Marshall McLuhan in his generational book, Understanding Media: the Extensions of Man (1964), presents us with the notion that in the electronic age, the medium is the message because it has the ability to manipulate information to reach certain understanding of the world around us. Light as a medium, for example, is most creative when it reveals new images out of the shadows of darkness.
I have heard ministers and preachers talk about Christ as “the light of the world.” They tend to associate this phenomenon with truth in the Christian belief system.
Actually, Jesus’ association with the light is both real and symbolic. He did come as the “light of the world” and much more than that.
Mary’s journey to have the Christ Child in Bethlehem was filled with historic symbols of the past and extremely dark dangers and threats in the present. Giving birth to Jesus in a manger in a small dark town gloriously lit up the place and brought certainty to the notion that the Son of God was at hand.
In one of my literary essays, I analyzed the personal story of a feminine hero named Alejandra in an Argentine novel. One of the major points I made showed how she dealt with obstacles in contrast to her male counterparts.
In the traditional adventure of the hero stories, the male heroes tend to confront, attack and overcome their enemies by force. In the case of Alejandra, she defeated the threatening shadows in a dark room by turning on the light.
Mary did something similar by giving birth to Jesus and thereby “lighting up” the world. The joy of a bright and multicolored Christmas has been the tradition that follows that concept.
In a pre-Colombian site called Xochicalco located close to the City of Cuernavaca, Mexico, there is a cave that when one enters it leads to an ancient observatory where the whole room lights up during the Spring Solstice in March. That light was a signal for farmers to begin planting their crops.
The agricultural society of Christ’s time would not have been any different. “One text from the year 243 CE designates March 25 as the birthday of Jesus. In the Roman calendar the vernal Equinox was set for March 25, the day the Spring begins to triumph over Winter and new life bursts fourth in the realm of nature.”
There were several reason given for the change of Jesus’ birth from the Spring to the Winter Solstice. Among them is that it is a replacement of other pagan holidays that occurred at the same time or the symbolic fact that having the Baby born on the shortest day of the year allowed for the concept of a new beginning.
Another important and powerful reason is that in the longest and darkest night of Winter, Jesus made the dark- ness retreat. The darkness symbolically held the evil things Christ came to defeat.
Be it as it may, we celebrate the birth of the Savior on December 25th with Christmas gifts, gathering of families and the joy that goes with it. The Christmas tree with white or multicolored lights adorning the branches is the center-piece and symbol of the world Jesus was born to construct.
One no doubt notices the halo around the images of the Lord, the Virgin Mary and the saints depicted on walls and canvases. Those halos or sometimes short stripes around the holy figures reflect the light the Baby Jesus brought to the world. Merry Christmas.
The views expressed by David Conde are not necessarily the views of laVozColorado. Comments and responses may be directed to news@lavozcolorado.com.
