Christmas.

Now I'm gonna go deep with you guys. I'm gonna talk about what Christmas really means to me. So I'm gonna split it up into two parts. The religious and the personal.

Now I will concede that Christmas was put where it is to probably disrupt the pagans celebrating the Winter Solstice, but I don't think that gives it any less meaning than it had before. And by saying that I believe it gives Christmas more of a "symbolic" sense rather than a religious one, which is something I disagree with. It is Christmas because it commemorates the birth of Christ after all. That is where most classic Christmas traditions come from, now I'm talking about things like the tree topper being either a star or an angel, gift giving, the basis for so many of the Carols, and much more. Then again not all traditions are based in Christianity. But then again it is the Christian Christmas that has mostly unified the winter holiday for at least the Western world, bringing together both Christians and non-Christians for a holiday that is now positively seen as being non religiously about family and generosity.

And with that unintentional segue I'm now going to talk about my more personal view of what Christmas means to me. So here I am sitting in Starbucks thinking about Christmas and several words pop into my head, and to start off I will list off some of these words. Happy, Family, Cheer, Generosity, Over Indulgence, Gifts, Together. For me this year I won't be having my Christmas on Christmas day but I will be celebrating on the 28th or 29th because for me Christmas is the time for me to be with family, that is my mom and my brother. Now we won't all be together until the 28th. I will be commemorating Christmas with some of my family in town but that is just not quite the same thing. Christmas is a celebration to be shared with family and those you love as well as those who love you. Now Christmas is a special time of the year, no matter your religion or any other distinguishing factor and for this I'd like to share another quote from a song, "Christmas, it makes way for Spring"- Relient K (Boxing Day). Now look at that quote however you wish. But how I see it, it is true both metaphorically and literally.

Post Script: Have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Community... No not the show.

In my life, I have lived in four different communities, no one say "greater" than the next. Each of varying sizes and geographies. Now other than these four places being not only in the same timezone but the same province, you wouldn't assume that they had much in common. But first I should name there places, they are Nanaimo, Prince Rupert, Prince George and Port Hardy, and despite their names Prince Rupert and Prince George don't have all that much in common. One of the things that all four of these places do have in common though is that they each have an annual community event. For Nanaimo it's the Marine Festival and Bathtub races, Prince Rupert has SeaFest, Prince George has the PGX, and Port Hardy has FiLoMi days. Now I call these community events because they are not associated with any national or other holiday and they also have the fortunate side effect of show casing local businesses, displaying local artistic talents, and just generally showing all that the community has to offer.

Fireworks Also Commonly Accompany Community Events

What I like about these events is that they are very much all inclusive and help to bring very diverse communities together. Now in saying this I am very unsure about how events like this would work in larger places because I lack all experience in larger places, you know for anything more than visits. An example of the places I am referring to would be like Vancouver or Toronto.

So the best advice I can think to give is that no matter where you live, how ever long that you've lived there or however old or young you are. If you are somewhere that does any sort of event like this, I highly recommend that you attend not only because they can be fun but you are also supporting that community. And if you are new to the place it's a nice environment to meet people.

Post Script: Some of these events include parades. Now parades mean free candy, and I mean who doesn't like free candy.