Christmas is the happiest feast of the year, because it commemorates the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ among us. He came down and was one of us. It is a pity in a certain sense, that Jesus slowly is being pushed out of Christmas so as to say, as Christmas has now become an occasion for shopping, merry making and fun, maybe even drinking and so on. However, this is not the true and spiritual side of Christmas. The spiritual side of Christmas is in fact the birth of Jesus Christ and the acceptance of Jesus who comes in our midst. When we go to the bazaars here in Shillong or anywhere else for that matter, we see a lot of items being sold in the market during the Christmas season such as Christmas trees, Christmas fathers, clothes, and many other items, but we do not find the real thing about Christ in Christmas. Christmas is Christ. It centres on Him. If we remove Christ from our heart, mind and from our life then Christmas has no meaning to be observed at all in the first place.

Christmas is in a state of degradation as its true meaning has been manipulated in a sense. When you purchase a Christmas card now, you will find that in most of them Christ is nowhere to be found. There is usually a picture of a Christmas tree or bells and decorations which is not the true symbol of Christmas. Even the word Christmas has been replaced with the word ‘X-mas’, removing the word Christ from it, which clearly states that Christ is being subjected to removal or dismissal from the occasion itself, which is totally a wrong way of going about the spiritual occasion.
On another note, Easter Panorama also caught up with Reverend R. C. Laloo of the Laitumkhrah Presbyterian Church asked him the following questions:

What according to you is Christmas all about?

Christmas is the time where we remember the birth of the son of God, Jesus Christ. It has been put in scripture that with His coming He brought along with Him peace. Peace that passes all human understanding. He brought along with Him joy to every lonely soul but most importantly with His arrival, He bridged the relationship between man and God. So Christmas is a time of joy and peace, it is a time where we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ who gave us salvation who bridged the gap between heaven and earth.

What significance do the various Christmas decorations have during the festive occasion?

Well to me personally, these Christmas decorations have very liyttle significance. In fact, I could say that it has been adopted from what has been practiced for ages in the western world. If you go back to the origin of Christmas, Christ was born in a manger and the first people who visited Him were the shepherds, so these decorations have no significant value at all, it is more of a commercial thing where people have taken advantage by commercializing everything about Christmas. Personally, I think if there should be any sort of decorations for the occasion then it should be a manger.

Do you think that Christmas has become more of a shopping occasion rather than a spiritual occasion?

I will say yes. Look at the way the world celebrates Christmas, it has become a time where people would rather go on a shopping spree and some even neglect going to church to pray during that day. I remember when I was a boy, my mother would always have a dress for Christmas, but now that I’m older and I have a better understanding of what Christmas is, I do not believe in such things. Christmas is just Christmas; it is a time that I celebrate the birth of Christ. So Christmas as it is now has been commercialized in a lot of ways, even to the point where it is no longer spelt as ‘Christmas’ but as ‘X-mas’ making its true meaning disappear gradually.

What message do you have to the youth so as to give them a better understanding about Christmas?

The message that I have for the youth and as well as the Christian community is to go back to the basics of Christmas, go back to the manger, back to when Christ was born and he had swaddling clothes wrapped over His body. With that in mind, the birth of Christ portrays that He came into this world with a very simple lifestyle, He was surrounded with shepherds who were then considered to be outcasts and with His coming He broke every barrier as He brought peace along with Him. It is only when we go back to the roots of Christmas that we can fully understand what Christmas truly is. It is only then that we can celebrate Christmas with joy, peace and hope.

Hence, it can be concluded that many of us have really forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and what its celebration actually means. It is also clear from the above discussions that Christmas has been a victim of commercialization. However, all hope is not lost yet, as we only require looking at this occasion from its roots to realise what it really signifies. It is only then that we can really understand what Christmas is really all about.

Hubert Nongkhlaw