a civil right and we will not negotiate over
our identity. The baby is our genesis as humanity,
the animals at the manger symbolizes Peace, the
three Kings represents pluralism, the star is the
universe waiting for us and the angel reminds us of
hope. What better picture does the Noelophobes
have for us: Lawyers rushing to sue happiness
in courts?
December 24, 2009
Multiple Outlets
On the eve
of Christmas 2008, I shifted from my ongoing field
of research and commentary in Terrorism,
international and ethnic conflict and global
strategies to write about a subject dear to the
heart of many among us, and dream maker to most of
us, i.e., the children: Christmas. On the eve of the
2009 celebration I will reiterate this assertion:
Christmas as a celebration is not negotiable.
As someone who
lived on two continents and evolved in many cultures,
I feel I have couple points to make about this
2,000-year-old annual event, especially since
celebrating this overwhelming feast is under attack
by Noelophobia (I term I have coined). I
must disclose, however, that my relationship with
Christmas is also personal: I was born on its eve
and thus had to deal with the reality that all
Christmas babies know all too well: you only get one
present, you are forgotten that night, and you also
forget about your own birthday. So, had I been
egocentric, I would have joined the camp fighting
Santa’s day. On top of that, my parents called me “Walid,”
Arabic for “the new born.” There was little
resistance I could offer. Christmas marginalizes my
own anniversary yet became somewhat a higher
birthday with which I was associated.
Until I was 12, I
thought that no one would mess with Christmas. Why
would anyone do such a thing? Jesus was just a tiny
baby who couldn't threaten anyone then. He had no
home, he was a refugee, and at birth he was only
surrounded by his poor dad and mom, a donkey and an
ox. Later came few shepherds and their sheep. I
couldn't imagine why Christmas would be in trouble:
by itself it’s an enchanted story, generating
immense feelings of happiness in the hearts of
celebrants around the world. Besides, this holiday
has reached planetary dimensions, exceeding at times
its original simplicity. But back in the Eastern
Mediterranean I hadn't experienced yet the
commercialization of la fete de Noel. Through books,
newspapers and TVs we only knew that almost all
cultures enjoyed Christmas, even though not all
societies shared its theological meaning. In the old
days of multiethnic Beirut, not only Christians but
also many Muslims and Druze erected Christmas Trees,
and kids across the sectarian divide were visited by
Santa. So far, everything was good.
But then I
learned that “Christmas” was persecuted in many
countries of that region, including in the land of
its genesis. Indeed, the oldest Christian
communities of the World, stretching from Egypt to
Iran, were among the most suppressed. Christmas in
Syria and Iraq was tightly regulated by the ruling
regimes: Santa had to be a Baathist. In Iran, the
Khomeinists banned decorations in the streets:
Christians had to whisper carols inside their homes.
In Saudi Arabia Christmas was forbidden by law and
in Sudan, African celebrations of the event were
decimated by the militias of Khartoum. Years later,
a morphing Jihadi regime brutally eliminated the
“Kuffar” Christmassy traditions as the Taliban blew
up Buddha’s statues. The Holy Land got its share as
Gaza’s Jihadists chased out the enclave’s
Christians. The War against this holiday in the
Greater Middle East was the other face of the
greater Jihad against the Infidels.
But I also
learned about the resilience of Christmas against
all regimes and in spite of Terror during my life in
the Middle East. From Tehran to Baghdad, from
Khartoum to Damascus, trees were set up and
decorations installed inside homes. Santa would
visit apartments discreetly, dodging the Iranian
Pasdaran patrols and the Baathist secret police.
Even in Saudi Arabia and under the Taliban, where
the eid al milaad (Christmas) is illegal,
underground Papa Noels would slip presents under
kids’ beds. In these lands of extreme intolerance to
infidel holidays, a Christmas resistance movement
would enlist not only Christians but also Muslims,
agnostics and sometimes Atheists. Strange feast, I
always thought, it doesn’t matter which theology it
serves for at the end of the day in these southern
regions – it has become a celebration of hope for
humanity, in the center of which was a baby.
But when I
relocated to these shores of the Atlantic, I
received a cultural shock. My encounter with
Christmas in America was two dimensional: elation
with how this country celebrates the event on the
one hand, and surprise as to how some relentlessly
fight its symbols. Since the 1990s, when I emigrated
to the U.S., I enjoyed tremendously the fullness of
the joy during the weeks and days leading to
Christmas Eve. As everywhere else in the world,
there is indeed something magic to this time of the
year, something that academia cannot explain
thoroughly. But in this country the massiveness of
expression only reflects the size of everything else
American: large and generous. Christmas is so big in
this nation that it gets out of hands and rapidly
gets commercialized. Soon enough, mall after mall,
ad after ad one forgets the initial story of
Christmas.
