In my family, we do celebrate Christmas, but not in a religious way as going to the church. When I was little back in China, my parents usually brought me and my brother and sister to an restaurant to celebrate Christmas. Although they did not really tell us what Christmas is, we saw Christmas trees with a lot of gifts underneath it with decorations, and Santa Clauses with the reindeers (decorations) everywhere on the street. I guess that is Christmas to me since I'm a child. From my childhood memory, I remembered that I am usually excited when Christmas comes. Because in my school, a lot of the classmates and friends brought cards and gave it out to each other on Christmas's Day. Also, my parents brought us to the dinner and celebrate it with a lot of other families in the restaurant and watch magic shows...etc. So basically, I celebrate Christmas when I am little. But the fact that it is Jesus's birthday is something that people never brought up until I grow up. When I grew up to third grade in China, my family stop celebrating the Christmas although I don't really know why. But my guess was my parents thought we are not kids anymore and we have schools on that day which is a lot of work should be done. Hence, we stop celebrating Christmas since we have no vacations like the United States on Christmas. One exception was that schools in Hong Kong do have a day off on Christmas, probably because it used to be a colony from England. Thus, I really don't understand what is the purpose of celebrating this holiday and I just go with what others told me.
As a student, vacations are usually the first thing that comes to my mind when holiday comes. Hence, I do not really care what the holiday is, but how many days we have day off from this holiday. Coming to the United States, knowing Christmas is Jesus's birthday, I always asked myself why people celebrate it if they do not believe in Jesus. Also I start wondering why I celebrated it when I was little and some Chinese do in China. I asked my sister why she loves Christmas even though she does not believe in Jesus, she said because she likes the ambiance and the mood of the holiday. I personally think that the people who does not believe in Jesus celebrate Christmas have similar reasons as my sister. Even though they do not really care the real meaning of Christmas, they just celebrate in because they been taught to this culture. Or maybe they just likes the ambiance of the decorations of Christmas. This year, I did not celebrate Christmas as usually since I grow up. I don't think age is really the reason why my family stop celebrating Christmas, although I don't really know the reason. I once thought that it is because I grew up to be a teenager and knowing the fact that Santa Claus does not exist? Anyway, our family stop celebrating Christmas after all. So we just take this holiday as an advantage of having breaks to rest. Also we will be able to count down after few days of the 2009. I think this holiday is a bit meaningful since once time past it will not come back. Thinking about it, somehow it makes start thinking about everything that has been happened in 2008, and I guess the every little fragment that comes to my mind are the things that are meaningful to me in that year.
I think that a lot of people do things special when holiday comes. Such as when birthday comes, people buy cakes. When Christmas comes, Christmas decorations will never be left out. When it is Halloween, we usually see pumpkins. Holidays are mostly like a symbol of a country's culture. But for Christmas, I think it spreads around the world it is because it is a religious holiday. Also it has the Santa Claus that people hear that they will receive gifts on the Christmas as a tale. So it will end up to be a very popular holiday. I personally think that arguing why people should celebrate the holiday or not is quite meaningless since everybody live differently. As what the majority do, when holiday comes, they do certain things to celebrate the holidays. But thinking alternatively, why should people do things differently because of a so called holiday? Wouldn't they limit themselves and make their life having more work to do? Thinking about the purpose of celebrating an holiday will end up with a lot of arguments and in either perspectives, it can't be determine what is right or wrong. Perhaps, justifying right or wrong is just meaningless since there will not be a conclusion (a exact answer).
For the people who believe in Jesus, it might be a big holiday for the Christians to celebrate Christmas. But as for me, being an infidel, although I might believe something that is in that certain religion, I don't really know how much the holiday values to them. Holiday can be a culture that people do things special than the other days. Thus, people will do it since they think is something that they should do as an obligation. For the people who do not really care about Christmas, it will just be a regular day for them to live on in their life, it really depends on what angle that person stands on. For people who like Christmas and exchanging gifts, it will a day for them to buy gifts for each other. Everybody celebrate it differently based on how they rate the importance and values of Christmas. Differently, for New Year. It is something that everybody do as a count down. I personally think that it is meaningful to count down to the next year because time will never come back. Also it is a great time to think about the past and have another start. But it could also be a regular day as a day past by. In 365 days, people gave meaning to special days and it became a holiday. To me, I think it is a meaningful thing to do because if everyday is just a regular day to live through it will become boredom to people to live. But creating holidays in different culture will give people more choice to choose how they want to live. They could live the day as a regular day they used to live, or put themselves into the holiday and celebrate it. In the other hand, I don't really understand the feeling of counting down in Times Square, because I think as long as I am with the people who is important to me, it doesn't matter where I count down at home or suffer the cold outside. But in either way, is something that people choose to do that satisfy themselves.
Looking at the pros and cons of celebrating Christmas, it makes me start thinking about the principle of you get something and you lose something at the same time. One of the marginal message about Christmas was that people cut down Christmas trees to celebrate the holiday is actually hurting the environment. Also people become too commercialized from consuming products on holidays and spend too much money. All these messages usually does not reveal on Christmas. But people do know the fact that they are doing it. These messages are able to exposed in the public is because people will still do it in a way that will comfort themselves. Some of the dominant messages such as celebrating Christmas with the family and shared the happiness is the good way of living is something that a lot of people do, too. By reading the reasons why people should not celebrate Christmas could be very bias because when something gets to an extreme, it will definitely have more than two sides to argue. 1.The economic reasons - " Polls show that many people believe Christmas has become too commercialized."
2.The environmental reasons - "In 1997, Americans cut down 33 million real trees to put up in their homes, enough to cover the state of Rhode Island."
3.The social reasons - "Made in China" is the label you’ll find on many Christmas trees and most children’s toys. Unfortunately, China frequently uses prison labor to manufacture these goods, and the prisoners are often political dissidents jailed by the Butchers of Tienanmen Square.
4.The religious reasons - "Thousands of years before Christianity even appeared, cultures all around the world were celebrating a similar holiday, with many of the traditions that we now associate with Christmas."
In either way, it can't be determine or to justify what is right or wrong. Thus, perhaps thinking about what is right or wrong to do something is just as pointless as life is meaningless. In my opinion, sometimes things could be see as more than one choice for people to choose to live.→If either way is standing on an position as gettin getting to an extreme, then how should people live?
I don't think following messages that you believe it fits you are wrong and people should not stop doing it because of what people say so. Because I believe that life is like math that everybody is just having their own formula that fits themselves to live throughout their lives.In other words, to solve their own question of living a good meaningful life. The question of how to live a good and meaningful life could have a lot of answers, and it does not have a right or wrong answer as long as it fits that person. It might seem to be spending a lot of money and following the corporate culture buying a lot of expensive products are wrong to someone, but to the others is just a motivity for them to live their life. Like something that will push them to move on in their life.
In conclusion, doing math as an exception, that 1+1 has to be 2. For a lot of things that does not really have a rule that is against the society's criterion, such as doing illegal things that the public see as wrong, 1+1 could have infinite possibilities.
In conclusion, doing math as an exception, that 1+1 has to be 2. For a lot of things that does not really have a rule that is against the society's criterion, such as doing illegal things that the public see as wrong, 1+1 could have infinite possibilities.
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