Sir, – Forty years ago, the much-loved and late poet and man of letters Brendan Kennelly wrote in one of our national newspapers about Christmas as a season of contradictions, asking whether Christmas is “The celebration of one of the world’s most significant spiritual events” or “an orgy of commercialism”.
In the battle for power between the two Gods in Christmas: “the God of the Christ-mystery and the God of money”, Kennelly argued, in his own eloquent and idiosyncratic fashion, that the God of money wins out, well almost.
He concluded, “There is something utterly genuine and expressively sweet about Christmas. It’s as if the true spirit of Christmas has survived all our concentrated efforts to cheapen and vulgarise it. One small light outstrips the world’s darkness. There is a Christmas spirit that refuses to be dimmed or distorted or destroyed. It thrives in defiance of the money God”.
I was reminded of his words on Sunday, as along with hundreds of others, I struggled through Grafton Street. There was not much evidence of celebrating the birth of Christ in the colourful window displays. Yet, despite the frenetic shopping and jostling, there was kindness. The shop assistant who came to tell me my handbag wasn’t closed properly; the assistant who carried my bags, reminding me that I had four! The wry smiles exchanged with other shoppers signalling, aren’t we all mad! The people who stood aside on crowded pavements to allow me pass. The helpful driver on the Dublin to Wexford bus and finally the good-humoured taxi man who carried my bags to my front door. A richness of kindness in a short space of time.
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Brendan Kennelly seems to have had it right. Perhaps, in our secular world, it is the survival of the spirit of Christmas in the heart that best celebrates that magnificent event of the birth of Jesus over 2,000 years ago. – Yours, etc,
MARY ELLEN HAWKEY,
Wexford.