Benny Sixteen has cancelled the annual Vatican Yuletide concert.

Initiated by John Paul II in 1993, the annual pop music event has been canned by Benedict XI, apparently because of his disdain for music written by non-German composers alive since 1791. Which kinda narrows it down a little.

Ekklesia takes up the story.

Oh dear. This press release from the Liberal Democrats in the UK on Christmas Eve:

Liberal Democrats : Father Christmas should say ‘No, No, No,’ to private transport - Brake

“The fence prevented tourists from walking into town on the biblical-era route likely used by Jesus and Mary. Instead, they were forced to enter through an Israeli checkpoint. Shops, restaurants and businesses that once thrived remained shuttered, split off from the rest of the town by the barrier.”

- 30,000 pilgrims flock back to Bethlehem for Christmas, Ha’aretz, 25.12.05

Coverage of some of this year’s celebrations of the birth of Christ:

BBC Radio’s coverage of the Advent was, as usual, excellent, and I followed most of the religious broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and 4 from the first Sunday in Advent, which was November 27. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge was broadcast worldwide on Christmas Eve as usual and is still available online for a week. It’s worth checking in on the King’s College website’s section on the Nine Lessons, which includes the full Order of Service for the occasion.

Bethlehem celebrated the Nativity as usual, and Yahoo! News has a picture gallery of the occasion. The excellent Electronic Intifada is yet to post any local accounts of Christmas Day, but this interview with a resident of Bethlehem indicates the hardship that local Palestinians have to endure.

Bethlehem Bloggers shows some photos of the terrible wall that has been erected through their town.

Ha’aretz has a report on Christmas in Bethlehem. On the flipside of Israeli media coverage, however, is this report from Arutz Sheva, the Israel Broadcasting Network.

The Vatican’s coverage of the Advent can be found here. Vatican Radio has transcripts in English of Pope Benedict’s Midnight Mass and his Christmas message, which he delivered for the first time as Pope.

Last Friday’s Christian Science Monitor previews an unusual partnership between Christianity and Islam planned in Jakarta for this Christmas period.

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like eskimos”

- from The Christmas Song, Mel Torme and Bob Wells, 1944

There are three things about Christmas that irritate me:

One, of course, is the obscene commercial exploitation as we indulge in the December 25 orgy of Xboxes, bad ties, and “The 30 Greatest Beer-Drinking Songs on CD, Volume 9″.

The second is the replacement of “Merry Christmas” by “Happy Holidays” which, thankfully, hasn’t taken root in Australia. While I respect the views of those who don’t believe in Christ (and I’ve been one in my time), the fact remains that if Christmas did not exist, we wouldn’t be enjoying a holiday period now. “Happy Holidays” sounds too much like what it really is - a cheesy, alliterative, catchy advertising-agency slogan.

(And no offence intended to those who have personally sent me “Happy Holidays” emails - it’s just not part of Australian culture yet, and hopefully not ever.)

And the third is the sheer inapproriateness of winter themes and winter music in a country which celebrates Christmas in the middle of summer. I don’t mind portrayals of the prevailing climate in Bethlehem at the time of the nativity, but Jesus wasn’t born in rural Vermont, and I don’t need to listen to “Let It Snow Let It Snow Let It Snow” while waiting at the checkout at Woolies. (And I don’t need to listen to Anne Murray or Celine Dion anytime.)

And with all due respect to Bing, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” has sinister connotations in Australia at the moment.

Nat King Cole’s recording of the Torme/Wells song is a classic, but it belongs, for me, in the “Celebrating Christmas Around The World” niche.

Happy holidays indeed. It shouldn’t be offensive to anyone to wish a Merry Christmas on December 25, regardless of religious belief (or lack thereof). Instead of denying the spiritual significance of Christmas Day in nations of predominantly Christian heritage, we should be embracing the religious celebrations of other faiths when they arise.

Christmas Day is a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, traditionally believed to have been born on December 25 in Bethlehem. Regardless of whether you accept the events as fact or meaningful allegory, Christmas is a celebration of the values espoused by Jesus as an adult prior to his crucifixion. Christian values being, of course, embraced to differing degrees by many faiths.

