Back on the bus again Tuesday morning, I count only four ‘decorated’ pisos/flats all the way from my stop to where the bus turns onto the main road; around 5.5km (beach all the way!). Three of the four had only one decoration and the fourth had two! As you can see this is not a big thing here and we could surmise that where there were decorations would be the homes of expats. Here the key celebration is for the Three Kings on January 6th.
The one decoration they all had, though of different sizes, was off a Santa climbing up a rope to their window or onto their balcony. Am I allowing my negative mind to come to the fore here, or . . . I mean, to condone a costumed man, a stranger, climbing into your house! Is this psychologically a good idea? For, apart from the real Santa, there are many who portray him who are, well, just not him!
Santa, the now red and white bedecked Santa Claus as most of us know, has been said to be an advertising invention changing the ‘green man’ of Saint Nicolas into our fluffy bearded friend fashioned from the campaigns of Coca cola. I wonder if this was to change the unwanted outcry when it was found out that ‘Coke’ was said to have originally used cocaine in its recipe. Can’t find anything about it in the huge Coca-Cola website but this article says it was removed in 1929. https://www.worldofcoca-cola.com/about-us/coca-cola-history/
Athttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas#Life_and_legends we read that: After his parents died, Nicholas is said to have distributed their wealth to the poor.[22][29] You can read the rest of this write up at the link above.
This being the start of the gift giving we know of today via Santa. But, as I said, here in Barcelona area, if not throughout Spain, there is much more emphasis given to the Three Kings as in their bringing of gifts to the baby Jesus.
Instead of giving unwanted/unneeded gifts. Why not give to the many charities for the people who don’t have much of anything. Take a photo of it and send it to your friend or family member and say – thank you, I love you, this is your gift too. Our western world has strayed from the true meaning of celebrating, where many people are unable not to be pressured into untold debt e.g. so that their children can have what others get.
It has been said that Christmas was a pagan festival. There has been much written about that too and if you want to see more just Google: ‘pagan days claimed by the church’. That will give you enough material to keep you busy during the holidays if you find yourself with nothing to do!
To round off, as I do, we need to allow ourselves to trust that not everyone is out to rob us or do us harm. Unfortunately, that is how our press and media like to have us see the world in which we live. Always the bad news stories that breed fear in us so as we buy the latest alarms systems etc.
We are born to LIVE this human life and that sometimes means we have to take a leap of faith to experience it; not hide ourselves away worrying about a day that might never come. So, by all means, check out the ‘credentials’ of the e.g. unknown man trying to get into your house. Better still, let him have it and keep your life. Possessions are just that. When we ‘go home’ all we take with us is that which we carry in our soul consciousness. As they say, there are no pockets in a shroud!
I intend to post on Wednesday next week (Christmas Day) as I am going to have a quiet one. Here the night of the 24th is more of a celebration. So, let’s see if I can get the next WWW out on a Wednesday again.
Namaste xx
Picture on my blue background via Wikimedia. The dowry for the three virgins (Gentile da Fabriano, c. 1425, Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome). To be attributed as: By Gentile da Fabriano - The Yorck Project (2002) 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=151516
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