“It’s the most wonderful time of the year, It’s the hap-happiest season of all.”
Sounds familiar right? This Andy Williams’s song is one of the classic yet old-school favorites that reminds us that Christmas is coming to town as this epitomizes the spirit of Christmas in our lives. Each country and each religion celebrates Christmas every 25th of December to commemorate the Birth of our Saviour in their own distinct ways with some traditions and events that they have been doing for several years.
In the Philippines, we celebrate Christmas like there is no tomorrow since we prepare starting from September until January while tuning in Christmas In Our Hearts in every public place we go and singing to its melody until we get LSS or “Last Song Syndrome” feels. As we are a Catholic-dominated country through its 80% population, we do celebrate Christmas as inclined to the Church’s events as we prepare for the birth of Jesus.
On the other hand, 20% of the Philippine population are Muslims, wherein majority of them predominantly reside in the island of Mindanao. As curious as it sounds, do you think our Muslim brothers and sisters celebrate Christmas? Let’s find out, as I have asked and interviewed several of my Muslim friends and relatives for them to answer to our question if they do celebrate Christamas as a holiday in their religion.
From my friends and relatives whom I have asked about if they celebrate Christmas, all of them have responded that in their religion, Christmas is not a celebration nor a holiday for them as this is considered as “Haram”. Haram defines Christmas as something that is forbidden and proscribed under the “Sharia” or the Islamic Law.
Even though Christmas is a haram in Islam, in the current times some Muslims do celebrate Christmas as they happily share in the joy with their Catholic brothers and Sisters. Thus, Christmas for Muslims is just an ordinary day for them and if they are invited to Christmas parties, they would think of it as a birthday celebration in order for them to respect the Islamic law of it as a “Haram”.
Whether your religion has Christmas or not, let us remember that all year round we always serve in order to change lives. Looking forward to your joyous holiday celebrations as we stay optimistic in these trialing times.