Ironically,
Christmas becomes so opulent in our American culture
that we forget that the baby in the manger was very
poor, poorer than the poorest in Africa. But at
least one is free to celebrate the Christmas they
want: bourgeois, at the mall, on TV, at home, on the
streets, at church, with the dispossessed, or
anywhere else the way one wishes to spend these
magical moments: in spirituality, in deep theology
or listening to rock ‘n roll. Christmas is free for
all – not only for faithful Christians, but less
practicing ones, non-practicing ones, Jews,
Buddhists, Muslims, and even believers in no
religion. Unlike in Wahhabi, Khomeinist or Bolshevik lands,
No one will argue with you if you celebrate
Christmas in America – or so I thought.
What I discovered
was that, outside the lands of intolerance in the
East, anti-Christmas forces exist –even here in
America. That was my second encounter with the
American Christmas: I met "Noelophobia."
For about five years I was just amused that freedoms
in this great country ensure that even those who
criticize the general happiness triggered by
Christmas have their voice uttered and heard. In
America, you can hate Christmas or call for its
banning – while under Jihadi regimes you can’t even
mention that it exists. But as years passed I noted
the rise of ”Christmasophobia.” Not in the
sense of being unnerved by it – which is legitimate
– but in the sense of persecuting it. Case after
case, over the past half a dozen years, attacks
against displaying Christmas trees, mangers and
other decorations in public or on public property,
the (what we call now) war against Christmas is
widening. The anti-Christmas forces claim since it
is a “religious event,” and since the United States
is a secular country, traces of Christmas
celebrations must be eradicated from the public
sphere. I take contention with this.
First, let those
in charge of the religious and theological
dimensions of Christmas defend their rights where
they feel they can. To me, Christmas is not just a
religious holiday but a tradition: read, a civil
right. Indeed, the Christmas celebration – even the
stories it tells us – have become part of a cultural
context defining our very identity. And there is no
concession we want to make on the essence of our
sociological identity. If the academic elite in this
country cannot grasp the meaning of a historical
identity – even if it has been built around an
initial religious narrative – they can take all the
time they need to understand it. Let the die-hard
primitive anticlerical elite fight their senseless
battles with the religious zealots on all things
philosophical and theological. That is their
business – not ours, the overwhelming majority of
people who enjoy and celebrate these moments of
peace. And no, we’re not interested in changing its
name or its date. This battle against Christmas is
now aimed –and will be fought – against the people
in the land of reality, not in the realm of
textbooks.
Bad news for the
anti-Christmas hordes: Christmas has become integral
part of our culture and will be defended as such.
Yes, it is part of the Republic of the People by the
People and is as secular as all other values and
rights. Taking away any of Christmas’ components,
including Santa, the tree, the baby, the star, the
three kings and even the donkey and ox is the
equivalent of ending the rights of people to vote,
own, have a fair trial, or expressing dissent.
Christmas is not about politics and exclusion but
defending it will be fierce. It is simple: crushing
Christmas is crushing a cultural identity and that
will generate a national resistance.
The
anti-Christmas forces do not realize that the
society they sprung is time centered on this
benchmark. Without Christmas, how will they begin a
new year and where will they start it? They haven’t
realized that the end and beginning of our calendar
year is calculated initially based on this
celebration? And how will they count the years? How
can they explain 2010 and the 21st century? Will
they create a new calendar as did the French
Revolution? And how can they get a consensus on the
new time? Unless they wish to replace this calendar
with another, even more religiously explicit one
such as the Sharia Hijra calendar, they have no
answer.
“Winter holidays?”
It doesn’t work, because the southern hemisphere
begins its summer over Christmas. You can’t force
the Australians, the Zulus and the Brazilians to
celebrate winter holidays during their hot season. A
feast of when some planets line up with other
planets? Nah. For Planets line up with other cosmic
objects every fraction of a second of human time. We
can’t be celebrating all year long. There is nothing
that replaces Christmas, nada. It is embedded in our
genome and was imposed on us by who we are and what
we are. The story of a baby who owns nothing between
his poor parents is our beginning as humanity. The
animals in the manger symbolizes Peace as it should
be, the multi racial Kings represents pluralism, the
star reminds us of the Universe waiting for us, and
the angel means hope that something better is out
there. So what can the Noelophobes give us
as better symbols: Lawyers rushing to sue happiness
in courts?
Hence, until they
do create another Planet and get us better answers,
we’re staying with Christmas, we will defend it as a
cultural right and we’re not making a concession on
our Identity, even if we’re open to new ideas all
the time.
Merry Christmas
to all!
*****
Dr Walid Phares,
is a writer and a professor of Global Studies
