Christmas is Here!

On a December weekend a few years ago, I went into the mall looking for a rake, this tool with a long handle and a head with long teeth for gathering dead grass and fallen leaves. A friend in Samar asked me to buy one for her. She needed to rake the fallen leaves in her yard into a pit, so the place wouldn't look like a mess.

It turned out that the mall's hardware store no longer had those rakes on display. They had momentarily cleared out their garden section to make room for Christmas decors. All that was left behind were hand-sized tolls that didn't occupy much space.

The sales clerk said that he could go look for a rake in the stockroom, but it would take some time. I told him not to bother. It was already getting late, and the boat I was going to send it through was departing in a few minutes. Although the pier was nearby, I thought there was just no time anymore to make it there if I didn't get the item right away.

But I didn't feel bad for not being able to get the rake my friend wanted. The merry Christmas atmosphere that greeted me at the store made my quick trip there all worth it. The Christmas season is always so beautiful when celebrated at the right time.

It says in the Bible: "For everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven."

This passage was obviously written by some wise man of old who didn't anticipate that the ways of the world would be so much different a few hundred years after. The writer probably didn't think that people's appetite for money would outshine their desire for God.

There may once have been "a time to plant and a time to harvest that which is planted." But now the seasons are a mere note on the conventional calendars. The natural seasons for things are becoming ignored more and more. Money seems to be the main thing that dictates the coming of the seasons nowadays.

For one thing, the natural seasons have lately become irregular due to the heightening climate change. But long before that, people have been rushing into the next season too soon, the way they do with fashions in store windows, staying with the last season too long, the way we do with Christmas, and completely ignoring the seasons, the way vegetables and fruits traders try to. We're losing the seasons definition of our years.

I wish we had a law penalizing the selling of Christmas ornaments way ahead, say, before All Saints' Day. And, likewise, prohibiting establishments - the stores especially - from celebrating Christmas before the month of December. We all know that the real motive behind these is commerce. There's really nothing pious or spiritual about it.      

Many would surely argue that there's nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas much earlier and longer. But, of course, there is - it dilutes the Christmas spirit! And we've already seen how it encourages enterprising minds to take advantage of the extra stretch of time. Quite a disrespectful way of remembering the birth of the Savior of Humankind.

The Christmas mood lightens up our feelings, all right. It makes us forget our troubles, even just for a short while. It makes many of us smile, others generous. But, come on, do we only welcome Christmas so we would be able to feel good or do good? Is Christmas to us a mere therapy or a cue for us to show the angels that we are?

We need to preserve the integrity of our seasons. There may be nothing we can do to stop the rains from coming in summer, or for the weather to go hot and dry around December. But, at least, we should not add to the confusion.

Yesterday a group of little kids in my neighborhood were arguing. Each one had a different idea as to how many times in a year does Christmas come around. One boy insisted that Christmas comes twice in a year, because it was Christmas at the store where his mother bought him a new pair of shoes in July and it was Christmas, too, when his father got drunk in December. 

If we can't have a law regulating our public observance of the Christmas season, then perhaps the Ecclesiastes in the Bible should be updated: "There's a time for Christmas holiday celebrations and a time when it's okay to celebrate the Christmas holidays too early and for as long as anyone wishes."

But for now, let's all be merry. Christmas is here. That's for sure.