THE Government of Jamaica, through the financial secretary, Dr Wesley Hughes, sent out a memorandum to heads and administrators of various public agencies informing them that no public funds were to be used to host Christmas parties this year.

Understandably, this has angered many public servants for a number of reasons. They have come to see this as part of a longstanding tradition and as part of the perks and acknowledgement of their efforts in going the extra mile during the course of the past year and which replaces the payment of the Christmas bonus which many in the private sector enjoy at this time of the year.

The lateness of the announcement has been particularly irksome as some of these departments and institutions have had to make a down payment to other institutions and persons in order to make reservations for their party, and which down payment may be non-refundable. Such a directive, coming in the course of a year when there have been significant moments of conflict between the Government and public servants over matters of salary and the payment of outstanding back pay, has not made the reception of the decision palatable. No doubt, there is also at the back of the minds of some persons the notion that, however detached from its religious roots, there should — in the spirit of Christmas — be a time for such celebration.

Some of us may recall a development in the 1960s when Cuba was under severe economic stress with the imposition of the economic embargo by the United States of America. The harvesting of the sugar crop was paramount for the viability of its economy. President Fidel Castro decreed that the celebration of Christmas had to be postponed, and citizens had to be focused on being in the canefields to get the crop harvested.

It did not go over well with some citizens, and it was used as another piece of ammunition by the international community to vilify the Communist regime. In this situation there was a postponement with a promise for observance at a future date. The instruction coming from the Government of Jamaica to the public servants is that the celebration is just not on, without even the promise that the occasion will return when the fortunes are different.

Public response to the directive from the financial secretary has been varied. There are those who take a pragmatic and objective perspective of the situation and express the view that this is a very appropriate decision in light of the economic challenges which the country is now facing and the consequent constraints which these place on government expenditure. Less gracious are those who take the view that the public servants do not deserve such an expenditure, given the second-rate quality of service offered to the public.

There is, however, a cynical streak which makes light of occasions of celebration and partying as a waste of time and unnecessary intrusion into the routine of life. This finds ready acceptance with some religious folks who find the idea of a party very pagan and of the devil, especially so if there will be secular music, dancing, and alcoholic beverages served.

Those who are cynical about religious observances such as Christmas see it as a kind of moment of great hypocrisy when people pause for a few days to notice the normally invisible poor and destitute and to exchange greetings with persons with whom they would normally not converse.

Part of the reality of being human, however, is the observance of times, seasons and rituals within the rhythm and flow of life. Far from being a waste of time, they constitute moments and occasions which give meaning to the ordinary flow of life and provide moments for the renewal of the created order and of humanity. While we do not see the obvious changes in the four seasons as observed in temperate climates in which there is the renewal of life with the coming of spring, we do have our rainy and dry seasons.

When one lives in a place like Southern Manchester and Southern St Elizabeth, one appreciates the movement in the seasons as that which gives vibrancy and the renewal of hope in the midst of the seemingly impersonal movement in the world of nature which each dry spell brings.

Likewise, rituals and ritual observances provide moments of what one writer has called “liminal space” when we can step aside from the routine of life and enact symbolic expressions of aspects of ordinary life which may recall experiences from the past and somehow are able to represent the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of people, especially in the form of community building.

Among these are what are known as “calendrical rites” which involve whole communities and societies. These reflect the movement in the annual production cycle, and are performed at specific designated points in the annual cycle and attest to the movement from scarcity to plenty or plenty to scarcity.

While the celebration of Christmas is not about productivity and the annual cycle of scarcity and plenty, it has to do with what may be regarded as the intangibles. The observance of Christmas for the Christian is a way of recreating and retelling a story in various ritual expressions of the experience of God’s love in the birth of the Christ-child. In this event the hopes, yearnings, and dreams of an oppressed people found fulfilment. While being the story of a particular people at a particular moment in history, it is at the same time the story of humanity, and resonates in a particular way with the experience of the people of Jamaica.

