The Holidays are Over...

"‎...in the days after Christmas, we step down from the heights of the holiday and along with our colored lights return to dimmer realities: daily life and its monotony, despairing headlines, another year of wearisome failures, blind spots, and missteps..."- W.H. Auden

It’s after the New Year when the craze starts to die down. After the cheers and toasts of the holidays, after all the merrymaking and countless, endless parties of the past month; it’s when you begin to realize that the holidays are over.

Admit it or not there’s this warm intangible, almost iridescent feeling that December brings us. Whether it’s the spirit of Christmas or not, I do not know. All I know for sure is that it’s a good feeling. It’s the kind of feeling that drives us to give gifts and be extra nice to people, the kind that touches our hearts and somehow convinces us to donate generous amounts of money to charities and foundations. To most people it is their favorite time of the year.

I don’t think anything can be bigger than Christmas. And that is so true here in the Philippines where Christmas carols start to play as early as September. No other festivity tops Christmas. Lest a huge celebrity dies or new sex scandal storms the internet or Kris Aquino acquires another STD. Nothing touches the Filipino psyche more than Christmas.

It is the time of the year when every virtue known to Catholics are practiced like monks on a Buddhist monastery. I can go on and on about the evils of the Christmas holidays, like how the 4^th quarter of the year is when capitalists amass huge profits throughout the years. But nothing can destroy Christmas in our hearts. The only downside is when its over.

Our realities confront us when we are the lowest points in our lives. Or when everything starts going down the drain. We realize we’ve spent too much when we run out of cash. You’re dying from lung cancer because you smoked too much when you were young. It’s easy to ignore the obvious when you are at the top enjoying yourself too much.

That is why the city lights look dimmer even when they are their brightest after Christmas. We feel we have less and start wanting more after our pockets are emptied from all the merrymaking and gift giving but the truth is we’ve always had enough. We ignore the simple truths because we’re all too blinded with the glitters and the lanterns.

We all say we need a break, I guess that’s what Christmas is for some of us, A break from the tiring uncaring world we made ourselves. After it we go back to our sour old selves. Charity and Kindness is replaced by Greed and Selfishness. Humility and Temperance step backward for Pride and Lawlessness to take over.

A child's hapless dream is to have Christmas everyday of the year, and maybe its all it will ever be. Its a wonder how the human spirit and its innate goodness desperately clings to festivities and celebration to feel the need to be good. Yes we are capable to love and everything else springs from it, But do we really need a holiday for it? Do we?