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I just listened to Doris Day singing Que Sera, Sera which opens with When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother what would I be. I'm sure that like all mothers, my mother, Marcella Kenny, would have advised that the future was not ours to see. Coming into this Christmas season I am gobsmacked by the role that consumerism has infiltrated the meaning and character of Christmas, spreading its message globally. This message is nuanced with suggestions that glitz and glamour, the latest fashions and must-haves are essential to ensuring a happy Christmas for our families and friends. While the arrival of November’s Black Friday, which now extends to Black Friday week, is an opportunity to bag the best bargains early, alleviating the nightmare of last-minute shopping!!!!
My sister Veronica, recently recounted to me her experience of spending Christmas in Ecuador. She felt that despite the creeping influence of wealthier nations to the north, the message for most was coming together as family sharing food. They also have an astounding mania for dressing their Baby Jesus, there were market stalls devoted to selling clothes for the baby with a general feeling of happiness everywhere. They witnessed the most amazing parade. A group of about thirty extremely elderly people dressed in snow white sheets with homemade angel wings, kept together by holding onto a long rope, reminiscent of the old French school lines. They were so happy and so proud when we asked if we could take their picture, while many family groups pulled carts with live nativity tableaux mounted on them. Veronica reminded me that we need to do better at promoting the good.
Gathering together, storytelling, sharing memories and the Murphy Family Quiz are all hallmarks of our Christmas. Stories as, when our promised turkey hadn't arrived by Christmas morning, a neighbour donated her turkey’s legs to ensure we had turkey to accompany the ham, my brother lamenting that he didn’t have a proper Christmas dinner in 1972 as my eldest daughter decided to enter the world earlier than expected, the year the chimney went on fire, plus stories from the older generation as, when Grandad Murphy would cycle from Longford to Erra and back to collect the goose to grace their Christmas table or the goose that escaped from my Grandad Kenny arms as he carried it into their home in Manor Street. Can you imagine the glee of my aunts and uncles as they watched their Dad chasing the goose round the yard before being recaptured and prepared for the oven. These stories are told and retold and never lose their enchantment.
Society today benefits from legal advancements, so many made over our lifetime, to our rights and entitlements as citizens. Yet, I believe, there is a poverty to our thinking. I know that children are often more inquisitive about the box that contains a gift, rather than its contents. Christmas has a clear message to offer all of us, it is a message of Hope. The custom of placing a lighted candle in the window, as a welcome to our home, reminds us of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter. A clear connection can be made to those tents that are housing our homeless throughout our cities and counties, yet a solution hasn’t been found to address this matter. The traditional image of the Crib, the baby laying in the manger with the Ox and Ass keeping watch must surely be confined to the archives of history and storytelling rather than being replicated time and again in the twenty first century.
Having a coffee in Earl Street recently, it was wonderful to witness the buzz of a busy capital city, a city welcoming its citizens and tourists alike. The GPO looked resplendent, in the weak November sunshine, encouraging the shoppers and visitors to come inside and explore their interior, and we accepted that unspoken invitation. The concourse itself echoes the grandeur of a bygone era, while the statue of Cu Chulainn symbolises, as President Eamon de Valera said, the dauntless courage of the Irish people. I would suggest that it is worthwhile to visit the GPO and walk in the footsteps of history, visit the Museum and enjoy their Christmas tableaux. The traditional way we express such a hope is through the lighting of a candle. Symbolically, the candle represents the little goodness in a world of overwhelming evil and darkness. Above all as I recount my Christmas meanderings my wish is that we all take a moment or three to think about the true meaning of Christmas and that we are not shy of spreading that message of hope and goodwill.
mgm
November 2023
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