New Year Celebration . . . Again, Why?

THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR

The Julian year was 11 min and 14 sec longer than the solar year. This discrepancy accumulated until y 1582 the vernal equinox occurred 10 days early and Church holidays did not occur in the appropriate
seasons. To make the vernal equinox occur on or about March 21, as it had in ad 325, the year of the First Council of Nicaea, Pope Gregory XIII issued a decree dropping 10 days from the calendar. To prevent further displacement he instituted a calendar, known as the Gregorian calendar, that provided that century years divisible evenly by 400 should be leap years and that all other century years should be common years. Thus, 1600 was a leap year, but 1700 and 1800 were common years.

The Gregorian calendar, or New Style calendar, was slowly adopted throughout Europe. It is used today throughout most of the Western world and in parts of Asia. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted in Great Britain in 1752, a correction of 11 days was necessary; the day after September 2, 1752, became September 14. Britain also adopted January 1 as the day when a new year begins. The Soviet Union adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918, and Greece adopted it in 1923 for civil purposes, but many countries affiliated with the Greek Church retain the Julian, or Old Style, calendar for the celebration of Church feasts.

The Gregorian calendar is also called the Christian calendar because it uses the birth of Jesus Christ as a starting date. Dates of the Christian era (see Chronology) are often designated ad (Latin anno domini, “in the year of our Lord”) and bc (before Christ). Although the birth of Christ was originally given as December 25, 1 bc, modern scholars now place it about 4 bc. Because the Gregorian calendar still entails months of unequal length, so that dates and days of the week vary through time, numerous proposals have been made for a more practical, reformed calendar. Such proposals include a fixed calendar of 13 equal months and a universal calendar of four identical quarterly periods. Thus far, none has been adopted.

Source: Microsoft ® Encarta ® Premium Suite 2005.
© 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation

CELEBRATION?

Christians and non-Christians alike around the world celebrate the New Year every year. The New Year’s Day for every country depends on what calendar it has adopted. For us Filipinos, as we know, we follow the Gregorian calendar. But whatever calendar a country follows, the most important issue for us Christians, I believe, is what motivates each of us to take part in this yearly celebration. The following list indicates some possible motivations of Christians:

A. Idolatrous
1. Tradition . . . handed down practice that must be kept.
2. Craze . . . what everyone does and is up to at present.
3. Holiday . . . the New Year’s Day itself.
4. Escapism . . . forgetting of unpleasant daily life realities.
5. Diversion . . . shift in normal interest.
6. Exploration . . . discovery of something.
7. Duty and Obligation . . . subscription and compliance to church’s imposition.
8. Disinterest . . . indifference on reason for celebration.
9. Filler . . . something to get self busy with.
10. Religious shame . . . unworthy feeling for being less pious.
11. Biblical Holiday . . . holiday instituted by Scripture.
12. Unforgettable experience . . . something that has occurred that we treasure.
13. Superstition . . . false supernatural perspectives.

B. God-glorifying
14. Gladness in the Lord . . . sense of gratitude to God for who He is and what He has done . . . worship and thanksgiving.

(Posted at the Youth Corner, Hope Presbyterian Church, Baguio City)

The “Santa Claus” Syndrome

Santa Claus (folklore), the legendary Christmas gift-bringer, a fat jolly white-bearded man dressed in a red suit trimmed with white, and driving a sleigh full of toys drawn through the air by eight reindeer. Santa Claus (also called St Nicholas, St Nick, or Father Christmas), so the story goes, visits every home on Christmas Eve, descending down the chimney to leave presents under the tree and in the stockings of all good children. Although this familiar image of Santa Claus was introduced into the United States from Holland in the 17th century, and into England from Germany in the mid-19th century, it has roots in ancient European folklore and has influenced celebrations of Christmas worldwide.

St Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop of Asia Minor noted in early Christian legend for saving storm-tossed sailors, defending young children, and especially for giving generous gifts to the poor. Although many of the stories about Nicholas are of doubtful authenticity (such as his delivering a bag of gold by dropping it down a chimney), his legend spread widely throughout Europe, emphasizing his role as a traditional bringer of gifts. The Christian St Nicholas replaced or ncorporated various pagan gift-giving figures such as the Roman Befana and the Germanic Berchta and Knecht Ruprecht. The saint was called Sankt Nikolaus in Germany and Sanct Herr Nicholaas or Sinterklaas in Holland. In these countries Nicholas was sometimes said to ride through the sky on a horse delivering gifts. He wore a bishop's robes, and was at times accompanied by Black Peter, an elf whose job was to whip naughty children. St Nicholas's Day, when presents were received, was originally celebrated on December 6 but, after the Reformation, German Protestants encouraged emphasis on the Christkindl (Christ child) as gift-giver on His own feast day, December 25. When the Nicholas tradition prevailed, it became attached to Christmas itself. (In 1969, because the saint's life was so thinly documented, Pope Paul VI ordered the feast of St Nicholas to be dropped from the official Roman Catholic calendar.) Ironically, the term Christkindl had evolved into Kriss Kringle, another nickname for Santa Claus.

Various other Christmas gift-givers in European folklore, such as Père Noël in France, Julenisse in Scandinavia, and Father Christmas in England, are loosely related to St Nicholas. But it was the Dutch figure, Sinter Klaas, which settlers brought with them to Nieuw Amsterdam (now New York), that inspired the American transformation of the figure and even gave him his name. The variation on his name, rendered as St A Claus, appeared as early as 1773 in the American press; however, it was the popular author Washington Irving who gave Americans their first detailed information about the Dutch version of St Nicholas. In his History of New York (1809) published under the pseudonym Diedrich Knickbocker, Irving described the expected arrival of the saint on horseback (but without Black Peter) each St Nicholas Eve. This Dutch-American St Nick was fully Americanized in his now-familiar form in Clement Clarke Moore's well-known poem, first published in 1823, A Visit From Saint Nicholas, more commonly known as The Night Before Christmas. Moore included such details as the names of the reindeer, the laughs, winks, and nods of Santa's demeanour, and the method by which “the jolly old elf” gets back up the chimney. The rotund image of Santa Claus was further delineated by the artist Thomas Nast, who provided illustrations of Santa for Christmas issues of Harper's magazine from the 1860s to the 1880s. Nast added such details as Santa's workshop at the North Pole and Santa's keeping track of good and bad children in the world. Every year at Christmas time in many parts of the world, advertising, greeting cards, seasonal decorations, and the appearance of Santas in department stores uphold the modern legend of Santa Claus. Children write letters to Santa Claus and leave out food and drink for Santa's snack. In Britain, meanwhile, the image of Santa Claus as a rotund, friendly figure on a sleigh drawn by reindeer, began to appear on Christmas cards.

Source: Microsoft ® Encarta ® Premium Suite 2005. © 1993-2004 Microsoft Corporation

Giving on Christmas season, in itself, is not wrong because this is what true Christmas effects on us...God “gave” His only begotten Son. Receiving on Christmas season, in itself, is not also wrong because this is still what true Christmas benefits us with…God gave His only begotten Son to us and He enables His elect to receive Him. However, sometimes, we allow ourselves to be infected by the virus of the Santa Claus folklore and St. Nicholas tradition. Our “giving and receiving” becomes defined by the principles and practices that have descended from these folklore and tradition, and this is indicative of our acute spiritual decay. This acute spiritual decay we have is characterized by our IDOLATROUS GIVING AND RECEIVING on Christmas season, which comes in the following forms:

