Ask anyone that knows me even relatively well, and they will confirm this fact: I go all out at Christmas. I listen to Christmas songs starting on Thanksgiving, I would probably cry if we didn’t trek to a Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree, and until about two years ago, I had trouble sleeping past 5 on Christmas morning because I was so excited.
Surprising, considering my family’s lack of religious involvement, is the fact that they too get caught up in all of the celebrations. Until a few years ago, I never really considered Christmas as a religious holiday. My family never went to church on Christmas Eve as so many families do, but rather we just participated in the nonreligious aspects, like giving presents and eating a LOT of food. Every year 30-40 of my relatives would gather at either my house or my aunt’s for dinner, and all of us kids would talk about what kind of presents we got. As I got older, and started going to church regularly and particularly on Christmas, it always interested me how into Christmas my siblings got considering the fact that it is an important religious holiday.
This Christmas Eve, my brother, who has always had a deep curiosity for my faith, decided to come to Mass with me at midnight. While this was unexpected and I was very happy that he decided to come, I soon found out how little he knew about what the holiday really means. As we left the church at 1 a.m., he turned to me and said “well, that was incredibly long and boring, but at least I learned something new.” Fully expecting him to not appreciate the service, but still glad that he came, I asked what he had learned. He proceeded to tell me that he never knew who Joseph was until that night. He had always heard the name Joseph associated with Jesus, but never knew what it stood for, until he learned in the homily that he was the husband of Mary.
This story was told to all of my relatives the next day, and we all had a good laugh about how ridiculous it was that Matt never had any idea who Joseph was, but it really got me thinking. There are many things about other people’s faiths that I know nothing about, and it is little things like that that lead to misinterpretations of entire religions. Despite the fact that my brother has celebrated Christmas for 26 years, he had no idea about someone who played such a large role in what is celebrated. I know that I will never be able to fully grasp major things about everyone’s faith, this experience has made me even more aware of the power that a knowledge and awareness of someone’s traditions has.
