A long time ago, some ancestors of man discovered that it is more efficient to stay put at one place and grow their own food rather than to live a life of nomadic hunters/pickers/scavengers. They also realised that a few natural elements are important to the success of this change in life style and strategy - fertile soil, water and sunlight. (Hey, you may think that this is basic stuffs but there are kids and probably their parents who think their veggies come from the local supermarket).
One of the best places to find fertile soil and lots of water is obviously the banks of a river or lake (but no river no lake hor). The only ones that cannot see that were the blind ones or their mental equivalents. That explains why all great civilisations blossomed along the banks of great rivers. But great rivers overflow almost every year and change course from time to time, thus stories of great floods. And great floods destroy crops (those precious crops!) and people have to try save as much things as possible. So it is not difficult to understand why floods became such a great concern to our ancestors. However, different ancestors of man took different outlooks on this important issue:
1. Some decided to write stories about great floods and heroes to encourage selfless conduct in time of floods, and left everything else to fate/faith. As time goes by, the more 'creative' of this type made the themes grander. Like saying that such selfless conduct is in the service of god and will be rewarded with the promise of eternal life.
2. But there are more practical others who figured that this perennial problem can be managed through the building of canals, embankments, reservoirs etc. That way there is less need to ‘stretch’ things the way the previous approach did.
Now, it does not take much brain to see which approach took more brains but then you can take your time while we move on to where this part of this story is so relevant to this time of the year. And it has to do with the Sun.
As mentioned earlier, many of our ancestors realised that the Sun is a very important element to life. In fact, they realised very early in their agricultural life that without the Sun, nothing grows. Well, almost. Unless you are a bacteria but that's another story, or a Singaporean graduate I know who said that 'trees may then switch to eating meat'! (No prize for guessing which faith he belongs to.)
People in the northern hemisphere noticed that sometimes the sun 'goes away'. When that happens everything gets covered with snow, nothing grows and most animals went away with the Sun (in fact their forefathers used to do that too but they have forgotten about it since they chose to settle at a fixed location). So we can imagine ancestors of ours would be very interested in the movement of this great giver of life, the Sun. And it was probably an annual ritual for them to watch anxiously as the Sun moved south in case it would not return (probably because the they thought the earth was flat and the Sun might just fall off, like the popes did until the likes of Copernicus came up with a smarter alternative. But hey, we are talking about people before them. So, we can excuse the pope-like ones for the time being.)
But people also noticed that the sun always return after a while. And when that happens, everything seems to spring back to life - flowers bloom, crops grow, birds and animals return to feed on them. And food is plentiful. For those that have the concept of the calendar, it was noticed that the Sun always makes its ‘u-turn’ during a 2-3 days period of a particular time in the year. (For those of us that remember some science lessons from school, the u-turn period is known scientifically as the winter solstice.) So the ancients ‘tagged’ that few days as special days worthy of great joy (more like relief) and celebrations. Which explain why all great cultures in the northern hemisphere (no matter what their colour and belief are) celebrate the day when the sun makes its u-turn. The Chinese have their own name for this celebration and so do the Indians, Romans and so on. And so this appreciation for the value and importance of the Sun went on for many thousands of years until the present day. Which also explain why the Sun god is such an important entity in many cultures.
But as in all great stories there are always interesting twists and one happened to this story about 2,000 years ago. I shall relate this one with some ambiguity just for the heck of it, and to avoid offending some sensitive souls (their supreme blessings not withstanding).
When the Romans first gained fancy on a certain new concept then, it was decided by someone that they should celebrate the birth of their ‘idol’ which they claimed as the ‘son of god’ as a sign of regard. At first, it was decided that that day should take place sometime in the early months of each year. But the powers that be found that no matter what they did, they could not make that day beat the celebrations conducted for the day when the Sun makes its u-turn! (not surprising if all around you were mostly practical farmers but don’t give those powers that be too much credit, hor) So, in a classic example of the saying that if you cannot beat ‘em join them, those powers decided that they might as well move the day of celebrating the birth of their idol to the same time as the celebrations of the Sun. That way, they figured, they can ensure maximum revelry for the new event they wanted to celebrate. And so history records that they literally commandeered the 'day of the Sun' as the 'day of the Son' (cute pun, hor?).
Not interesting enough? Then did you hear the story of how a certain small place where I live ‘commandeered’ the same celebration for other reasons. They now celebrate this event for a full 2 months! And as opposed to remembering the importance of the Sun, they are only interested in shopping, presents, and the money it makes for them.
So, now you see why I always go ho, ho, ho, ho with amusement around this time of the year?
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