Ten Speak about Christmas (Reportage)

In the flood of the holidays, amid the glittering shop windows, the brightly colored greeting cards, and the long, boisterous evening parties — in the midst of the merriment and these varied displays of joy at mankind's salvation through the coming of the Redeemer — we wanted to know what Christmas inspires among us! And this is Christmas as it is seen by:

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1 — Zakaa al-Asaad: a girl of seven.

"Christmas is the feast of beautiful presents, the feast of chocolate and sugared almonds and sweets, the feast of the beautiful tree full of ornaments, the feast of the 'good' children who honored or obeyed their parents — so the Child Jesus told Papa Noël about them and sent them presents with him, out of his love for them!!"

2 — Andrée Moussa: a student.

Christmas? Is Christmas anything but beautiful days, all of them school holiday? Memories of merriment, waiting for Papa Noël... (Between you and me, I play his part now among the children of the family, so now I laugh at my anxiety when I used to wait for him as a child!)... This beautiful feeling — the feeling of giving, and the spirit that lies in giving — lends Christmas a special aspect that sets it apart from all the other feasts. God gave us His Son to bear our sins for us, and yet we still flounder in them, forever forgetting that greatest gift — salvation.

3 — Miss Amal Khoury: a student at Beirut College for Women.

Whenever I think of Christmas I think of the shining tree, and the fire sending warmth into bodies, and the Christmas carols stirring reverence in the hearts of men, reminding them of the first glad tidings of peace on earth — that peace we still need, and to obtain which we need to follow the teachings of the newborn Child. As for the deep, powerful feeling Christmas inspires, it is hard to put into words: it is emotion, it is thought, it is reverence.

4 — Mr. Ghassan Tueni: deputy in the Chamber of Deputies.

Christmas often reminds me of my childhood — the parties, and the family life on Christmas Eve; these are in truth among the most beautiful memories a man returns to, for the peace of mind they inspire.

On the public plane, Christmas moves me to wonder about the greatest miracle in history, the miracle of God's becoming man. Those who believe — whether in the humanity of God or in the divinity of man — prove by this faith of theirs the possibility of miracles occurring in history and working upon it.

5 — Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush: physician.

What does Christmas inspire? And what does it not inspire? It is a speaking image of the joining of heaven and earth — and that joining is what the earth needs now; if it strays far from it, it will find it hard to solve the many problems in which it flounders.

Christmas, as I see it, founded a new social philosophy for which the world order is now working. This social philosophy shows itself in the institutions of child care and child welfare. Had Christ not come into the world as a child, strengthening the idea of childhood and its standing, men would not have thought of childhood and its importance.

And Christmas strengthened the position of woman. Christmas, in Christianity, gave woman a standing no other society has offered her — it gave her the holiest of favors and the strongest of respect — it made her the Mother of God!

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We have a whole year in which we think of ourselves and of what we need... Christmas is the one day of the year on which we leave ourselves, and the thought of ourselves, to think of others. It is the feast of giving — the feast of the joy that floods us when we give to others and ask nothing that others should give us.

It is the feast of merry childhood opening its boxes of presents in the morning. It is a precious memory renewed, year after year: the birth of a child... the birth of a hope... the birth of a rescuer and savior.

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Christmas reminds me of a day of peace, in a world that never quiets down and never knows peace. What it inspires in me is an oasis to which the weary world takes refuge one day each year, in the desert of pains and hopes and tears, to enjoy its shade and savor its quiet for a few moments — only to return to the combat and the struggle more fiercely than it began them, as though its settled habit were suicide.

In the feast of peace, and in the life of Him whose feast it is, there lies a lesson in peaceableness and forgiveness — one mankind has not heeded for twenty centuries; it is as if, for all their great age, men were still children quarreling over pieces of candy at the holidays. All I hope is that neither I, nor my two beloved children and their mother, may witness a new world war — a third among the wars I have lived through. For I was born in the First Great War, I witnessed the Second World War, and today I witness the third — and this war is cold, freezing the limbs and threatening to blaze up between one Christmas and the next.

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The first thing I think of on this day is the gathering of the family at one time and around one object. Then, my father's feast day falls on the twenty-third of this month, so for its sake all the members of our family gather at our house and remain until the twenty-fifth has passed, and we celebrate the two feasts together.

You may be surprised when I tell you that I do not favor staying up late that night; on the contrary, the atmosphere Christmas suggests to me is the atmosphere of the warm house that endears one's bed to one, so you will see me go to my bed on that day earlier than on any other. And what I think of is offering a few presents to family and friends — it makes no difference to me how small the present or how little its value.

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The greatness of Christmas is revealed in its simplicity, for Christ was born and lived humbly; and the quieter and simpler its celebrations, the farther from clamor, the more we feel their splendor, because they bring us nearer to reality and to the sublimity of truth.

Among the chief causes of man's misery is his thinking of himself and his private needs. Christmas and its presents make us forget ourselves and think of others, and so we see merriment and happiness reflected on our faces and spreading abroad in this season. Thinking of others begets feeling and sympathy with the floundering, needy world.

Christmas is merry, innocent childhood, for the Savior was born a child. He came as a little child to live among us, to know our problems, to see the trials on the road of our life, and then to find them solutions. It is the feast of salvation. Christmas, seen in this idea, makes me hallow this feast and give it a special place in my soul.

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Christmas reminds me of two important things: first, the union of the family; then, release from the daily duties that fall upon one's shoulders. Its importance for me is bound up with the religious side, which makes me sing of childhood and hallow it; and I strive to offer gifts to those who need them, because the teachings of my religion, which began with this feast, oblige us to give of ourselves without waiting for thanks or return for what we have given.

What I always remember at this feast is the days of my children's childhood, when they would hang their stockings on their beds and wait for the presents in them. I would perform this task at night, feeling all the while that they saw me and heard my movements; but they would pretend to be asleep. Each of us felt the other's presence, yet neither of us declared it, lest we spoil the meaning of that symbol which used to dawn upon us.