What are your traditions at Christmastime?
Traditions at Christmas: It's the world's most popular holiday, celebrated around the world by both Christians and people with no particular religious belief.
Religious or secular what's the appeal of Christmas ...and what are your traditions at this time of year?
Join guest host Susan McReynolds with her special guest Gerry Bowler.
GUESTS & LINKS
TWITTER & EMAIL
DOWNLOAD MP3 (right click, chose 'Save Target/Link As')
INTRODUCTION
Christmas is the world's most popular and widely celebrated holiday. For Western Christians, December 25th is the second most sacred date on the calendar after Easter Sunday. Christmas marks the incarnation, the moment in time when God came to earth in human form, not as a triumphant king but as a baby.
But the appeal of Christmas and its festivities are enjoyed on every continent by those with little or no religious faith at all.
Today I'm going to be joined by a world authority on Christmas and as he puts it.. this "holy and merry time" has from its earliest days been a holiday "whose meaning could shift with time and place." "It's been child-centred and adult centred, alcohol-centered and toy centred; raucous and domestic; holy and profane."
Perhaps it is this shape-shifting quality that gives Christmas its near universal appeal and its staying power.
Today we would like to hear about your Christmas traditions - and all the ways you will be celebrating the holiday. Perhaps you have already begun.
What does Christmas mean to you - what do you enjoy about this season? What could you take a pass on?
If your religious or ethnic roots do not include Christmas, how do you mark this time of year?
Our question today: "What are your traditions at Christmastime?"
I'm Susan McReynolds ...on CBC Radio One ...and on Sirius XM, satellite radio channel 169 ...this is Cross Country Checkup.
GUESTS
Gerry Bowler
Author of The World Encylopedia of Christmas (McClelland & Stewart)
Aruna Papp
Writer, author of Unworthy Creature: A Punjabi Daughter's Memoir of Honour, Shame and Love.
LINKS
Macleans
National Post
Globe and Mail
- Season’s meanings: the spiritual side of the holidays
- Christmas cheer has a place at the office – but not at the expense of other religions
- Odd Christmas traditions thrive around the world
Canada.com
Huffington Post
- Celebrating Christmas, by William Bradshaw
- Why Were So Many Beloved Christmas Songs Written By Jewish Musicians?
Toronto Star
Vancouver Sun
- The war on Christmas smacks of “anti-culturalism”
- Christmas not a religious imposition in B.C., poll suggests
- Any meaning in Christmas? An atheist, Christian, Sikh and ethnic Chinese respond
Google Books