From: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: So this is Christmas?
Date: 27 Dec 92 18:43:58 GMT
Reply-To: gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare)
Organization: The Bates Motel


Just got back from a restful Christmas break of two and a half days ...
after spending it the way that I did, and looking at the usual flamefest
maybe I can inject an interesting topic (yes!) for discussion:

	"How do you look at and spend Christmas?"

So I'll lead off ... I've always been an agnostic but growing up in
Western Canada, everybody celebrated Christmas ('til I grew up and
learned that Jewish people didn't, then moved into a neighbourhood
where there are Jews; etc.) in one form or another.  While divorced
from the Christian aspect, our Christmas was a strong reality for 
both our family and for the annual business cycle ... Christmas 
shopping brought down business at mid-December, but there was a 
rush on Christmas Eve especially for Catholics and northern European
Protestants (Scandinavian and German Lutherans, etc.) who celebrated
the 24th like the Walshes on "Beverly Hills, 90210" (yes, I sat down
and watch both episodes (on tape) this week; could make for a good 
TV movie at Christmas time after the show (finally) dies).  It was 
a madhouse from 5:00 'til around 8:00 PM ... all clear by 8:30, we
prepared to close the restaurant around 9:00 or 9:30 PM.  Christmas
Day and Boxing Day (the 26th has a name in British Commonwealth
countries; see Dickens) were the only two days in a row that we 
closed our door, and but was not rest; that was the only time to see
our relatives, and our staff who were not locked into their own family
celebrations.  So we "did it" like everyone else.  It was a hassle,
but I survived it ...

Now many years later as an adult, I've come to wonder if the greater
religeous consciousness since the '70s and stronger ethnic identity
fostered by larger numbers of recent arrivals (the people who came in
the 20's through the 60's in my hometown are now dwarfed to the point
of irrelevancy, and their children like me scattered all around) will
ever allow that to repeat itself again?  Fundamentalists want to take
back Christmas (they have a point, even if they overlook that Jesus
was a Jew and that the Yule itself was pagan in origin .... you know
the people that I mean) and ethnophiles who are against assimilation
(I'm not flaming anyone here) may possibly lead us to a future where
the secularized Yuletide season as portrayed in Dickens' "A Christmas
Carol" and like I knew in my childhood through the late 70's and early
70's may not be repeated by future generations of Asian-Americans (and
those outside of the New World in the Asian diaspora) growing up and
as well those newly arrived.

[Actually, I don't believe that which I wrote ... it's for debate.]

Here's how I spent my Christmas: on the Eve, my fiancee played at a
Lutheran service out in Jamaica, Queens so as soon as she left for an
afternoon rehearsal, I dived into the nearest Body Shop outlet for a
box of nice things ... whatever I could fit into a Cointreau box.  It
was wrapped over an afternoon coffee and snack to tide me through 'til
a late dinner.  Into a protective thick plastic bag from Tower Records
and then into my rucksack, off I went.  The service was entertaining
(remember, I'm agnostic -- but I didn't feel out of place), and back
to Manhattan we came for a late dinner at one of the few restaurants
that was still open at 10:30 PM. (-; It's been bitter cold, but the
hot Christmas punch that came from an old German recipe supposedly
handed down the generations from Dagmar's mother's family back in
Palatine warmed us up well.  We slept through the 25th due to great
cumulative fatigue from the hellish year we've had ... the 26th was
the day to get out and around; you Dickens readers will know that
Boxing Day is the day of the holidays that you went out and saw your
friends, but with all our friends out of town with their families it
was our day to enjoy New York City in all its Christmas splendour.
The town was busy during the day with bargain hunters, and at night
the ninth day of Chanukah closed and more people streamed out into
the evening after being cooped up for days in observance and with
their families.  I actually liked New York these past few days ...

I hope that your holiday weeks will be just as enjoyable!

gld
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary L. Dare
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Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american