BLOGG # 69 DECK THE HALLS..

"We wish you a Merry Xmas” versus "Silent Night Holy Night" Here it is the week before Christmas and I am in the Christmas mood again as all right living people should be. This means of course, blatant commercial activities with no guilt attached and here I am tripping gaily off to the malls with unfortunately not a full pocket but with a generous spirit. So far I have been malling- love that word- in Victoria’s  two major malls and have even visited the two major ones in the great metropolis of Vancouver—the sophisticated Downtown exclusive Eaton’s mall where you can buy $600 shoes-I asked- and the super crass Metrotown for an orgy of wishful vicarious shopping in the fast lane. During all these indulgent hours I have been serenaded by the latest “Christmas music” piped in via loudspeakers at the highest volume. Now I happen to love Christmas Carols –the true ones- and don’t really mind the shrill newer ones either, but it is a pity that I can not remember when I last heard “Silent Night” in a Canadian mall. I suppose it has become politically incorrect to play these songs in commercial spaces but I miss hearing them. The pros and cons of political correctness regarding the playing of carols is not what this is about -not at all- it is about the “topsdurvyness of the cultural customs of our present planet. Years ago when I lived in Greece the Christmas festivities were strictly religious and subdued and only the New Year was celebrated with gifts. The western Christmas with great spending was unknown.  Four years ago I was in Athens, Greece for Christmas and we did a lot of “Malling”. There are many new huge malls in Athens since entering the E.U. and Christmas really underlines this new way of living. The malls in Athens and suburbs were an hyperbole of over the top commercialization—the Santas were bigger, the reindeer cuter, the tinsel more vulgar than any I had ever seen, and all the time –interlaced with the excited shouting of eager Greek consumers, I could hear the sounds of the original sacred Christmas music of old so banned in North American malls.  Here at last I got my fill of my favourite Christmas music - nary a note of “We wish you a merry Christmas” or “I am dreaming of a White Christmas” or “Deck the Halls” instead the sounds of the beautiful old carols and especially “Silent Night” filled the air. Why was it that here in Greece I could hear all my old favourites?  Of course, the Greek people, happily shopping, had no concept of the significance of these sacred pieces, nor did they listen to the words.  No, they shopped to their hearts’ content imbued with the materialistic Western Christmas Spirit inspired by these foreign and beautiful songs unaware of political correctness or sacrilege. When I left Greece I was satisfied and satiated because I finally had had my fill of favourite Christmas Music. However last week I had to walk down Fisgard street in the centre of Victoria’s Chinatown on an errand and again I heard the old ones loudly blaring on the street and my heart lifted.  I love our present cultural “topsydurvyness” in our great planet where you can find the unexpected adoption of  music of others in the oddest places and advise you, dear readers, to embrace it also and have a wonderful shopping- indulged Xmas.