The Christmas season is upon us. People around the world are preparing to spend this time with their families and loved ones. They are also gearing up for their Christmas purchases. Over the years, this particular aspect of Christmas - this emphasis on the commercial side - has assumed greater and greater importance. Retailers look anxiously at this period for signs of lagging consumer demand. This is the time when a major chunk if not the bulk of their profits are made. A sacred and solemn occasion has largely been reduced to a singular aspect.
Christmas is not the only occasion that has been commercialized in this fashion. Other religious festivals in different religious traditions have been affected in a likewise fashion. These sacred rituals and traditions serve an important purpose. In an ever changing, fluid world, where today's values are overturned tomorrow, these are occasions that serve as anchors to stability; when we can take a break from trying to negotiate through a morass of ever changing values. Unfortunately, we live in an economic system that does not respect boundaries. The essence of the existing capitalist paradigm is ever increasing, ceaseless growth. The result is that occasions that should remind us of eternal values becomes a homage to the gods of commerce. In the process, we tend to lose sight of what is important and become fixated on what is trivial. How many of the presents that are desperately searched for each Christmas (or Eid or Diwali or whatever the occasion may be) will be remembered even a month from now?
