In the western, Christians identified Christmas with snow and cold climate. They stay in home and celebrate with family. Because living in colder clime, they wish for snow to make their Christmas as a white one. But in Indonesia, snow and colder clime is a myth. From the day when the world was created, the snow was never falling down here. And the sun never stopped to send its light here. That’s why Indonesian Christians are only sharing imagination about snow and cold.
When I wasting my time in the department store, I’m really surprise when I see the Christmas property is snow and the statue of Santa Claus who ride a magic chart from the north pole. It’s strange for me that snow and cold still identified as Christmas in tropical country like Indonesia. Why Christians are not create a new myth for Indonesian situation?
Many month ago, I wrote the same situation when Islamic holy day. I saw the Arabic symbol in every place like desert, a camel, or Masjidil Haram, the holy mosque in Mecca, as the symbol of Moslem. I ever asked why we not created the new symbol as holy day based on our own culture and what the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein called as religious experience?
For me, all of religion and believing must be contextualize with local situation. They must be adapted with local context without losing their value or meaning. Snow, winter, and Santa Claus are an accessory in western situation like Moslem which identified as desert or a camel. Maybe these facts become a reason why Christian or Islam is far from us. I hope someday we will see Santa Clause who wearing our traditional costum. I hope we will see the christmas situation in forest at tropical island under sunlight and blue sky. I hope we see the same thing in Islamic celebration day.
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