Merry Christmas

2015-12-25
اعرض في فيس بوك
التصنيف : مقالات الشاعر الإماراتي محمد أحمد السويدي

“Merry Christmas” cordially said Lorenzo the Pisces-bornantiques merchant from Positano. I replied: “Merry Christmas” bidding him farewell while I was about to leave carrying some of the antiques I purchased. I swiftly headed back with my friend to the car since the daylight was exhausted by travelling and the road to Napoli was as long as an endless gab.
Every year on the 25th of December the Christian world celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ (Christmas) where the rituals held on the occasion became a familiar scene all over the world.
It’s not an obscured fact anymore that there is no relation between Jesus and the alleged festival and that the celebration is nothing but a pagan fiesta which the church granted the occasion adimension it never contemplated before.
Centuries before the birth of Jesus, people of northern Europe used to celebrate on the 21th of December; a celebration held when nighttime becomes shorter than daytime. A few days earlier on the calendar, the Romans used to observe the birth of Saturn “The God of Yield” with festivals and celebrations. It is possible that the feast of the god of the sun Mithra held on the 25th of December that eventually compelled the clerics to swindle this occasion to the benefit of the son of god and to be later officially sanctified by the church in the 4th century. Later, the kind hearted Dutch Sinterklaas or Saint Nicholas of Myra (now in Turkey) – both devoted child caring saints – started to sneaked with gifts through the chimneys after they were painted in red suits and cotton beards by the American caricaturist Thomas Nast in 1836. That’s for Santa, as for the Christmas tree it was shoved through the window still carrying symbols of Adam and Eve’s apple from the lost paradise. When this combination appealed to Uncle Sam “the merchant”, he touched it with his magic wand and turned it into a world-spread manifestation.
The word Christmas is a compound originating in two words: the first is derived from the Greek word “Khrīstos” which refers to Jesus, and the second is the Latin word “mæsse” which refers to “Eucharistic service”. As for the word “merry” the English dictionary does not recall the origin of this word before the 11th century A.D. and it is accepted as “pleasant, delightful”. I sometimes get afflicted by doubt that another raid occurred once upon a time where an Arabic palm tree was abducted root and fronds from the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula to the Western dictionary but I will give the assignment of investigating this misdemeanor to aninspector more versed in tracking the trails. However, to all the Season’s believers and what it brings of joy and happiness, I say: “Merry Christmas”.

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