The one thing many people overlook during the festive season is that it is a time for families, friends and loved ones to come together as many rarely do during the year.
These days when Christmas time comes around, we tend to sometimes be negative and talk about the way the date on which we celebrate the birth of Our Lord has become commercialised (even though the actual day he was born probably was not even in December).
It is true that this country has been caught up in the rat race of modern European culture and that we seldom have time for one another. We are so caught up in our modern lives that even in the days running up to Christmas we are so obsessed with the economy’s competitiveness, perhaps rightly so, that we are still analysing Christmas shopping sales figures as a benchmark for how well the country is doing.
But Christmas, like Easter, is a time for families to gather, for differences to be forgotten and most of all, for us to forget all about everything else in life and enjoy each other’s company.
As much as Christmas is a religious celebration, it is also a time for family, for sharing and for giving. Again, we must concur with the fact that it has become very commercialised and as such a contradiction in itself.
How many mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, even sweethearts, have not ignored significant others at some point in December to rush out to buy mince pies, chocolates, turkeys and presents at the expense of spending time with their loved ones? Very few would probably be the answer.
But if we were to ask ourselves, truly, what we want for Christmas, it would probably be to just be able to be around the ones we love, to be able to not worry about life in general for just one day and enjoy loving and being loved. Thankfully, for most, that is exactly what happens.
Unfortunately, even in this country – a country in which family and bonds are tightly embraced – there will be some who will not have the luxury of spending time with loved ones.
Some will be working, others do not have family, while others yet have family abroad. Furthermore, some might be shunned from their family. These will have to find solace with themselves and others around them.
In this time of happiness we must all remember about those who have no one with whom to spend the festive season. The Maltese are well-known for their generosity and maybe this is the perfect occasion to appeal to the Maltese to accept these people and assist them in every way they can in order to make their lives merrier than they actually are in this time of solitude.
Although not really related to the subject, we feel duty-bound to appeal to all out readers to enjoy the festivities connected to this period but to do so moderately. Drink-driving should never be an option, as holds true for drugs, whether driving or not. On a weekend like this one, a few liri on a taxi ride home could really be defined as an investment.
The Malta Independent staff and management take this opportunity to wish all our readers a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2007.