What if it was Christmas Eve and (almost) noone cared?
Australia Travelog #4
Sydney CBD - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 2pm
As we've toured around through downtown Sydney today you could barely tell it's Christmas Eve- by US standards, anyway- and that's a good thing. Here's the Christmas displays, trees, and various other festoonery are minimal. We saw just two decorated trees today- and one was at a church. Christmas music was at a minimum, as well. We only heard it playing in obvious tourist traps.
Compare this to Christmas in the US, where the Ghost of Christmas Presents is shoved down your throat for 10 weeks straight. That's really part of why I use the tag Bah Humbug for Christmas. In the US we've taken the wrong lesson from the classic story A Christmas Carol. It's like we've answered the the old question, "What is the true meaning of Christmas?" with no sense of our own irony by rehabilitating Scrooge into the hero. The new meaning of Christmas is spending money and enriching merchants.
Speaking of the true meaning of Christmas, we did visit or historic church. Or, at least, we tried....
St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney is a few block from our hotel. And at this Catholic church, on Christmas Eve, there were guards at all the doors informing there was NO ROOM AT THE INN. Visitors were not welcome.
I don't think I can even spell out the irony of this without going crazy. I'm going to hope it's obvious.
But just in case it's not, here's another hint in the form of more unintentional irony.
This manger scene was one of the few public displays of Christmas stuff we saw in Sydney. At least unlike in the US, where it's a hot-button issue whether displays like this should be sponsored by and positioned in front of government offices, this one's actually on the grounds of a church.
But let's talk about what's going on here. It's the classic nativity scene of baby Jesus. He's surrounded by animals. Because he was born in a barn. Do you know the story of why Jesus was born in a barn?
Uh-huh.
And you don't think guards at the door of the building turning people away on this day, of all days, is just a little ironic?
As we headed back to our hotel just a few blocks away we visited a Jewish synagogue, too. Or, once again, we tried. The synagogue was all closed up for the day. Apparently the members of the temple had all begun their Christmas Eve tradition- of going out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. 🤣
Sydney CBD - Sun, 24 Dec 2023, 2pm
As we've toured around through downtown Sydney today you could barely tell it's Christmas Eve- by US standards, anyway- and that's a good thing. Here's the Christmas displays, trees, and various other festoonery are minimal. We saw just two decorated trees today- and one was at a church. Christmas music was at a minimum, as well. We only heard it playing in obvious tourist traps.
Compare this to Christmas in the US, where the Ghost of Christmas Presents is shoved down your throat for 10 weeks straight. That's really part of why I use the tag Bah Humbug for Christmas. In the US we've taken the wrong lesson from the classic story A Christmas Carol. It's like we've answered the the old question, "What is the true meaning of Christmas?" with no sense of our own irony by rehabilitating Scrooge into the hero. The new meaning of Christmas is spending money and enriching merchants.
Speaking of the true meaning of Christmas, we did visit or historic church. Or, at least, we tried....
St. Mary's Cathedral in Sydney is a few block from our hotel. And at this Catholic church, on Christmas Eve, there were guards at all the doors informing there was NO ROOM AT THE INN. Visitors were not welcome.
I don't think I can even spell out the irony of this without going crazy. I'm going to hope it's obvious.
But just in case it's not, here's another hint in the form of more unintentional irony.
This manger scene was one of the few public displays of Christmas stuff we saw in Sydney. At least unlike in the US, where it's a hot-button issue whether displays like this should be sponsored by and positioned in front of government offices, this one's actually on the grounds of a church.
But let's talk about what's going on here. It's the classic nativity scene of baby Jesus. He's surrounded by animals. Because he was born in a barn. Do you know the story of why Jesus was born in a barn?
Uh-huh.
And you don't think guards at the door of the building turning people away on this day, of all days, is just a little ironic?
As we headed back to our hotel just a few blocks away we visited a Jewish synagogue, too. Or, once again, we tried. The synagogue was all closed up for the day. Apparently the members of the temple had all begun their Christmas Eve tradition- of going out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. 🤣