A season to celebrate
It is Holiday time and looking around, you can sense the festive mood setting in, already. Visiting friends and family, vacations to plan, gifts to buy, parties to prepare for and of course, the money to cover all these - will be the things occupying the minds of millions of people, this season.
Kicking off the holiday season is Christmas, a day marked by giving and receiving gifts and more importantly a joyous occasion for everyone to spend time with family and friends. As I drive around Lexington’s busy Hamburg shopping district, I can see people thronging restaurants and shops, filling the air with the holiday buzz and excitement. Stores and buildings decorated with elegant Christmas wreaths offer a beautiful sight for the eye in red and green. Stars and flashy lights dangling in my neighbors’ patios remind me of the jolly days I had in my hometown back in India, during "Diwali" (The Festival of Lights), the "Christmas" for Hindus, if you will. ‘Feel-good’ movies and innumerable ads exhorting viewers to go shopping, fill the TV space. As for myself, single, though not lonely, like the magnificent Christmas Tree downtown, I have always felt that the city I call my hometown, the "Athens of the West," teems with life and joy during the holiday season, true to its name - nickname rather. See http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm for interesting information on Christmas traditions around the world.
Following Christmas comes the New Year’s Day. Breathtaking fireworks lighting up the skies and late-night parties have become regular activities marking new year celebrations worldwide. Though a majority of people celebrate the advent of the new year based on the Gregorian Calendar, people in various countries welcome the new year by following a calendar that is unique to a particular ethnic group, religion or region. The Tamil New Year celebrated in southern India is observed on the first day of the Tamil month "Chithirai" (typically falls on April 13 or 14 of the Gregorian calendar); The Chinese New Year traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar; Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins on the first day of the seventh month (Tishri) of the Hebrew calendar. Cultural differences apart, the New Year provides an opportunity for everyone to introspect and plan a better life in the year ahead, aided by sometimes unattainable but trendy New Year’s resolutions. The page http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm shares an insight into new year traditions around the world.
In these troubled economic times, spending money wisely becomes an automatic priority for us in matters involving money. Celebrating the holidays is therefore strongly influenced by money constraints and you could find innumerable blogs opining on having an ‘economic’ Christmas or New Year, television commercials advising viewers on how to save money during the holidays and so on. Money or no money, Faithful or not, these festivals bring out the true spirit of the holiday season - family, love, peace and oneness. Christmas and New Year being universal holidays, people around the world, cutting across religious and ethnic divides, would be hoping that the season would usher in prosperity, happiness and peace in the coming year. So does yours truly. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!
Kicking off the holiday season is Christmas, a day marked by giving and receiving gifts and more importantly a joyous occasion for everyone to spend time with family and friends. As I drive around Lexington’s busy Hamburg shopping district, I can see people thronging restaurants and shops, filling the air with the holiday buzz and excitement. Stores and buildings decorated with elegant Christmas wreaths offer a beautiful sight for the eye in red and green. Stars and flashy lights dangling in my neighbors’ patios remind me of the jolly days I had in my hometown back in India, during "Diwali" (The Festival of Lights), the "Christmas" for Hindus, if you will. ‘Feel-good’ movies and innumerable ads exhorting viewers to go shopping, fill the TV space. As for myself, single, though not lonely, like the magnificent Christmas Tree downtown, I have always felt that the city I call my hometown, the "Athens of the West," teems with life and joy during the holiday season, true to its name - nickname rather. See http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm for interesting information on Christmas traditions around the world.
Following Christmas comes the New Year’s Day. Breathtaking fireworks lighting up the skies and late-night parties have become regular activities marking new year celebrations worldwide. Though a majority of people celebrate the advent of the new year based on the Gregorian Calendar, people in various countries welcome the new year by following a calendar that is unique to a particular ethnic group, religion or region. The Tamil New Year celebrated in southern India is observed on the first day of the Tamil month "Chithirai" (typically falls on April 13 or 14 of the Gregorian calendar); The Chinese New Year traditionally begins on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar; Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, begins on the first day of the seventh month (Tishri) of the Hebrew calendar. Cultural differences apart, the New Year provides an opportunity for everyone to introspect and plan a better life in the year ahead, aided by sometimes unattainable but trendy New Year’s resolutions. The page http://www.fathertimes.net/traditions.htm shares an insight into new year traditions around the world.
In these troubled economic times, spending money wisely becomes an automatic priority for us in matters involving money. Celebrating the holidays is therefore strongly influenced by money constraints and you could find innumerable blogs opining on having an ‘economic’ Christmas or New Year, television commercials advising viewers on how to save money during the holidays and so on. Money or no money, Faithful or not, these festivals bring out the true spirit of the holiday season - family, love, peace and oneness. Christmas and New Year being universal holidays, people around the world, cutting across religious and ethnic divides, would be hoping that the season would usher in prosperity, happiness and peace in the coming year. So does yours truly. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !!!
Comments
thoughts are nicely written in words...i loved the sites that you have mentioned in ur blog...you should write more:)...
D
Your blog made a nice read. Very well written. Thanks much for sharing the thoughts.
May you have a very blessed 2009,
Mudita