The Christmas season begins on the day of Advent (December 8), which is also the feast day of the Immaculate Conception, which is also the feast day of St. Nicholas, who, the Roman Catholics believe, is the real Santa Claus. In other words, it is roughly two weeks from now that the Yuletide season begins. News today, however, report business firms already wary about the expected slow-down of business activity after the year ends. This looming post-holiday blues sees the latest confidence index (CI) falling to 51.0 percent for the first quarter of 2011, from the previous 59.2 percent of first quarter of 2010.
Latest survey of the Bangko Sentral nga Pilipinas shows that business expectations of majority of 1,624 respondent business firms were less optimistic for the coming first quarter. The CI is the difference between the percentage of firms that answered in affirmative and the percentage of firms that answered in the negative. The 51.0 percent CI should not dampen the rest of the population who would like to feel the joys and blessings of Christmas this season, and the CI should not set the tone of the upcoming holidays.
What then ushers in the spirit of Christmas, or more particularly, who should usher in the spirit of holidays? Definitely not the government, even if it allows extra bonuses to government workers, even if it declares holidays on some certain dates; not business firms, not agencies, and not even news that foretell gloom after the Christmas season two weeks before it could even begin. It is the happy people who enliven the season, the people who are eager to share that spirit of giving, who would like to go out and meet friends on a get-together or on a holiday, people who light up Christmas trees this early to herald the coming of the Advent season, people who rejoice at the thought of commemorating the birth of the Savior of the World.
The spirit of optimism is the expression of hope. In the spirit of Christmas we celebrate that hope by setting and lighting up Christmas trees, by sending Christmas cards, by putting up decorations that not only add color to what could be a dull and dim ordinary world, by sharing passages from the Bible that recall the blessed nativity, by singing carols or playing that favorite Christmas tune that has been playing inside our heads, by meeting new friends and posting happy greetings in Facebook, or by simply thinking that the season of giving is a good reason to be happy.
Merry Christmas!
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