As December 25, 2004 enters its last hour here I do hope all of us have had a great day. Dianne, Adara and I certainly have. But against this backdrop we must not lose sight of the hardships facing millions upon millions of people around the world. Sadly, many of these cases do not even rate a mention in our media, or to our political leaders.

Disease, especially HIV/AIDS, run rampant around the world. The wealthiest nations give little more than lip service to the elimination of poverty in the poorest countries. The Geneva Conventions relating to wars are flagrantly disregarded by the United States in their prison camps in Iraq and Cuba, while outlaws in Iraq use online video as a medium to convey the most barbaric of acts towards innocent men and women in the name of bankrupt ideologies. Islam is a valid and respectable religion - the interpretation espoused by these fanatics is not.

The humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur continues, while the world’s worst conflict since 1945 - that in the Congo - appears to be flaring again. Jesus’ birthplace, Palestine, is a land of people dispossessed for more than half a century and kept in perpetual indignity by an Israel that wields the bulldozer as a weapon of mass destruction.

In Australia, our national moral fibre is at threat of unravelling by a government that conveys, by its behaviour, that it’s OK to be selfish, OK to lie, OK to be inhumane to those worse off than us, OK to be a nation of arrogant xenophobes. Does John Winston Howard even know there’s a war going on in the DR Congo? Well, they don’t have a cricket team, so how could he?

As our government’s relationship with its indigenous brethren degenerates towards a Hansonite policy of “mutual obligation” - we’ll give you a petrol bowser if your children wash their faces twice a day - its inhumanity towards refugees becomes ever more repugnant. The case of the Bakhtiyari family, Afghan asylum-seekers about to be deported to Pakistan because our government claims that is their true nationality, is truly appalling and an embarrassment to those of us who have faith in the generosity of Australians.

Make no mistake, John Howard is the most un-Christian prime minister of Australia in my lifetime, and that includes the self-styled agnostic, Bob Hawke.

I’m sorry about making a Christmas message sound so bitter and negative. I have faith that good sense and humanity will prevail, but there may yet be a lot of damage along the way before this happens. A huge responsibility rests on the shoulders of those political and corporate masters who have the power, and often misuse it.

I’ll put together some coverage of Christmas 2004 in the next day or so. Merry Christmas to you all.

Some useful links for an audiovisual celebration of the Advent and Christmas online:

BBC Online - surely the best English language information resource on the net - has areas in its Religion and Ethics section related to Advent and, in particular, Christmas. There are clips, both audio and video, of carols online.

From WBUR in Boston: “For its 50th anniversary, the early music group Boston Camerata teamed up with several Arabic musicians to recreate Christian music from the Middle Ages. They’ve used medieval texts and illustrations, and arranged music played by Christians, Muslims and Jews, exploring musical traditions that merged religions and cultures.” (Real Audio)

See also the ABC’s Religion and Ethics website, but they don’t seem to have anything particularly special for Christmas.

While the world sings “peace on earth”, Palestinians living in Bethlehem are not allowed to go to work, school, or hospitals. They might be able to see light stars in the sky above the town, however, there is a great chance that they might see Israeli Apache helicopters instead.

The full article, Arjan El Fassed and Annet Meeuws, is a sobering look at the misery that pervades the land of Jesus Christ’s birth today. Originally written in 2001, it has been updated to 2004 to include, among other things, The Wall.

The 2004 edition appears at the Electronic Intifada. Please note also Arjan’s weblog.

Leave that shahtoosh alone. And no we’re not buying a tiger cub for the kids. The World Wildlife Fund has released its list of Ten Things Not To Buy For Christmas. (Why they’ve left their Christmas anti-shopping till December 21 is beyond me.)

Full text of the WWF press release follows:

Ten things not to buy for Christmas

Gland, Switzerland – Looking for that elusive gift or sumptuous dining experience as the festive season approaches in many countries?

WWF says that by avoiding certain items and carefully sourcing your presents, you can avoid having a detrimental impact on the planet’s natural resources and a guilt free holiday season.

