Simple celebrations

Despite the overflowing assistance given by foreign countries to the typhoon-hit areas, some local governments and private companies decided to donate the budget of their Christmas parties to the victims in northern Cebu and Eastern Visayas.

This is all well and good but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t and shouldn’t celebrate Christmas and New Year. As news of the tragedy unfolded before a shocked country and the rest of the world, the private sector followed by the government mobilized their resources to help the dazed survivors.

Along with the onrush of assistance came denunciations in online social media over selfies of people supposedly posing with damaged structures and survivors at Ground Zero and sumptuous food and gadgets that are perceived as arrogant and inappropriate displays of wealth at a time when most Filipinos have been struggling to find even a morsel of food to eat.

This condemnation of selfies over Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest amid the backdrop of suffering and misery also extended to the planned Christmas parties of both government and the private sector.

To their credit, local goverments in Cebu like Mandaue City Hall previously cancelled their Christmas parties and used the budget to donate to typhoon Pablo victims last year.

With last month’s earthquake and now the “Yolanda” catastrophe, the government which is still engulfed over the pork barrel controversy despite the detention of controversial businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles and the Supreme Court ruling declaring the pork barrel as unconstitutional and the private sector were called on to share their blessings to the typhoon victims, who are now in the process of rebuilding their lives according to local officials.

That is not to say however that there is an official ban on celebrating Christmas. We have to agree with Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama who said it is the right of government employees to celebrate this annual occasion in their own simple way.

“Even soldiers hold a truce in order to celebrate Christmas with their loved ones,” he said and we couldn’t agree more. Even Rama’s critics are in agreement that the annual City Hall Christmas party should go on, even if it is sparse and simple.

We’d like to think that the Earth parents of Jesus Christ, Joseph and Mary, still celebrated His birth in their own simple way regardless of whether or not the Wise Men from the East came with their own luxury gifts.

Celebrating that joyous time of the year means honoring the reason for the season and not the material wealth falsely associated with it.