Celebrating Christmas

Christmas 2024 has come and gone... and I wonder how you found and celebrated this past Christmas? On the day after Boxing Day we went to one of the local commercial centers in the town where we live and we were hard pressed to find a park! I was also struck by the difference between the stillness and beauty of our Christmas Eve Service, and the crowded busyness of the commercial world. It was a stark reminder of how commercialized Christmas has become – and that is not new! Christmas has many origins, and some of more ancient ones have their origin in the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. Perhaps, now-a-days it is the commercial world that has gradually taken over our contemporary celebration of Jesus Birthday. And yet the origins of our December celebration of Christmas has a long 'secular' tradition.

For example, in England the first recorded mention of 'Christemasse' was in the 1038 and the date of December 25 was chosen to appeal to non-Christians who wished to celebrate the winter solstice. Father Christmas didn't make his appearance until the 17^th Century following the English Civil War. It arose from a political wish to link some of the emerging traditions – such as Father Christmas with the emerging political reforms of 1660. The role of Father Christmas as a giver of gifts came later, along with the other secular tradition's that arose around the celebration of Christmas.

We have also seen more recent changes in our own lifetime – for example, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, and other ways the commercial world has claimed center stage for the way many people celebrate Christmas. Even so, I still remember the time I spent living in a Franciscan Community in the USA. Having spent most of my life living in New Zealand, I appreciated the difference between celebrating a Mid Winter Christmas in a religious community, where the shortened daylight hours were made more beautiful by falling snow, to the heat and sunshine of a southern Christmas where we are able to enjoy the beaches and other out-door forms of recreation. Yet, wherever we live, and however we celebrate Christmas, it still offers us the opportunity for re-creation – which reminded me of a film, Babette's Feast, which you also may have seen:

The story is set in a small remote village in 19th-century Denmark in the home of two ageing sisters. Their father was a pastor who started his own conservative Christian Church which had little appeal to those living in the local community. While the sisters had received many opportunities for marriage, each time their father refused to grant his permission. When finally, the father died, his two (ageing) sisters continued to look after the dwindling and elderly congregation.

Thirty-five years later, a woman named Babette arrived at their door seeking accommodation, and hopefully, work. However, the sisters could not afford to pay her, but were willing to take her on as their cook in return for bed and food. This arrangement continued for some years. Then we come to a twist in the story.

Unknown to the sisters, Babette had been given a lottery ticket from a friend in Paris which he also renewed each year. Then one day she received the news that she had won 10,000 francs. Babette decided that since the sisters had been so kind to her and had provided both home and food, she would prepare a special anniversary dinner for the two sisters and their small congregation. It was to be a meal that transformed their lives!

Little did they realize, Babette had formerly been the head chef of the Café Anglais. The meal she prepared as an appreciation for way the Sisters had received and treated her was a magnificent feast! And because the gift of her meal, and the generosity and skill that she poured into her cooking was so potent, it was able to transform the guests, physically and spiritually so that 'old wrongs were forgiven, ancient loves were rekindled, and a mystical redemption of the human spirit settled over the table'.

Babette then announced that the dinner had cost her all the money she had won! The story ends when one of the sisters responded: "Now you will be poor the rest of your life", to which Babette replied, "An artist is never poor." I wonder who we might relate to in that story?

Carl Jung once made the following comment about Babette's Feast when suggesting that Babette “makes her sacrifice with no expectation of any return. She does not make the sacrifice to purchase the goodwill of the sisters or of those who will consume the feast. Indeed, she makes her decision believing that the consumers of her feast will have no idea what they are eating. When Philippa gently chides Babette for giving away all that she has for the sister's sake, Babette answers: 'For your sake? No for my own'." ⁽¹⁾

I wonder who you most relate to in this story?

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and good will on your journey into the new year.

Phil

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(1) ttps://jungpage.org/710-the-discovery-of-meaning-in-qbabettes-feastq