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ADVENT and Christmas are probably my favourite seasons of the Christian calendar. It is a time of preparation and of hope and joy within the darkest depths of winter. There are smells, sights and sounds that have become associated with this time – pine, cinnamon, orange and cranberry among others. My aff ection for the season may be rooted in my birthday, which falls just before Christmas, but since childhood I have always had a great love for this time of year. Churches are busy places during the festive season, as many feel a sometimes inexplicable draw to remember the story of the birth of Jesus and the hope and light brought to the world amid a dark night in the Middle East.
The simple celebration of marking the birth of the Christ child is sometimes forgotten within the secular world, yet it is the root of the holiday that so many people enjoy today. I knew from chatting to family and friends that Christmas Day itself had not always been observed as a holiday – and treated as a normal working day. Further research revealed that in the wake of the Reformation celebration of ‘Yule’, the forerunner of Christmas Day, was outlawed by an act of Parliament in 1640 (repealed in 1712) which reflected a cultural change frowning upon extravagant celebration. The attitude towards celebration of Christmas persisted in Scotland, where New Year’s Day was more widely celebrated and it was not until 1958 that Christmas Day itself was granted the status of a public holiday. In my 1970s childhood, businesses were closed down for the Christmas break: if Christmas Day and Boxing Day fell on a weekend, banks and business could be closed for four days. This is unthinkable for the 21st century, where observance of the day has been dramatically eroded. Whilst some services need to be 24/7 – particularly in the caring and service industry and emergency services and armed forces– there has been a growing commercial trend for shops to be open on Christmas Day, depriving workers of an opportunity to worship or rest or be with their families and friends and appreciate the sometimes unspoken gifts of the season.