Errol MillerCHRISTMAS IS here again. The busy bustle that marks this annual festival is everywhere to be seen. Associated with it are all the usual statements about Christmas as a time of giving and receiving of presents, a time of peace and goodwill to all, a time of sharing a time of joy and carols of course.
Christians all point away from the commercial aspects of Christmas and remind us all that its real meaning lies in the celebration of the fact that the Word became Flesh and dwells among us. God broke into human history in the form of a baby born in very inauspicious circumstances and to humble parents. Christmas is the festival that reminds us of our connection to the Source of all things. God who is the source of all things and who is eternal broke into human history to show us how to be truly human.
It is this religious and symbolic aspect of Christmas as a ritual that connects us to the Source that makes the strong association that Christmas has with family. Apart from the fact that the birth of a baby is a defining moment in any family, the concept family has deeply embedded in it the notion of connection to source.
We live in a world marked by growing alienation and disconnected persons. Seasons and symbols whose message and theme is connectedness become even more important as means and times at which we should all reflect upon and realise the interdependence of all of our existence.
My father had a very deep and abiding commitment to family, although he was not without wayward fancies. In 1950 he deliberately inaugurated the practice of the family sitting down to Christmas dinner with a particular format replete with family song. He was strongly of the view that in creating a nation it was critically important to deliberately establish traditions as a means of building and strengthening identity, loyalties and solidarity. He saw the family as an important unit of the emerging nation.
A few years later he inveigled his brother to join in the annual ritual and for the next 40 years made it an inescapable event for every member of the two families notwithstanding the fact that the children all grew up to have their own families. Although they are now both dead, this annual family ritual has continued although the members of the family are scattered across the world.
This year marks the 50th year of this family celebration. While the family in North America and England have had their own version of this dinner each year, and then connected with the Jamaican brethren by phone, this year almost all are coming home to have fellowship together at the family home.
Indeed, apart from eating the Christmas meal together this bringing together of the family in the 50th year has added the dimension of a family reunion.
As I have reflected on this family ritual it has dawned on me that for the last 50 years there has never been any question about where we would be and what we would be doing on Christmas Day. This has been passed on to our children who in turn are passing it on to their children. What is being passed on is a sense of connectedness symbolised in an annual family ritual.
As I have watched the overseas family members arrive, I have not been able to ignore the fact that they have come at great personal expense in bringing their entire families. Further, what started out around a single table with members of a single household has expanded to many households composed of people of many different nationalities and background who now share a sense of connectedness.
Christmas and family highlights both the eternal and earthly connections of human kind. It is these connections that are sources of hope and peace and joy and love.
A holy and a merry Christmas to all.
Errol Miller is Professor and head on the Institute of Education, UWI, Mona.
