Who stole our Christmas and why?

So I said – Christmas. However, it is correct to say – the Nativity of Christ. But who pronounces it exactly like that? But Christ, the Savior, was born – and that is the essence of this holiday. I’ve already seen this somewhere, and so have you – haven’t you? How Christ is excluded from the name. English word Christmas. The first part of it is Christ; that is, Christ in Russian. However, more and more often in the West they write Xmas – through X. Christ is replaced with the letter X.

Why is this being done? The official reason is so as not to offend the feelings of believers. By the way, has anyone tried to insult Muslims, for example, in France? And what happened to them after that? But Christ is somehow easily and quite routinely cut off. The spelling Christmas is becoming less and less common in Europe.

In the article “Holiday is Outlawed,” Alexey Belov cites such a case. Two weeks before the New Year, the entire police force in Hamburg, Germany was called out to find a “villain” who had brought gifts and a Christmas tree decorated with toys to one of the kindergartens. So this adept of evil violated the religious freedom of those who do not celebrate Christmas. For this, and I’m not kidding, you can get a real prison sentence.

Yes, the religious component is deliberately removed from the Christmas holiday and replaced with a cultural one. However, this is not culture at all – all these “holidays are coming to us” – but mass culture, pop food of the cheapest type. Cheap trick, as the Americans would say. Statistics confirm the above. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2018, only 42% of Americans celebrated Christmas as a religious holiday. Among thirty- and forty-year-olds, only 13% planned to go to church on Christmas. Over the past five years, the anti-religious trend has only intensified.

You will almost never see “Merry Christmas” greetings on the streets – it will say “Happy Holidays”. Or Christmas will be replaced by Xmas. Christ is being cut out of Western civilization. This process is taking place especially rapidly in Europe. At the same time, Muslim sentiments, on the contrary, are only intensifying. That is why the thesis about respect for all religions and feelings of believers looks hypocrisy. No, this is a fight specifically against Christianity, replacing God with a new digital deity, and the Bible with a gadget.

There is both obvious and hidden evidence of this. Well, for example, have you noticed that in horror films, vampires are no longer afraid of the crucifix, the Bible and holy water? Now they are being exterminated in completely different ways. Evil spirits in films do not tremble before Christ. Everything is so sad that even an atheist or agnostic writer Michel Houellebecq, whose books perhaps best show the current state of European society, came to the defense of Christianity in Europe.

Well, what do we have? Is anyone stealing the Nativity here? In general, of course, the Bolsheviks were the first to do this. Now, walking through shopping centers, and just along the streets, I observe the so-called Christmas atmosphere. Artificial Christmas trees are decorated. Bells and toys are hung. Jingle bells are heard everywhere. Moreover, this atmosphere, the style in all shopping centers, as well as on the main streets, seems to be copied from American films of the 90s – from “Home Alone”, for example. And everything is the same everywhere, a carbon copy.

But people—consumers—seem to like it. They buy sweaters with reindeer. They do the same type of photo sessions in a “Christmas” setting. They wish each other “happy xmas”. Sing other people’s songs. Although, to me, this looks fake and synthetic. It’s as if the Grinch, the Christmas stealer, has come and stolen the true heart of the holiday. After all, if you think about it, all this is empty, not ours, not real. And it has nothing to do with our culture, with our identity.

Is there such a culture and identity though? Are they still there in principle? A century and a half ago, Nikolai Danilevsky wrote that the seizure of one country by another, the raking of civilization by another civilization for itself, occurs through cultural and spiritual occupation, when native, traditional codes are replaced by others. Isn’t this what we are seeing? It seems that at first they were outraged by all these Valentine’s Days and Halloweens, but over time the indignation became commonplace, and then everyone got used to it. Unfortunately, this is already part of us. Some will call it globalization. And someone is a substitute.

Merry Christmas, basically the same story. Again, someone will call this the grumbling of a no longer young man. Some will consider it a thickening of colors. But, excuse me, where in all this modern history of “happy xmas”, “merry Christmas”, is what has always formed its basis? Where is Christ? Where is the birth of the Savior? Where is the Savior? Where is the salvation? Or is all this artificial, like a Christmas tree in a shopping center, under which lie huge, bright, but empty boxes? Coke instead of holy water? Jingle bells instead of prayer? A sweater with deer, a mug of cocoa in hand – another standard photo is ready for a prohibited social network. Yes, the plastic world has won, as Letov sang.

But another classic sang: “To stand, I must hold on to my roots.” So, I am one hundred percent sure that this is not just a shift in Christmas accents, but a removal of the authentic from our culture, from ourselves. There is no question of observing the Nativity Fast at all. There is no question of going to the Christmas service. In principle, there is no talk about what happened that night. Who was born and for what? So what was offered to us instead of Salvation? A simulacrum, a postcard whose only purpose is to sell.

Yes, we forgot about Christmas, we lost Christmas, we gave up Christmas. Now, of course, I’m exaggerating, but only partly. It doesn’t matter whether you believe in God – or, as they would say now, in the Christian God, but in any case, something very important, paramount was taken from you. Even if we discard the religious aspect, a gigantic cultural layer that forms the basis of Russian culture has been removed. Yes, and European too. Because our culture has always been word-centric and Christ-centric. Was. Where is the real Christmas now?

Why did it happen? And why did it happen? Do you remember Gogol’s textbook story “The Night Before Christmas”. By the way, an excellent Soviet film was made based on it, which I like to watch during the January holidays. So, what did the devil do in the story? Stole the month from the sky. Why did he do this? To harm the blacksmith Vakula, who painted the scene of the Last Judgment, but globally in order to ruin Christmas for everyone. That is, kidnap him. That, in fact, is the whole answer.

Who takes the Nativity of Christ from us, replacing it with a simulacrum? Devils. What should you do with them? Ask the blacksmith Vakula – he will tell you the answer. In the meantime, Merry Christmas, friends!