Christmas is around the corner - EDITORIAL

The month of Christmas is already upon us. In another 21 days we - the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the war-affected and those who inflict war on helpless people - will all in our own way be ‘celebrating’ the festival of Christmas.
In Bethlehem, the Washington Post reported: Palestinian Christian leaders across denominations in the West Bank city decided last week that they would forgo all festivities this year as a mark of solidarity with their brethren in Gaza. 
Munther Isaac, pastor of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, told the Washington Post correspondent:
“This has become a genocide with 1.7 million people displaced.”
Rev. Munther added, however, that when they returned to Bethlehem he and his colleagues intended to set up a small Nativity scene with rocks and debris piled atop it. “This is what Christmas now means to us, that we see Jesus being born among those who have lost everything, who are under the rubble...”
While Christmas first and foremost is a religious festival for Christians marking the birth of Christ, today Christmas is also a global cultural event. 
People from diverse countries, communities, religions and faiths all celebrate Christmas. Some tend to see the festivities as a commercialisation which takes away from the significance of the event itself.
Yet, the festivals are occasions which bring families and communities together, no matter whether they are rich or poor. To the poor as to the rich, Christmas signifies Christ coming into the world, his participation in festivities (The marriage feast at Cana), undergoing physical pain as in his crucifixion, and his fight for justice for people the world over.
This year, large sections of the population in this country, will not be able to afford many of the festivities associated with Christmas. The hardest hit will be the children. Many parents will not be able to afford to get their children nice new clothes or toys.
While children may build a crib for Baby Jesus, this year they will not be able to decorate it with sparkling bulbs and other ornaments - the price of electricity having got beyond their means.
Director General of the Public Utilities Commission, Damitha Kumarasinghe has said, that amid price hikes and a currency collapse, Sri Lanka’s electricity use has fallen steeply and customers have shifted to lower categories.
Figures from the Public Utilities Commission show that the number of households that have refrained from using electricity and therefore have a zero meter reading (After the increase in electricity tariffs) has increased from 350,000 households to over 500,000 households.
The cribs in poorer homes in our country this year may therefore be dark sans the twinkly bulbs which normally decorate them. Many will not be able to afford the cost of extra lights this Christmas season.
It is in the midst of this reality, a few days ago the Colombo municipality called for tenders to light up the city streets. Detractors claim while ordinary citizens can ill afford to light up their homes, lighting the streets, seems like wasteful expenditure.
Then again gaily decorated and lit up streets during the season are now part of our cultural milieu.Not beautifying and decorating the streets, will not end poverty. However, even for a brief moment it brings joy to the eye of the beholder and many are the people who walk the streets to enjoy the beauty and ingenuity of many sparkling innovations which light up the roads.
The spirit of Christmas at its core is the victory of good over evil.
In the Gospel of Mark Christ himself admonished his followers who criticised the female who poured an alabaster flask of precious ointment on Jesus’ head.
Critics of the woman’ claimed the ointment valued at 300 denarii, equivalent to the annual salary of a labourer, thought it should have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. 
But Christ himself said “Let her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me” (Mk 14:6).
Let us not kill the joy of Christmas, let us enjoy even for a brief moment, the good things we’ve got.