It doesn't matter what you call the day. It doesn't matter what provides the reason for the celebration, or the gathering of family, or the travel to a place you might only get to once every few years.
What matters is what the day means to you personally.
This day has meant something different to me over the decades. It's shifted with time. It has, however, always meant the renewal of something. Different things in different years but with common theme.
To some, this day will provide little pleasure. To the troops in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan, where December 25th has come and gone already, regardless of the attempts to decorate and generate an atmosphere of festivity, there will be a longing for home and family. And despite the improvements in communications which have taken place since I was in their place, nothing can change the feeling in one's gut that something important and personal is being missed.
One can only hope that a day will come when we never have to subject people to that kind of physical and emotional separation; that somehow a renewal will end all that.
So, call the day whatever you will, but make it a good day. It is a time when we either share the message of peace with each other or wish we did.
That's a common enough message.
Have a good and enjoyable day.
A tail dragging romp through the swamps of the world
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