If it was a different culture, it would be called it cultural appropriation. Through the years we’ve seen Christmas go from being a celebration of Christ to a celebration of Santa and Snowmen. But now it seems it’s become a celebration of nothing.
Last week, at one of our local schools, the children’s concert didn’t even mention winter, let alone Christmas. It was simply a collection of songs the kids didn’t know. Neil Young’s Harvest Moon might be a classic, but I’m not sure the nuances were appreciated by the children singing.
I know we live in a diverse society and we need to celebrate with all our children. If nothing else, this time of year would be a great opportunity for the children to highlight and share the celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Diwali. But no. Instead of celebrating everything, they chose to celebrate nothing.
Canada is no longer a Christian country if we ever were, but we are a multicultural country, and multicultural celebrations shouldn’t be seen as offensive.
And maybe if Christians aren’t willing to celebrate with others, they shouldn’t insist that others celebrate with them.
And, if people don’t want to celebrate Christmas, they probably don’t need a paid day off to not celebrate.
Have a great week and remember: To see what is really possible, you will have to attempt the impossible.
Did you actually attend the concert? Have you worked internally of the school with the teachers, especially the music department? The amount it takes for a concert of this magnitude to be orchestrated and put on by the music department with 1300 students is countless hours of preparing, practicing and organizing for each class to come to the gymnasium to sing their songs. I think we as adults have lost sight that the kids at the end of the day just enjoyed singing their hearts out regardless of the songs. Yes, we are in a multicultural climate and the school system is trying to hold everything together with lack of resources to accommodate people moving into our neighbourhood. The backgrounds that some of the kids come from, whether it may be Hindu, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, secular is the fabric of that school. The concert was advertised as a winter concert and YES, there were winter songs interwoven with local and Canadian songs. The ukulele club even played “This Little Light is Mine” and the younger grades did feature more holiday and winter themed songs. The interlude music was more traditional Christmas music. What the music team did is follow directive from their superiors and did what they could and in my eyes it was a lovely concert and I witnessed some beautiful moments, such as an autistic boy being comforted by his classmate because he was getting overwhelmed, and she calmed him down during the performance and took his hand to lead him off the stage. How about the mute boy who did a fantastic job playing the box drums and of course the xylophones and ukuleles the students took very serious to learn. In the end we as adults always tend to make it into a political agenda, and especially as a Christian pastor you should not judge without fully understanding the whole story. Sadly this is not the first time I have encountered this with you.
Thanks for your comments. My problem wasn’t with the quality or content of the concert, it’s that Christmas has been preempted by other things. If we don’t want it to reflect Christmas, then let’s not have it during the Christmas season. January or February would be a great time for a “Winter” concert. And I loved the irony of your last two sentences. 🙂