Christmas, Copenhagen and Ecuador

At Christmas there is always lots of talk about spirit, family and home. For those of us from the North, it brings images of snowbound cabins, snowball fights and huge family dinners.

However, Christmas here in Ecuador is a bit strange. It seems to be an almost inappropriate time to have a holiday. The days stay the same length, the temperature is about the same as it will be in six months, and the rainy season (which hasn’t really shown its head much this year) still has a few more months left to kick around.

To be honest, I kind of find it strange the way that Christmas here is attempt to recreate what Christmas is in the north. I would guess that it is just a cultural dominance thing here. Christmas is defined by the larger and wealthier nations of the north. We get to say what it is, and the rest of the world gets to follow.

I know that in parts of Africa this happens too, but that part of the world was settled mostly by the French and English – parts of the world where it snows. But here we have all the trimmings – turkey and stuffing, fake snow all over the place, and artificial Doug firs covered with light, and this place was colonized by the Spanish.

It’s funny. We love to talk about these traditions in very knowing tones: “The lights were an ancient pagan tradition to bring back the sun” or “The tree was an ancient Nordic tradition for brining life into the home.” But that seems not to apply here. Few people here are of Nordic descent, and the sun is in the sky just as much as any time of year.

Obviously, much of this has to do with cultural influence of the United States. That much is obvious.

It is very popular to talk about family, hearth and home at this time of the year, and I support anything that does that. However, it also seems obvious to me that the times of year that do that are also times of the year that celebrate the natural order of things: lilies, eggs and lamb at Easter; harvest foods at Thanksgiving, and evergreens and snow at Christmas.

It suggests that our homes are not as segregated from the natural order as we think.

So, what are we to make of a world where Christmas is celebrated by recognizing the natural order in a different part of the world?

To be honest, I don’t know. But I think that in some ways the answers can be seen in Copenhagen. Recent talks to try to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have failed. The consequences of this will be highly tangible. Species will go extinct, sea levels will consume low lying areas, and people will die. I say this with no sense of exaggeration.

We are destroying the planet at an increasingly rapid rate, and few seem to notice. Perhaps, it is because we are out of sync. The ties that once bound us are loosening – we are losing touch with our land, with our families, and ultimately with ourselves. Is it any surprise that we can’t come to agreement on one of the most important issues facing our world today?

What then can be done? If the great and good of the world can’t get it together, what chance do we have? To be certain, I have kind of lost faith in the political system. The politicians know that the vast majority of people in the world want something done about this, so what point is there in reminding them?

Perhaps that is where the Christmas spirit becomes important. Getting together, spending time with loved ones, and taking a moment to be glad that there is still snow is precisely what is needed. For me Christmas acts more as a reminder of what a special place we live in. It is a time to recognize the value of abstractions like love, home and harmony. It does not mean that it is the only time that these things have any worth. Maybe, if we get that right, bigger things can get done.