is said to have died on Sunday 13 th January ‘in his bath’, which probably
meant: during a baptismal service. He performed 4 miracles in his lifetime
which are commemorated in the Glasgow arms. The Glasgow motto:
“Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of the word” had been Mungo’s call.
(The story of his early life resembles the romance by Chretiens de Troyes,
“Ywain” and probably has the same source)
Dear Santa…
I hesitate to address this letter to you, since it is usually children not adults
who write to you, and also because I don’t like that ‘ho-ho-ho-image’ which
you have acquired, together with the ‘businessification’ of Christmas. I much
prefer your continental appearance, where you arrive on December 5, and
the real bringer of gifts is the ‘Christkindl’ or Christ-child, a kind of
personification of the Christmas spirit. But I must admit I like the ‘Magic of
Christmas’, the whole of the season, with its ‘Christkindl Markets’, the smell
of mulled wine and chestnuts, the smiling children’s eyes and even Santa’s
Grotto.
You know, the official keepers of
the Christian faith don’t think you
exist and don’t like you and all that
Christmas has become, not only
just the ‘Kitsch’ and commerce,
but it seems to have become the
most important festival in the
Church’s calendar: This season
from Advent to Christmas and to
the New Year with Three Kings,
six weeks which are differ ent from
the rest of the year, like Sunday is
to the working week. After weeks
of everyday labour we arrive at these festival weeks – and all festivals really
have a religious aspect. Church leaders don’t like that. That Christmas is
happening all around us, that streets, gardens, windows are lit up, as if
angels were flying outside the churches! At this Christmas different aspects
of God and the world have their place and the so-called ‘Christmas-
Christians’, who only go to church at that time of the year, live a different kind
of religious life from the regular members of the Church.
I believe that in the last 100 years Christmas has become more important
than Easter, even to regular Church members. While for our grand-parents
the message of Christ’s death and resurrection was so near, so close, that
they could feel their own life and death affected by it, we today rather tell
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