Philanthropic giving – one gives with the thought that he can improve
human welfare by his giving.
Legalistic giving – one gives with the thought that he can earn Christ’s favor by his giving.
Moralistic giving – one gives to fix people’s (especially children’s) bad morals.
Pharisaic giving – one gives with the thought that his righteousness rests on giving a lot.
Usurpative giving – one gives as if he owns what he gives and invites attention to himself.
Baalistic giving – one gives and Santa Claus is magnified side by side with, or in replacement to, Christ.
Craze giving – one gives with great enthusiasm in December, but not from January to November.
Mendicant receiving – one proactively receives out of confusing and/or equating receiving with begging.
Legalistic receiving – one receives with the thought that what he receives is a result of his own giving.
Moralistic receiving – one receives convincing himself having virtues deserving of gifts.
Opportunistic receiving – one proactively receives everything he can while many are giving.
Unaccountable receiving – one just receives on account of tradition without sense of gratitude.
Baalistic receiving – one receives and magnifies Santa Claus side by side with, or in replacement to, Christ.
Irresponsible receiving – one receives on account of tradition and just consumes what he receives without sense of faithfulness.

(Posted at the Youth Corner, Hope Presbyterian Church (HPC), Baguio City)

...Will Smith

' been busy with my Nihongo lessons, which runs from 8:50am to around 4:00pm everyday, so I haven't had time to post. Anyway, here's a word from Will Smith featured in the latest Reader's Digest. It's said so perfectly; it's a waste not to pass:

"There is no pain worse than not achieving a dream when it is your fault. If God did not want you to have it, that is one thing. But if you do not get what you desire because you are lazy, there is no pain worse than that."

Of course, we can always dismiss our failures by saying God probably didn't want us to have what we have dreamt of. Yet I think we know almost always if we did our best or if we had been lazy. Some say we tried our best, some say we didn't. Some say we could have done better, some say we did our best. But I think, in our hearts we know, and so, only we, know the pain.

I thank God for the small dreams, the small desires He afforded me in the past and are still granting me each day. I thank God, too, for those He didn't want me to have. I thank God still for the failures, and the things I could have achieved had I been more diligent, or should not have gone through had I been less stupid. Of course it would have been best if I didn't fail, and if I was able to achieve other things with more diligence, or if I didn't have to go through the painful consequences of my stupidity. God's grace and mercy in this, of which I'm a living witness, is that all things that happen in our life, even those which gave us pain and scars, and those we never imagined nor dreamt about that happened anyway, are used by our creator God to achieve His purpose. He does.

In Christ,
Che

The Kagoshima Trip

It was not to be just a paper presentation in a scientific meeting. It was also a sightseeing trip, a reunion of some sort, and an experience of using almost all the means of transportation available in Japan.

My adviser asked me to present a short paper on hybrid rice (based on the ADB presentation and the book article) at the scientific meeting of the Society of Farm Management held at the Kagoshima University. Although only few persons attended our session, I received six questions, which made me feel many people listened anyway. Thank you for your prayers.

It was also a sightseeing trip because my adviser (knowing I wouldn’t understand the Japanese presentations anyway) booked me to a one-day tour of Kagoshima. We went to Mt. Kaimon (similar to Mt. Mayon), to some art and historical museums, and to what they say are some old Samurai houses. Although it would have been better if I understood what the tour guide was saying, the tour was omoshiroii (fun and interesting) anyway. Nothing can beat the endurance of that tour guide. He was talking almost incessantly while on the bus and at the tour sites. If he was not talking or bowing, he was singing. After an hour of trying hard to pick up some Nihongo nouns, verbs and adjectives for my Nihongo study, I gave up. I understood only the conjunctions and the ‘post’positions.

It was also a reunion of some sort because I met several old friends during the conference. There was Humnath Bhandari, a Nepalese who was all of a classmate, neighbor, friend and sensei while I was taking my MS at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at JIRCAS. He also presented a paper at the conference. I also met Kumi-san, Matsushita-san, and Sawada-san- old friends who helped me survive Japan back when I was in Tsukuba city for JICA training. Matsushita-san is now an associate professor at the Tsukuba University, and Sawada-san is in the NARC Tohoku region. Of course there was Kumi-san, who was our session chair. She was, at one time, a short-term expert of JICA at PhilRice. A quick re-un-yu-n desu ne.

