Merry Christmas

It was Christmas last year when I visited my sick mother in Germany in order to be with her for a few days upon her release from hospital. I picked her up from the rehabilitation clinic in a small town in eastern Germany. The receptionist, who knew that I had come all the way from the Persian Gulf, asked me, if I was staying till the new year, but I answered that I had to get back right away after Christmas Day, because my children were waiting for me as they had to go to school. The confused receptionist was surprised that they had such short Christmas holidays. But she was even more confused when I informed her that we did not have Christmas holidays and no Christmas for that matter in a Muslim country, at least not in the government sector (There are a few private schools though who have Christmas holidays instead of the usual spring holidays at the end of winter). That was too much for the poor receptionist, so she asked, hardly interested anymore, what we would celebrate instead of Christmas. My reply only elicited a pitying smile from her - Ramadhan - unimaginable.


At that moment I realized how little the world's inhabitants know from each other, I was sadened by the ignorance of people beyond their little world, despite satellite TV and geography lessons at school. The world celebrates Christmas according to the widespread Western opinion, but in actual fact there are millions of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddists and so many others who don't.


But what is much sadder is how little people actually know about their own culture and traditions, especially about their origins. Jesus was born, that is a fact, but the date is not and this is not even disputed by the Catholic Church, because in the year 353 it was Pope Liberius who fixed the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December. At that time Christianity was declared the state religion in Rome and the clerus converted all festival days of several peagan cults into Christian festivities, because people had kept celebrating the midwinter light festival and the births of other gods on or around that day. This way they did not have to be persuaded to change their customs, as we all know that old habits die hard.


Whoever is interested in the version that Muslims believe in, for which the source is the Holy Quran itself, might want to check out the story of Mary, Mother of Jesus, according to the quranic revelations, which has been turned into a well produced film (with English subtitles or synchronization) called "The Blessed Saint Mary," directed by Shahriar Bohrani. It's definitly a nice Christmas movie. There is a trailor as well as the whole film in series on You Tube. In this sense, Merry Christmas.