Christmas is a time for celebration, reflection and rebirth in many ways. The Shepherd campus is represented by a diverse community that partakes in the Christmas festivities. Students of all religious affiliations give the campus its voice. Each religion has a different take on the holiday, yet all rejoice in the coming together of those they hold dear. Here are some of their takes on the holiday, but this is by no means a representation of all religions, nor is it a representation of all individuals who classify themselves as a particular religion.
Christians:
“Personally, I am a Christian. It is the time we celebrate Jesus being born. The great thing about that is, a lot of people exchange gifts. Some people believe that stems from the wise men bringing gifts to Jesus. They don’t necessary believe the birthday took place in December, it could have been in the spring,” Joel Heslop, area director for Jefferson County Young Life, said.
As the area director, Heslop has been through Young Life’s commissioning process to become a commissioned minister. He said that he does not introduce himself as a minister, but he is legally allowed to perform weddings and funerals within West Virginia.
Many Christians will attend Christmas Eve services during which they light candles and sing a mix of hymns and contemporary music, according to Heslop.
“Remember the reason for the season, even as cheesy as that sounds. It is a time to calm down and spend time with family and friends,” Heslop said.
Heslop said that a Christmas tradition of his family is to read from the Bible out of the chapter of Luke, which tells the Christmas story.
In the news lately, there are debates about keeping religious holidays on school calendars. The conversation is heated and has resulted with all religious holidays being omitted from the Montgomery County, Md. 2015 – 16 school calendar.
“I am going to say Merry Christmas. I don’t want to be totally offensive … I just don’t want to fight,” Heslop said.
People get so frustrated with the situation and others that they miss the holiday, Heslop said. “Things can get political, and I can see where people within other religions and other family backgrounds can get frustrated.”
Heslop understands and would want to see the holidays on the schedule.
“It is a fight that isn’t that big of a deal,” Heslop said. “I don’t think anyone should get frustrated with anyone.”
“Either way, I am still going to celebrate (Christmas),” Heslop said.
Catholics:
At the Catholic Campus Ministry, the talk of calendar change takes a backseat to the season that the center is celebrating. Christmas brings the ministry the season of Advent. In antiquity, Catholics considered all other Christian denominations to be heresy.
However, this is not so today at the ministry on campus. The doors are open to each and every student at Shepherd.
“We are here for students, predominantly to support both Catholic students in their faith but also any other students who might be seeking or questioning or looking into spirituality, or just need a warm place or cup of coffee or just some friendly people,” Kate Didden, director of the campus ministry center and a campus minister, said. “We try to engage students in activities that are consistent with our faith.”
Feeding the homeless and underprivileged in the community are two activities that fall under their umbrella of outreach.
“We have linked with Immanuel’s Table in Martinsburg. We are going to be trying to bake cookies for their Monday night meal and possibly taking Christmas photos of clients and print them out for them,” Didden said.
The Catholic Church celebrates the season of Advent that is the four weeks before Christmas. Advent is symbolized with a wreath and four candles. Each week one candle is lit. One candle of the four is pink. It is the third candle lit and represents joy.
“We try to reflect on a daily basis and prepare ourselves for Christ coming into the world and focusing on how we can be Christ-like and a source of light to our community,” Didden said. “To spread Christ’s message through our community, we will be lighting our Advent wreath … we say a short scripture and reflection for the Advent season. We do it Monday through Friday at 12:30 p.m. each day and at mass on Dec. 7th, which is our final mass this year, at the historic St. Agnes Church here in Shepherdstown.”
“The ministry is not only a Catholic haven; it has an open door policy,” Didden said.
“What I like about advent is it gives an opportunity to be prayerful and reflective as opposed to getting caught up in the Christmas craziness, so it’s just a more spiritual focus instead of a material focus,” Didden said. “We get a variety of Christian students and have had some Muslim students who all feel like this is a nice space for them, and some great conversations have come about.”
Buddhists:
The holiday season is different from faith to faith. The Shepherd campus hosts a variety of religions such as Buddhism. It is a nontheistic religion originating from Asia that practices the beliefs and teachings of Buddha and that man can reach enlightenment by conquering hate, pain and suffering through mediation.
On Dec. 8, Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day to honor Buddha’s enlightenment. While sitting under a sacred fig tree, Siddhartha Gautama mediated for 49 days before reaching enlightenment and becoming known as “the awakened one.” In the morning, a Buddhist eats a mixture of rice and milk in honor of Sujata, the maiden who gave Buddha rice pudding to regain his strength on his road to enlightenment.