The Judeo-Christian Scriptures capture the experience of the people of God throughout history as one in which the experience of oppression, the abuse of power, violence, and war were recurring realities. Various prophets encouraged the people not to give in to despair but to stand firm in faith, trust in God, and refuse coalitions with evil empires.

One image which emerged in this context and which has come to be understood as fulfilled in the Christmas story is that of the promised intervention of God who would provide all the protection required, and that the birth of a child would serve as a sign of this (Isaiah 7:10-17).

In this way, the people of God were pointed toward a future which would involve a change from the kind of predicament which they were experiencing. This change is represented in terms of the contrasting images of light and darkness — “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light”. A child is to be born as a sign, a witness to the prophetic word of hope. This child would represent the fulfilment of the promise to the descendants of David of a righteous rule and kingdom with “no end”.

The imagery associated with this child to be born were those of ‘wonderful counsellor’, one who would receive the gifts of ‘wisdom’ and ‘virtue’, and who would exercise righteous judgement and justice. The ‘zeal of the Lord’ was to be the motivating power leading to the fulfilment of the promises to God’s people.

Of special significance is the image of peace which is contained in this prophecy about the child who is to be born. He is to be the prince of peace. As a King, he preserves the peace, commands peace, and creates peace, in his kingdom. He is our peace, and it is his peace that both keeps the hearts of his people and rules in them. He is not only a peaceable prince, and his reign peaceable, but he is the author and giver of all good, all that peace which is the present and future bliss of his subjects.

The Christian Church has come to understand Jesus Christ as the person who fulfils this vision of the child born to be ‘Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace’. That his name was to be called “Emmanuel”, which means “God is with us”, speaks to the fact that God chose to become incarnate in human flesh and in a world and time that were far from perfect; indeed, one that was as messy as it could get.

To a people who lived in the grips of gloom and deep darkness it was the light, the vision, and the promise of a new tomorrow. Hence, there began the celebration, not of the perfection of life which the people were enjoying, but the assurance and the promise of God that there is light where darkness threatens to overwhelm; that there is a future where life seems threatened by an overwhelming cloud; and that righteous judgement and justice will prevail where anguish seems to have gained the upper hand.

The year 2010 has been one characterised by constant crime and violence, a murder rate which threatened to surpass the record of previous years in the first few months of the year, the unsavoury exposure of the relationship between our political culture and criminality, corruption at various levels of the society, the continuing failure of the nation to adequately protect our children from abuse and neglect, the violation of the human rights of some citizens, an unacceptably high level of extra-judicial killings by the police, the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis on our country, and the unleashing of nature’s fury in the flooding associated with Tropical Storm Nicole.

The message of Christmas, then, must be a word of hope to a people who live, as it were, with the threat of being overwhelmed by darkness and who crave righteous judgement and justice in the realm of governance and in the ordering of our common life in the face of a pervasive culture of corruption. In celebrating Christmas, we not only recall the events of the past which heralded the defeat of darkness, but we give expression to our hopes and dreams for a society in which the forces of darkness, crime and violence, corruption and abuse will be defeated.

More than that, through our communal observance we enliven each other in our bid to make ourselves instruments of the transformative light which, working in the life of persons, can overcome the darkness.

It is always the case that events of celebration can become devoid of meaning and lose sight of the core issues, values, and experiences which provided focus in the first place. This is very true of Christmas. Nevertheless, if we fail to celebrate because of the prospect of distortion, even “the very stones would cry out” as Jesus once told an audience that was trying to silence another celebration of God’s activity in their midst.

So, whatever the circumstance, whether there be music, dancing, feasting or drinking, from personal resources or public funds, celebrate we must, because the light that shines in the darkness has dawned, and the times and seasons ahead in 2011 hold challenges which will demand every measure of that light if our deep longings, hopes, and dreams for our country are to become a reality.

Howard Gregory is the Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay