The Christmas Pre-Partum Blues

I know I said I would not post anything except the Feast for the day, but I ran across this article which I thought I would like to share.

By Dan Cheely
Posted in Our Columns on December 15, 2007 with 0 comments.
tags: History Religion

Recently, psychologists have begun to describe a growing phenomenon—the “Christmas Blues”.

Christmas Blues?

Paradoxical but true, in the midst of a season when our streets are filled with colorful decorations and our public places all resounding with jolly songs, many people feel depressed and sad. “None of this joy applies to me,” they silently lament. “There is no Santa Claus who comes down my chimney!” “Every year I get deeper in debt at this time of year.” A datum that we all know, but don’t like to talk about, is that suicides and other lonely deaths are higher than normal at this time of year.

By way of contrast, in the early Christian centuries, the feast of Christmas was actually preceded by a period of fasting, not feasting. In today’s culture of holiday, client, and office parties, awash with succulent hors d’oeuvres, caloric beverages, and delectable cookies, fasting before Christmas seems so dissonant as to be unbelievable. (Weight Watchers says the average adult American gains 5 to 10 pounds during the annual holiday season.) Yet, fasting is nevertheless an ancient practice associated with the origin of the season. It is interesting to note that the Eastern Orthodox Church still observes a pre-Christmas fast as a tradition believed to be passed on from the post-Apostolic era.

Why fasting? The holiday celebrates after all not Santa Claus who came relatively late in the game but the coming to earth of Messiah, the bringer of incarnate goodness itself into a rough and selfish world. To be able to recognize Messiah, we have to understand what goodness is, and have a personal experience with it ourselves. The only way really to understand this goodness is to try to be part of it ourselves.

This comes through giving, not grabbing. Early Christians knew this from stories of Christ and the saints, who sacrificed like Him. The most personal way to imitate this was in one’s own personal life – even in eating – “I’ll sacrifice here so I can really feast on His actual life, His Body and Blood – “Christ’s Mass.” Christmas isn’t really about getting things, it’s really about the presence on earth of an entirely different kind of person, linking up with Him, and becoming a different kind of person, a better person oneself. That’s why during this period of time the Church recalls in its liturgy the penitential figure of John the Baptist.

Poles and Ukrainians have a beautiful tradition for Christmas eve called “Oplatki.” Oplatki is a long sheet of unleavened wafer bread, often with an Image of Christ or other religious symbols imprinted on it. It has the same consistency and taste of the Communion wafer. Before the (traditionally meatless) Christmas eve dinner begins, each member of the family breaks the wafer with each other member of the family, wishing each one a special personal blessing. Here we can see the true meaning of this season. We try to bring about the presence of the Messiah in our homes. We replicatd His life in our environment as best we can. We do it through sacrifice. We share that imitation Messiah-life with those who share our lives, and in so doing, this renewal of the new kind of life becomes the most important part of our very unique, sacrificial feast.After four weeks of fasting, we will really enjoy not just the pierogies, but also the starry vision of the Messiah who gives meaning to everything.

Try that and there’ll be no pre-partum Christmas blues.

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