Finally, funny how the trip allowed me the experience of using almost all the means of transportation here: by bus (from Asakura to Kochi airport), by hikooki (from Kochi to Fukouka), by shinkansen and local train (from Fukouka to Kagoshima), and street car and taxi (around Kagoshima). I left Asakura at 9:30 am and arrived in Kagoshima at around 4:00 pm. On the way back to Kochi, we used the efficient train all the way. What can I say? According to my adviser, the average speed of the shinkansen and the local train is 200 and 150 km per hour, respectively. I wish we have more trains in the Philippines. But I should not be wishing every time I write here, should I?

The ‘developing’ Japan

So was how my adviser refers to Kochi. He loves Kochi anyway, just as he loves the Philippines.

Kochi prefecture is located in the Shikoku Island, southwest of Japan, along with Kagawa, Ehime, and Tokushima prefectures. According to my adviser, its population is around 300,000. I have yet to know what Kochi is really like, but on first impression: a quiet, organized, and safe city, rural in some sense compared with the bigger cities of Japan.

One amazing fact to me is that the website http://www.baobab.or.jp/~stranger/mypage/church.htm records 50 churches in Kochi. Our God be praised! I don’t know about all these churches, but what can be more wonderful than 50 churches in a single prefecture speaking about Christ’s grace.

Coincidentally ("By God's sovereignity,..." as Marlon would put it), Kochi prefecture, by way of a memorandum of agreement, is a sister province of the Benguet province in the Philippines (according to an officer at the prefecture office whom I met in the welcome party for foreign students). Around 60 Cordillerans are all around Kochi learning Japanese farming technology cum helping produce vegetables for Japan. One might say it's accidental and that "it’s a small world after all." I say, God destined it to be for reasons I have yet to find out.

"Practical " Heights

Ando-san, a Universtiy Cooperative staff, was kind enough to prepare the maps and all the information about vacant apartments within a kilometer radius from the University. So, together with him, and Noguchi-san and Eri-san, undergraduate students of Kochi University, I set out to scout for a place i can stay around Asakura campus. We went to Akebono heights, Sakura heights, and other heights - posh areas, and clean new units. Yet true to my being a Filipino, 'practical heights' was what i desired. So after Ando-san skillfully did another computer search and handed me 3 more options, we walked to Merry Heights. The basement of the apartment building is a Christian chapel, and although I didn't have any idea about what chapel it was, it was one factor I decided for this apartment. My unit is a single room, but it can serve the purpose for the meantime. I found out later that it was just 100 meters away from where I will be having my daily Nihongo class, 5 minutes walk from the street car station, and around 10 minutes walk from the Asakura JR train station. By God's grace, I found my Practical Heights.

Polvoron and chocnut!

Thank you for your prayers. After an overnight stay at a hotel in Osaka, I arrived in good shape at the Kochi Ryoma airport around 12:00 noon on Oct. 3, 2006. By God’s grace, I arrived fine with my more than 30 kg baggage (including my hand carry baggage) . Too bad that the pack of goldilocks polvoron and chocnut just had to go at the NAIA airport because they won’t allow any more than 10 kg hand carry baggage. :)

Expectedly, I was met by my adviser Dr. Yoshinori Morooka. After almost an hour drive, we arrived at Kochi University Asakura campus, which is to be my home for some six months or so. For the record, my first activity was to seat-in in my adviser’s “Development Economics” undergraduate class. I knew my adviser was introducing himself and explaining the course curriculum to his students, but I only understood a word or two. A single fact dawned on me: I am going to be a student in Japan, and my first mission is to learn Nihongo.

In Kochi,
Che