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Xmas in China

Fu Lai

By Fu Lai,
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Fu Lai

Fu Lai

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This year is special for me, getting married and all. So far this xmas I have spread the cheer teaching the basic Santa Claus thing to my students and my new family.

 

At home the firsts have been plenty with my girl. Getting xmas gifts for family, an xmas tree, decorations, making xmas cookies etc.

 

Same for my students. Showing them the RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER tv show, the history of the event, the immense celebration around the world, xmas carols, and the xmas party.

 

It has been fun so far.

 

How are other ex-pats celebrating?

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Fu Lai

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FuLai

 

One fun thing I used to do with my students was teach them to sing "The 12 Days of Christmas." They always got a big kick out of it, especially singing it fast.

That one is on tap as well as the simple "Jingle Bells" and "We Wish You a Merry Xmas".
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Fu Lai

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Young Chinese embrace Christmas

China Daily, December 25, 2012

On Christmas Eve Chinese youngsters embrace the festival like Westerners but not for the religious reasons or for family reunion.

Soldiers don a different uniform as they bring joy to orphans in Taizhou, Zhejiang province, on Christmas Eve. [Photo/China Daily]

Young people have found their "Chinese way" to celebrate the traditional Western festival. For them, Christmas is more like an excuse to have a break from their busy lives.

Liu Ping, a postgraduate student from Shanxi University of Finance and Economics, spent last Christmas having a dinner with her boyfriend and enjoying the sales.

"I had a great time, and I'm planning to do the same this year, " Liu added, recalling she spent 10,000 yuan (1,604 U.S. dollars) on the day.

In many department stores across the country, Christmas decorations, trees, Santas and jingle bells can be found, luring shoppers.

Sales volume on Christmas Eve is the highest for the whole year, according to Kang Wei, director of the sales of Guidu department store in Taiyuan, north China's Shanxi Province.

Experts believe more Chinese youngsters have started celebrating Christmas due to pressures and seize any opportunity to have fun.

"Carrying a lot of pressure, the young seek to relax, providing moneymaking opportunities for merchants," said Ma Zhichao, director of humanistic resource development and research center of Shanxi Academy of Social Sciences.

"Festivals like Christmas have been turned into a shopping festival, even a carnival," Ma said.

While some Chinese are celebrating Christmas in a commercial way, another group of people are seeking the original meaning of the Western festival.

On Sunday, two days before Christmas, Chen Kejia was baptized and became a Christian.

"I chose to be baptized on that day. To spend a real Christmas with other Christians," said Chen, a nurse at a foreign-funded hospital in Beijing.

Chen said the most attractive part of Christianity is love. "To love your family, your friends, colleagues, and people you don't know."

At 3 p.m. Monday at the South Cathedral, one of the most ancient cathedrals of Beijing, in Xuanwumen, Xicheng District, Catholics were swarming to attend Mass from 6 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Thousands of people are expected to spend the Christmas Eve here.

A 20-year-old girl, surnamed Zhao, is spending her first Christmas in Beijing. Coming from a Catholic family, she is used to celebrating Christmas at a local cathedral in her hometown. This year, she is helping prepare Mass in the cathedral in Beijing.

Another Catholic, surnamed Yang, is waiting for the beginning of Mass and expressed, "For real Catholics like us, Christmas is a day to remember the birth of Jesus. It moves me and gives me power."

Yang said the Christmas atmosphere had been commercialized in China, which had nothing to do with religious belief.

"It's completely different from our real Christmas," he said.

http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20121225/001fd04cf03a124373c63a.jpg

One hundred Santas dance in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei province on Christmas eve on Dec 24, 2012. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

It is what it is.

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...While some Chinese are celebrating Christmas in a commercial way, another group of people are seeking the original meaning of the Western festival.

The "original meaning"? http://www.essortmen...gins-42543.html

 

No one knows what day Jesus Christ was born on. From the biblical description, most historians believe that his birth probably occurred in September, approximately six months after Passover. One thing they agree on is that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December, since the bible records shepherds tending their sheep in the fields on that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold Judean winter. So why do we celebrate Christ's birthday as Christmas, on December the 25th?

 

The answer lies in the pagan origins of Christmas. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating and drinking, and gift-giving were traditions of this feast.

 

In Rome, the Winter Solstice was celebrated many years before the birth of Christ. The Romans called their winter holiday Saturnalia, honoring Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January, they observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death. This whole season was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. The festival season was marked by much merrymaking. It is in ancient Rome that the tradition of the Mummers was born. The Mummers were groups of costumed singers and dancers who traveled from house to house entertaining their neighbors. From this, the Christmas tradition of caroling was born.

 

In northern Europe, many other traditions that we now consider part of Christian worship were begun long before the participants had ever heard of Christ. The pagans of northern Europe celebrated the their own winter solstice, known as Yule. Yule was symbolic of the pagan Sun God, Mithras, being born, and was observed on the shortest day of the year. As the Sun God grew and matured, the days became longer and warmer. It was customary to light a candle to encourage Mithras, and the sun, to reappear next year.

 

Huge Yule logs were burned in honor of the sun. The word Yule itself means "wheel," the wheel being a pagan symbol for the sun. Mistletoe was considered a sacred plant, and the custom of kissing under the mistletoe began as a fertility ritual. Hollyberries were thought to be a food of the gods.

 

The tree is the one symbol that unites almost all the northern European winter solstices. Live evergreen trees were often brought into homes during the harsh winters as a reminder to inhabitants that soon their crops would grow again. Evergreen boughs were sometimes carried as totems of good luck and were often present at weddings, representing fertility. The Druids used the tree as a religious symbol, holding their sacred ceremonies while surrounding and worshipping huge trees.

 

In 350, Pope Julius I declared that Christ's birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them.

 

Christmas (Christ-Mass) as we know it today, most historians agree, began in Germany, though Catholics and Lutherans still disagree about which church celebrated it first. The earliest record of an evergreen being decorated in a Christian celebration was in 1521 in the Alsace region of Germany. A prominent Lutheran minister of the day cried blasphemy: "Better that they should look to the true tree of life, Christ."

 

The controversy continues even today in some fundamentalist sects.

Edited by Fu Lai (see edit history)
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