In the frenzy of the week before Christmas on Sunday, the malls and restaurants were “occupied territory” to hordes of shoppers and diners, and the roads and highways of Metro Manila were “virtual parking lots” with people suffering bumper-to-bumper hours-long trips in heavy traffic from 7 a.m., waning only towards midnight. Along the way, and at all destinations, dancing colored lights, beckoning greetings, and glitzy décor exacted obeisance to the inescapable god called “Merry Christmas.”
Christmas is celebrated, or at least acknowledged in the whole world, even in the 10 or so non-Christian (mostly Islamic) nations where it is not a public holiday but nevertheless is observed respectfully. How can Christmas be ignored, when the birth of Jesus Christ is in fact the basis for the world calendar, the “Year One” for human history, with all events forward reckoned from the Year of the Lord, “Anno Domini” (A.D.), and all events backward “Before Christ” (B.C.), to some 5,500 years before Jesus Christ was born, and fading further back into the abysmal Genesis. The Anno Domini dating system was devised in 525 A.D. by the cleric Dionysius Exiguus, who fought against Christian persecutions, and the Anglo-Saxon historian Bede helped entrench it in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, which he completed in 731 A.D. (according to Blackburn and Holford-Strevens 2003).
To be more neutral and inclusive of non-Christian people, historians have attempted to replace A.D. and B.C. with other terminology, the more nearly successful replacement for A.D. being “Current or Common Era” (C.E.), with the preceding years referred to as “Before the Common or Current Era” (B.C.E.). Still, the reference point is the birth of Jesus Christ. And so, Christmas Day persists as the most important marker for all humankind — perhaps as an intuitive symbol of hope beyond the urgings of religion, that Man will overcome and survive his own frailties in the limitations and tests of this finite world.
Christians are the largest religious group in the world, with 2.56 billion (“Status of Global Christianity” report, 2022), making up more than a third (35%) of Earth’s 7.3 billion people, according to a 2015 Pew Research Center demographic analysis.
Christmas is hope for a deliverance or redemption, in whatever religion, or in other belief or unbelief. The two Christmases preceding this year — 2020 and 2021 — had been the culminations of difficult and near-desperate years, with the long-staying and morphing COVID-19 pandemic that has confined and limited populations, drastically debilitating and controlling the world economy almost to a stranglehold, and creating social and political unrest from the anxieties and perverted aggression of leaders and nations in their yearning for power. The malevolence of COVID is not done yet as of this Christmas, but a glimmer of hope shines through — perhaps the new year, 2023, will be better.
“The Philippine economy will grow 7.4% in 2022, up from the September forecast of 6.5%, supported by stronger-than-expected domestic demand spurred by rising employment and a recovery in tourism after the country lifted COVID-19 mobility restrictions… However, gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2023 is expected to slow to 6% from the previous forecast of 6.3%,” according to a report released on Dec. 14 by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
“There are downside risks to growth in 2023, including inflation stickiness, further increases in interest rates, and a sharper than expected slowdown in GDP growth in advanced countries,” said ADB Philippines Country Director Kelly Bird.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported in early December that the country’s headline inflation rose to 8% in November from 7.7% in the previous month. Year-to-date inflation is at 5.6%, revised from the previous assumption of 4.5% to 5.5%. (neda.gov.ph, Dec 6, 2022). Most key commodity groups registered faster inflation, particularly for food and non-alcoholic beverages, which accelerated to 10% from 9.4% in the previous month. Higher prices of vegetables, fruits, and rice was a result of lower production brought about by the onslaught of typhoons and higher cost of inputs. Similarly, sugar production is still reeling from the damage caused by recent typhoons (Ibid.).
The government announcements of P206.50 billion of ayuda in the form of cash transfers and subsidy programs under the P5.268 trillion National Budget for Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 may appease the worries of the citizenry for food and survival security in the short term (dbm.gov.ph, Nov. 7, 2022). Maybe that is the reason for the marked increase in self-confidence and positivity as seen in the more exuberant year-end Christmas celebrations! But economists warn of the questionable value of subsidies in the fight against inflation. Subsidies have to be financed by the government (from borrowings or taxes), and therefore they may cause larger fiscal deficits, thus contributing to the inflationary process (Cambridge Analytics, B. Bental: 1981).
Most Filipinos are blessed with an innate optimism that sees the bright side of things, where humor can hide denial of painful realities. In the dizzying rise of inflation, high foreign exchange rates, expensive gasoline and utilities, the lack of onions, sugar, flour and imported food items, the ubiquitous cellphone and other gadgets for social media and SMS is the panacea for the relief of anxieties. Since the “-ber months” were ushered in September, Jose Mari Chan has been singing “Christmas in Our Hearts” all over the place — Christmas is just so happy that heavy mundane worries must be laid aside. Bahala na si Bathala! (“Bahala na” meaning God will take care of it.)
Hope lifts the spirits for a new beginning each new year, a re-birth. Even in war-torn Ukraine, there is already victory at Christmas! No, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not yet retreated from his obsessive claim of Ukrainian territory for Russia — strategic Ukrainian cities are still hotly attacked and defended by both determined sides. But a strange phenomenon occurred in the midst of battle that sent flares of mixed emotions in the Christmas sky. This year, worshippers at the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) who have always celebrated Christmas on Jan. 7, have been allowed for the first time to celebrate on Dec. 25. In 2018, the OCU split from the similarly named Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which is seen as politically linked to Moscow (politico.eu, Dec. 21, 2022).
The move by the OCU to align itself with the 3.5 million or so Ukrainians who consider themselves Catholic, and with other denominations who traditionally celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 (based on the Gregorian calendar) and wrench itself away from the Russian Orthodox Christians separately observing Jan. 7 (based on the Julian calendar) is a declaration of peace and harmony with the world.
A victory for Christmas!
Amelia H. C. Ylagan is a doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.
