As I make very practical use of the cardboard composing the card, I wonder at my own guilt. Why do I care? Why do people exchange cards at all? What becomes of them? What began this tradition? The answers are seated in the guilt and commercialism of a religious festival that has long lost its meaning. Like so many Christmas traditions this small piece of cardboard has virtually nothing to do with the birth of Christ. And like the Christmas tree, it is a pagan-like ritual entailing the slaughter of millions of trees to produce the pulp and paper upon which Christmas gestures are printed.
The pagan association is easy to make. Circa 324 A.D. Emperor Constantine declared Christianity across the Roman Empire. In order to institute the change to a deeply entrenched pagan populace, he appropriated dates and locations of previously pagan ritual celebrations to supplant them with new Christianity. Surely the date of December 25 is pagan in origin. The pagan celebration of the winter solstice closely coincided with this date. "But the real Christmas story is found in the Christian Bible. It is told in two different books: Matthew and Luke chapters 1 and 2" (Christmas). In these biblical books there is no mention of date but the fact that shepherds were at work in their fields is definitively not a December activity. Furthermore, polytheistic pagan belief assigned gods to various natural phenomena. Ironically, pagan rituals frequently sacrificed plants and animals from the natural world to appease these gods.
Admittedly, the newer ritual of card exchange emerged much later. In 1843, in London a man named Sir Henry Cole commissioned John Collcott Horsley, a fashionable artist of the time, to design his first card for primarily commercial reasons. But why do we bother? What value is there in a small square of cardboard with a formulaic Christmas greeting scrawled across it? When I asked my wife, she was candid in her answer. "Well, Christmas is about sharing love with family, but the time it takes to write a letter or make a phone call is really just a pain in the ass. Especially for those peripheral family members I never really talk to anyway. But I feel guilty about ignoring them at Christmas, especially if they sent me a card."
"What do you do with them afterwards?"
"Uuuuhhh, I throw them out - I try to remember to recycle them."
"Do you even read them?"
"Yeah, they're sweet. But they don't really mean much. I suspect everyone knows as much, but it's still important that we acknowledge each other."
My close friend, John, reiterates the notion. "I'm not great at sending presents, but I don't want to feel guilty that I have done nothing for family and friends at Christmas. I keep the hand-made ones I get from my mother."
"Where?"
"In a filing cabinet."
"Do you ever look at them again?"
"Oh, sure. You know, as long as I'm going into my filing cabinet anyway."
"And the rest of them?"
"I recycle them...or, make filters for my homemade cigarettes."
The card then is a surrogate for actual communication: a semiotic representation of sentiment diminished by the fact that we are too lazy to actually engage the emotion - a replacement for a phone call, a letter, or god forbid, an actual visit. What is the cost of this laziness and guilt? "Today, Christmas Cards are a multi million dollar industry in most English-speaking countries. Hallmark Cards, the largest American greeting card company, boasts annual sales of $400 million. In 1954, Americans sent about 2 billion Christmas cards; now, the yearly figure stands at close to 4 billion, for an average of twenty cards per person" (History). Globally, millions of trees are sacrificed to the pulp and paper industry to provide the raw materials to manufacture the commercial profit generated from the sale of Christmas cards. The silver lining is oxygen. Logging, as a commercial industry, has spawned the subsidiary industry of tree planting. Of course the cash crop must be replenished. "The provincial governments and various pulp & paper and lumber companies oversee the planting of over 700 million trees in Canada every year" (Minnes). The young trees replacing those older ones cut in the process of logging are ecologically believed to produce more oxygen. Wildlife members of the ravaged eco-system probably don't appreciate this benefit.
