Reveries of Christmas - Chinese style(1)
Christmas with Chinese characteristics may bewilder purists, but it actually follows the pagan tradition of the holiday and is updated for the gilded age.
Christmas in China is a unique experience like nothing you've seen in other countries. It is not the height of the holiday season. Rather, it marks the beginning, which leads to the climax of the Lunar New Year a month or so later. In a sense, it is an exotic prelude to the real festival to come.
A decade ago, there were debates about the appropriateness of importing a noticeably foreign holiday into China.
But verbal wrangles are so feeble in the face of the tidal wave that is commercial interests.
There is not a holiday that merchants do not love. We have two calendars, one lunar and one Gregorian.
It's natural we now have two holidays for many occasions. For lovers, we have Valentine's Day and then the seventh day of the seventh month on the lunar calendar, based on some Chinese mythology.
Why can't we have two big year-end celebrations?
Of course, Christmas is not the equivalent of China's Lunar New Year - except in the obvious similarities, such as family reunions, binge eating and drinking, and endless rounds of gift-giving (with re-gifting a Chinese touch that amounts to recycling).
I bet not a lot of people associate Christmas for its religious origin.
If you ask around who was born on this day, many with a long memory may say Chairman Mao Zedong. Well, they missed by just one day. The Great Helmsman had his birthday on Dec 26, which always calls for some kind of red-banner commemoration in the official press.
I also bet a lot of people have confused Santa Claus with Jesus Christ.
"Santa is not religious. He does not have any political agenda," Lars Backstrom, Finland's ambassador to China, was quick to say.
He explained the difference at a recent media event showcasing his country's rich heritage of Santa-related folklore.
Actually, I was asking a Santa impersonator about his resemblance with Buddha: Both are jocular, have round bellies and grant wishes. What if Chinese kids mistake the jolly old man from the North Pole, whom they are not so familiar with, for the statue from the local temple coming alive in costume?
It would be quite conceivable to fuse the Santa legend with Buddhism. The arhats can be transformed into elves. (The Hollywood movie Ocean's 11 is translated as 11 Arhats in Chinese, and then 12 Arhats and 13 Arhats.)
The reindeer can easily morph into floating lotuses, which, if you think of it, make a much smoother ride.
No, I'm not trying to hijack the Christian essence of the occasion. Christmas is never a purely Christian holiday. As a matter of fact, nobody can prove Jesus Christ was born on this day.
The proposition that Dec 25 was his birthday was not floated until the 4th century. I once consulted an expert about the possibility that Jesus' birth fell on this day, and his answer was: 1 out of 365.
