Why I don't miss the stress of Christmas

Your correspondents, R Tomlinson (Lack of fun, January 5) and Jordan Tate (Lacking festive cheer, December 29) both focus on the negative side to my comments about the pre-Christian or pagan origins of Christmas trees and the irony of churches displaying them in the same way as countless secular people and businesses do.

I have not kept Christmas for several years now, obviously much easier to achieve as I live alone, but I must admit I do not miss all the stress of the season or the expense, not that I am tight, but I now have a great sense of peace while everyone else is going frantic or going into debt.

I doubt if Jesus himself would follow the antics of our current societal trends, as the Church tries to mould December 25 as His birthday.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Jesus never asked His followers to remember His birth, hence no date is given in the Gospels, but He did specifically instruct to remember His death at Passover each year, which falls on Nisan14 in the Hebrew, Biblical or Jewish calendar that the Celtic Christians in Britain and Ireland kept for many centuries, like the first Jewish Church in Jerusalem, until the new Roman system of ‘Easter’, named after a pagan deity, took over.

I avoid both Christmas and Easter.

Next up will be the fertility symbols of coloured eggs and rabbits which have nothing to do with Jesus either.

Colin Nevin