Tali Longkumer
It is Christmas time of Joy of giving and forgiving. Jim Reeves Christmas Carols are currently being played all over the nooks and corners of Nagaland. Even non singers who think the notes of Do-Re-Me and Sa-Re-Ka-Ma are different, are finding pleasures in humming Jingle bells, Jingle all the way.
Hectic preparations round the clock are in full swing for Christmas celebration in all the families and churches. But for the pandemic, this year’s celebration at homes will be much more intensive then the Churches. Pigs on the other hand are passing through harrowing time with sleepless nights as any time of the day, they may be summoned to the execution chamber. For them it is not a celebration but rather a question of including them as a part of menu on the Christmas table. It is for businessmen to make profits in sale of various items that will include last year’s unsold stocks. It’s Christmas shopping everywhere in spending one’s lifetime savings or spending the borrowed money. It’s all the way to Dimapur to have the taste of ‘JAI SAM AND KHAI SAM’. Many visitors to Dimapur are presently brandishing themselves as cowboy’s without horses by wearing second hand jeans and jackets brought from the second hand market of Dimapur. Lipstick sales are however less this year as a result of mask wearing but face powder is used so thickly that presently with masks and make-ups, all ladies looks fair and pretty. The old timers are however made to stay indoors though their dreams and fancies are mostly roaming outside their homes fantasizing over the funs and adventures of the years gone by.
It is also a time for introspection over the wasted years of making wrong choices, time wasted in anger and anguish, days of hurting people and making enemies instead of making friends, years of more failures but less of success and years without hope. It is time to introspect over the days of money spent without profit, money squandered away on wrong ambition and dreams.
With all the above approaches to Christmas celebrations, we sometimes miss out on the true meaning of Christmas that brings hope to the hopeless world and to the hopeless people through the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is also a time of wishing friends and families and a time to pray and forgive those that wronged and hurt us. It is a time of giving. Christmas is a ‘good news of great Joy’ to all people, to the Christians and to the rest of the world. It is a celebration of Joy, Peace, Hope and Love. This is the good news of Christmas meant for you and me.
Wishing all its readers a Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