“It’s about being aware what you buy, and the impact it can have on species and the environment,” says Dr Susan Lieberman, Director of WWF’s Global Species Programme.

“Some people have no idea what is legal or illegal. Our advice is based on threats to wildlife and the environment from unsustainable trade and consumer demand.”

Beluga Caviar – If buying, buy carefully. While nothing is more evocative of luxury than black caviar, be aware that the sturgeon of the Caspian Sea could face extinction due to unsustainable and illegal plunder for their roe. Purchase caviar only from shops, only in sealed jars and, most importantly of all, make sure the jar or tin is sealed with a CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) label.

Tigers/Tiger products – Don’t buy. Owning a tiger as a pet, as well as tiger skin rugs and coats is gaining kudos in some elite circles. There are around 5,000 tigers left in the wild and populations are under immense pressure from habitat loss and poaching. All international trade of tiger products, whether used in traditional Asian medicine, as souvenirs or for “good luck” charms, is illegal.

Ivory products – Don’t buy ivory trinkets. The illegal trade in elephant ivory is a continuing problem world-wide. If an elephant is poached for its ivory, chances are great that the ivory will end up in a market in Africa or Asia. From there, trade moves through illegal channels into other markets in North America and Europe. The continuing existence of illicit ivory markets, particularly in Africa and Asia, remains one of the greatest threats to elephants today, particularly in West and Central Africa.

Turtle shell products – Don’t buy. Six of the seven species of marine turtles are endangered or critically endangered, and the outlook is increasingly grim. In the Pacific, leatherbacks are heading for extinction, fast, and in the Mediterranean, green turtle numbers have plummeted. All international trade in marine turtle products is banned, so avoid those hair clips, bracelets and souvenirs you may see on your travels.

Shahtoosh – Don’t buy. Shahtoosh is a high fashion scarf woven from the hair of the Tibetan antelope. To obtain the wool, the antelope has to be killed. Though some traders may tell you the wool can be collected from bushes which the animal has brushed against, that’s false. Due to poaching, the population of this species is dwindling and the species is on the endangered list. Buy a wool pashmina shawl instead.

Coral products – Buy very carefully. Slow growing and long living corals are collected for jewellery and ornamental purposes, but intensive collection threatens the reef . For example, red coral, a popular coral found only in the Mediterranean, and used for jewellery, has become locally extinct due to over-harvesting. If you plan to bring it home from overseas, make sure you find out if you need a CITES permit. If buying at home, ask the retailer if the coral was imported with the necessary CITES permit.

Crocodile skin and snake skin products – Buy carefully. If you like those fancy cowboy boots or little evening bag, be aware that some native wild populations of crocodiles and snakes are in dire straits and critically endangered. While it’s likely your belt, bag or shoes comes from captive bred populations, not wild ones, check that your product has a CITES permit before you part with your cash.

Cod – Buy carefully. Cod stocks have plummeted and are on the verge of collapse in the North Sea, Irish Sea and waters west of Scotland. There is also a huge problem with illegally caught cod. Only the stocks around Iceland and the Barents Sea are healthy and relatively well managed. Enquire at your local supermarket or retailer about the source and legality of cod for sale.

Cactus – Buy carefully. The prickly plant trade may be popular, but watch out. There is a flourishing illegal trade which is wiping out native populations, particularly from Mexico. Some species are totally banned from international trade and some require an import permit. Whilst the great majority of cacti for sale have been artificially grown in nurseries and are legal, cacti that are imported into a country do require a permit. So, if in doubt, check the paperwork!

Electrical items – Buy smart. If buying large electrical goods like stereos and televisions buy ones that can be turned off and do not just sit on standby. Often they use as much as 40 percent of their electricity in standby mode. See what else you can do to save energy and tackle climate change, one of the most pervasive threats to species and life on earth by visiting http://www.panda.org/powerswitch

For further information:
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer
WWF International
Tel: +41 22 364 9554
E-Mail: ovanbogaert@wwfint.org

Joanna Benn, Communications Manager
WWF Global Species Programme
Tel: + 41 79 236 12 09
E-Mail: jbenn@wwfint.org

NOTE: CITES stands for the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.