But the sentiment is genuine. In a modern world of fast-paced, rat-race lifestyles, at least we retain enough guilt to pause and express our need for family or friendship connections, even if only through a formulaic ritual. And the cards needn't be wasted. There are uncountable practical and aesthetic household uses for a small square of cardboard printed with a pretty picture...as long as we can overcome our guilt enough to slice through them. Alas, the pagans have the last laugh. The trees cry out in silent slaughter. The commercial baron reaps his multi-national wealth. And the rest of us overlook the pittance of pennies and time and trees it costs to escape a little guilt and be a little lazy. What will you do with your Christmas cards this year? Merry Christmas.
Annotated Bibliography
Christmas - Where Did It Come From? Where Is It Going? 22 Oct 2008. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
Doe, John. Personal interview. 27 Oct 2008.
An honest discussion allowed to meander into peripheral reflection by both interviewer and interviewee but comprised mainly of five fundamental questions: To whom do you send Christmas Cards?, Why do you send Christmas cards?, Do you keep any you have received, where, and which ones?, What do you do with them after Christmas? Do you ever look at them again?
Ferguson, Corrie and Amy N. Grupp. "Constantine Converts to Christianity 312". Webchron - the Web Chronology Project. 15 Dec 1998. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
This highly concise article outlines Emperor Constantine's political career from the time he became Emperor in 306AD until about 340AD. The major points upon which the article reflects include his controversial ‘vision’ that he attributes to the success of his military campaign, and his subsequent conversion to Christianity. The article further outlines Constantine's 'tolerance' of paganism after the conversion and the highly political way in which he superimposed Christian celebrations on pagan festivals and rituals.
"History of Christmas Cards". Big Site of Amazing Facts. 20 Aug 2007. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
In a detailed article that extends far beyond the history of the Christmas card itself, the text begins by questioning the date ascribed to the birth of Christ and follows the pagan origins of many Christmas traditions including the celebration of the winter solstice and the Roman exchange of gifts. The article then quickly moves to the modern celebration of Christmas and specifically details the creator of the first card and its artist, including a detailed description of both its picture and inscription and follows its commercial success, expansion, and acceptance into the twentieth century.
Johnston, Marianne. Personal interview. 27 Oct 2008.
An honest discussion allowed to meander into peripheral reflection by both interviewer and interviewee but comprised mainly of five fundamental questions: To whom do you send Christmas Cards?, Why do you send Christmas cards?, Do you keep any you have received, where, and which ones?, What do you do with them after Christmas? Do you ever look at them again?
Mann, Theodore H. Did Constantine Invent Christmas? 2006. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
The article provides a detailed outline of Emperor Constantine's appropriation of a late December date as the celebration for the birth of Christ and represents a collection of smaller sections which detail historical events which may be the reasons that the modern Christmas date is established as December 25. The articles pay particular attention to the earliest possible celebration of the birth of Christ, through its historical rejection and acceptance by religious groups and up to its modern proliferation.
Minnes, Gordon. "Pulp and Paper Industry". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
The article outlines the chemical process of pulp and paper production, followed by a history of the industry in Canada, and ends with a global comparison of the industry. The article is dense with statistics on the dollar value of commercial revenues and the percentages of product distribution worldwide.
"Planting". Outland. 20 Oct 2008. Accessed 30 Oct 2008.
The page is an informational document as part of the tree-planting employee recruiting for the Outland Company. The page responds to "frequently asked questions" by potential employees as to where, when, and how they might become part of the tree-planting force in Canada. Although it is a commercial recruitment, the page opens with an interesting statistic on the amount of annual tree planting sponsored by provincial governments in Canada.
1 comment:
My 77 year old friend receives and sends out over a hundred Christmas cards every year, and if one of her card-sending friends misses her , she's very put out. I think it's a way for her to keep connected with people all over the world, it's a tangible thing for them. I'm surprised that the number of Christmas cards being sent out has doubled - I for one, send out much fewer than I did before - this year it was 4. I think this increase reflects the increase in the population, which I think is a much graver problem than Christmas cards. People are the greatest polluters, and frankly, destroyers of our earth. We need to have zero population growth. Thanks for the thought-provoking blog.
Post a Comment