Shops are busting at the seams with Christmas goodies and toys ready to be whisked away to homes and places by trolley-pushing spenders.
If you notice, town and city streets have again come alive with thousands of jostling and sweating bodies, heads bobbing to the beat of Christmas jingles and cars belching out grey plumes of toxic gases.
The heat at this time of the year can be unbearable but that will not stop people from filling up public transport, shops, restaurants, cinemas, verandahs, parks and supermarkets.
Christmas is a time of movement, travelling and shopping.
In every bank tinsel-laden Christmas trees will stand tall while supermarket shelves look bloated with items on special.
Over the radio, known Christmas songs are played and replayed – from Michael Buble’s It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas to Boney M’s Mary’s Boy Child.
You know Christmas is around the corner when nocturnal revelers of every breed, shape and colour congregate at every watering hole after sunset – spastic but dressed to the nines, messed up but happy and big-mouthed but funny.
At this time office social clubs would be busy organising their kalavata, gift exchanges and breakup parties.
On Thursday, the people of Suva witnessed the Vodafone Fiji Christmas in the Park tree lighting at Suva Civic Centre which featured entertainment, carol singing, and a number of stage performances.
If you travel past Stinson Parade at night, you won’t miss the display of Christmas lights draped over trees, injecting vibrant colours to what would otherwise look dreary after sunset – the seawall.
A few stalls are now up to lure night goers with sweets, flower, toys and tantalising food.
But the blaring music, dancing, grog sessions, fund and gaiety, shopping till you drop sessions and parties of the season give us a false security of the world we live in.
It also tells us a wrong story about Christmas.
We forget about the unjust actions, the abuse of rights, the high cost of living, hiking food prices and the many adversities we encounter daily.
We allow all the merry-making and expensive indulgences to gloss over those realities.
Not too long ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic, hundreds were dying in our hospitals and families were burying their loved ones in droves.
Not too long ago too, tens of thousands lost their jobs and households were struggling to put food on the table.
We forget those realities when we see Christmas trees decked with lights and trinkets and presents laid out under them in attractive wrappers and bows.
We seem intoxicated by this superficial sense of excitement and joy.
Think of it!
New Years, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Fiji Day, Christmas, Diwali and Prophet Mohammed’s Birthday — may seem harmless but they are fast becoming a popular product of a greedy capitalist world where the bottom line is your bottom dollar.
The truth is all the businesses in the world just want your money!
Every single cent of it!
Period!
Let’s not forget that as we slowly approach Christmas, two drawn out wars continue to rage on the other side of this planet.
As I was compiling this week’s article on Friday, I read in the Washington Post’s online edition that Israel’s military had continued combat operations across the Gaza Strip, striking major cities in the south and engaging in “intense fighting” with Hamas militants in two key regions in the north.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 350 people were killed in the enclave in 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to more than 17,000.
And in Ukraine, Aljazeera TV reports said, the war had entered its 653rd day with no end in sight.
There’s nothing really to be merry about.
Around Christmas parents push their children through street crowds to ensure their young ones get to sit on the lap of the red suited and whitehaired Santa.
Parents spread lies that the chubby gifter travels from the pole on a flying carriage powered by powerful reindeers.
We make them believe in the myths of Christmas – from partridges in pear trees, turtle doves, Alaskian huskies and Rudolph the red-nosed deer.
But do we ever relate to them the underlying truths of Christmas?
That it’s almost a horror story of how baby Jesus was born in a trough used for feeding animals under the most unhygienic of conditions?
The dirt and grime of the manger is more than a lesson we can ever get.
It is more than eating to our hearts’ content with family and friends.
It is more than holidaying in a secluded splice of paradise and soaking up the December sun.
Christmas is about compassion and humility.
It is about looking out for the less fortunate than us.
It is about telling our children the truth about Christmas and the underlying values that govern it instead of falling into the trap of perpetuating the myths around Santa and his imaginary world.
The story of Jesus being cradled in a manger of a stable demonstrates the true practice and expression of humility and love and not about fancy food and toys.
As we move closer towards December 25 let’s not forget to remind our leaders in the community and in politics about the lessons of inclusivity,
unity, equality, justice and humility – things that bind us together and not things that push us apart.
Think of baby Jesus, swaddled innocently in plain clothes in a filthy manger because there was no space on earth left to receive him.
And make your hearts and minds, the manger that will receive him this merry season and forever more.
Until we meet on this same page same time next week, stay blessed, stay healthy and stay safe.
