Festive spirit can warm everyone’s heart
It’s cold out. Late December. Holidays. Families.
But it’s also just days from a new year, rebirth of the calendar and joy around the world. There are signs this will continue to be a mild winter in Beijing, where I reside. The skies are blue. The stars shine at night and the sun is clear during the day. Is this really Beijing? In the West, many, many people have the incorrect opinion that China is and has been for many years a society without spirit in many senses of the word. How wrong they are. Across Beijing and China, thousands of temples remain, most dating to earlier times. Many are tourist spots, but people can use them for spiritual purposes.
The Communist Party of China remains an atheist organization but recognizes several religions, including Buddhism, Taoism, Islam and some branches of Christianity. Despite the Party’s atheist focus, that does not mean spirituality is lost. From this outsider looking in, it seems to be just the opposite. Spirituality is alive and well — at temples, in homes, in warm hearts and, it seems, even in the streets.
It came as a surprise in recent weeks just how seriously people in Beijing take this Western holiday season.
Trees are decorated. Santas adorn shop window displays. Holiday music is played in restaurants. ’Tis the season, for sure.
I sent photos to friends and family back home and they were shocked at the colorful displays on streets, outside shopping malls and even inside hotels and restaurants. In one, a Christmas tree is surrounded by gingerbread houses, wrapped gifts and a model train — a very traditional Western scene often reserved for Christmas morning.
I, for one, am neither religious nor nonreligious. I was raised in a Jewish household, but married a Catholic girl; and while we do some things more of a traditional nature, we’ve both fallen from being religious.
But in the spirit of the season, we do wish happy holidays to you and your families and I hope this season and the New Year bring goodwill to our nations and all nations around the planet.