as the rain continues to fall, christmas is literally just around the corner. not being religious, christmas has come to mean a variety of things to me.1. a time for family
i think this is obvious. christmas to me has been synonymous with merry-making (forgive the pun) - feasting, drinking, laughing and (to a certain extent), sharing family gossip. straying from western tradition, turkey, ham and log cake are served with char siew, curry chicken and agar agar (my personal favourite as my cousins will atest to) which represents the east-west culture my family, and singapore, has. not a carol sung, but blasted through the stereo, mah jong sessions ensue alongside dvd marathons and cat naps. jesus could sit at the adults table and have a glass of red wine or two.2. a time for the individual
having studied contemporary china and its culture, christmas which is traditionally associated with the west and western values, symbolises a celebration of the individual. i know this sounds conflicting with all those homey christmas movies we see on movie screens where everyone rushes home to be with family, but the chinese see it as a time where they do not need to be with family but with friends instead. the time for the former is chinese new year, thus christmas really does mean something completely different from what it is "supposed to be". nonetheless, east and west do have similar values, just honed into different value systems (a point i may take up in a later post, perhaps).3. capitalism
ah, the link between protestanism and capitalism is not always obvious to the naked eye. Max Weber once wrote about how protestanism (particularly calvinism) created a thriving environment for the accumulation of wealth and investment in his "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism". i did research on the Church in medieval europe for one of my units, which quite frankly would open one's eyes about the Church, its hierarchy and strategies. nonetheless, the Church (in particular Roman Catholics) built awesome places of worship which i've travelled to - i'm not complaining. perhaps closer to home, a decorated orchard road, fake snow and the buying and wrapping of gifts are scenes more common to our eyes. i can almost hear the ker-ching of a distant giant till. adam smith, i salute you.merry christmas everyone.
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