Throughout the day, Buddhists decorate their homes in colorful beads, jewelry and lights. A Bodhi tree, or a fig tree, is also decorated in lights and three ornaments representing the three jewels of Buddhism: the Buddha, the Dharma (nature) and the Sangha (community).
Buddhist children participate in various activities such as painting or drawing a Bodhi tree and baking heart-shaped cookies resembling the leaves of a Bodhi tree. At the end of the day, three candles representing the three jewels are lit every night for 30 day and a Buddhist chants and mediates to give thanks to Buddha afterward.
Many Buddhists believe that Jesus is a Bodhisattva, one that shows the world kindness, compassion and love. Because Christmas is all about “the spirit of giving,” Buddhists in the western world celebrate Christmas in the traditional way: decorations, gift exchange, dinner and prayer. Much like other religions, Buddhism is welcoming to anyone from any culture or religious background.
“We offer an introductory meditation class on the first Thursday of every month,” said Laurie Yengo, Rota coordinator and spiritual leader at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Washington, D.C. “On other Thursdays and on the first and third Sundays, we offer free meditation instruction during our scheduled public meditation times.”
Jewish:
While Christmas is widely celebrated as a Christian holiday in the United States, people of different religions and beliefs choose to participate in the holiday as well.
Kayla Sachs, 25, of Martinsburg is of the Jewish faith and celebrates Christmas with her family every year. Sachs, originally a Lutheran, converted to Judaism after she married her husband who is Jewish.
“I chose to take this religion because they showed me the value of life and love and what it means to have family and friends under faith,” she said.
“We choose to celebrate Christmas because of family,” Sachs said. Sachs and her family participate in many Christmas activities in the area and also have Christmas traditions of their own. “Every year we go to the light show in Frederick on Christmas Eve. Christmas morning we all make breakfast, and then we eat and rejoice about the year and celebrate good times,” she said.
Sachs does not believe that Christmas is not solely a Christian holiday. “A lot of people have missed the meaning of Christmas,” she said.
Sachs and her family choose to celebrate Christmas as a means to enjoy family and friends. “That is one thing we don’t forget every year, it’s not about what is under the tree or who has the biggest gift, it’s about being with family and friends and celebrating life,” Sachs said.
Non-Religious:
The celebration of Christmas is not only enjoyed by those of faith. Secular students, which describes those who do not define themselves as religious and concern themselves with nonreligious subjects, can also enjoy the things everyone associates with Christmas without reveling in strictly religious activities.
The Secular Student Alliance at Shepherd University, a group that welcomes atheists, agnostics, humanists, skeptics and anyone else with an open mind, is one such organization on campus that can enjoy the holiday spirit without feeling that Christmas is solely about Christ.
“For these intents and purposes, I am a Christian. Not religiously or spiritually, but culturally. As a non-religious person, I find a lot of identity in my culture … and Christmas is a centerpiece of that culture,” Anthony Farris, the Secular Student Alliance’s president, said.
Christmas is “not just about the scripture. It’s also about Dickens and O. Henry and Seuss. It’s about Bing Crosby and Gene Autry and Burl Ives. It’s about Peanuts and Santa Claus. It’s about the look on my baby cousins’ eyes when they open their Christmas gifts, and it’s about the look on my grandparents’ eyes when they realize that everyone is home for the holidays,” Farris added.
“I’ve been celebrating Christmas all my life, and I continue to enjoy the decorations, gifts, food and family togetherness. It’s easy to enjoy the trappings of the season without belief in the theistic elements,” said Dr. Christopher Lovelace, a psychology professor at Shepherd and the faculty advisor of the Secular Student Alliance.
“I know a number of non-religious people, some of whom celebrate the Christmas holiday and others who do not. Some who do celebrate Christmas might do so because it’s a part of their family tradition,” Lovelace added.
Christmas is not just for Christians. Christmas is for everyone, and that is an important distinction to make.
Non-religious people still partake in things like having “a bunch of hokey Christmas records to spin” and “finding joy in the joy of others,” in Farris’s case.
“Christmas is about us and our usness,” Farris said. Truly, Christmas is about the things that represent Christmas to us as individuals. It is about family traditions, the music listened to and the food eaten. The word “Christmas” means something different to everyone.