A holy day to truly celebrate
ON MOST of our Christmas cards I wrote the same message: ‘Here’s to a better 2021.’ I don’t even want to imagine how it could be worse.
But I refuse to give up innate hope. It may be storm-blasted, but it’s still singing.
In defiance of misery, I’m ready for a good Christmas — yes, even though I shall miss beloved friends and have a worrisome family problem, too.
I’ve always loved this time of candles, cards and carols — but it’s ironic that Americans (and increasingly people here) use the world ‘holiday’ instead of Christmas, erasing the name of Jesus Christ so as not to upset/offend those who do not believe in Him.
What they don’t realise is that ‘holiday’ means Holy Day. And Christmas is a holy day indeed.
Why? First — the power of tradition and ritual. The yule log, holly, midwinter, stories around the fire are centuries old. What more significant time for people to realise how much they need each other?
The world may be huge, dark and cold, but when we have our tribe with us, we can withstand it. Isn’t that how we feel especially this year — when Covid has destroyed or threatened so much? The gathering-together is all the more necessary. It’s in our DNA.
So is ritual. The layers of meaning — expressed in the iconography of St Nicholas as well as the Virgin Mary, the stable, the angels — are hugely important. The Grinches just don’t get it.
The sacred symbolism of the mother and the baby even speaks to people who do not practise Christianity. It is as if that holy image represents the very best of themselves — how they felt when holding their firstborn or looking at an old photograph of Mum holding them. Such beauty here.
Like the poet Keats, I believe above all in ‘the holiness of the heart’s affections’.
So since I won’t be here on Boxing Day, I’m doubling my heartfelt wish that all of you can make Christmas blessed in your own way.
BEL answers readers’ questions on emotional and relationship problems each week. Write to Bel Mooney, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT, or email bel.mooney@dailymail.co.uk. Names are changed to protect identities. Bel reads all letters but regrets she cannot enter into personal correspondence.