Giving thanks for my best gift

A few years ago on the U.S. day of thanksgiving, I reluctantly watched a cartoon on the journey of the English émigrés, the pilgrims, who sought religious freedom by settling in North America.

While I love cartoons, I am unfamiliar with newer Peanuts animated television specials and they clash with my nostalgia for older ones. Repeatedly the character Linus reassured friend Charlie Brown by urging him to “have faith.” After the second or third time, I wondered: have faith in what?

It reminded me of a feel-good song from the 1998 cartoon “Prince of Egypt,” which told the story of Moses (Moshe) and the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. After the movie’s climax, pop stars triumphantly sang, “There can be miracles when you believe.” The other lyrics of the song implied it was belief in one’s self, not God, that mattered.

Even in cartoons about religious people, God seems to be the twin of the fictional villain Lord Voldemort of the Harry Potter children’s novel series. It seems God too is “He Who Must Not Be Named.”

Yet Thanksgiving Day was established by the U.S. government as a national holiday to give thanks to You Know Who for the blessings and gifts received in the year.

The Advent season

This year, the Sunday after Thanksgiving Day marks a time with even deeper history.

For western Christians, Nov. 30 will begin the traditional Christian season of “Advent,” which is from the Latin for “coming” (adventus). Eastern Orthodox churches kick off the season Nov. 28 this year. They still follow the Julian calendar ? established by Roman emperor Julius Caesar in 46 B.C. ? instead of the Gregorian calendar of A.D. 1582 that we take for granted today.

Of course, U.S. stores, TV, and radio start celebrating Christmas on Thanksgiving Day.

My family took Advent seriously in my childhood. No Christmas decorations, music, or television specials were allowed before Christmas Eve except for Advent carols, an Advent calendar, an Advent wreath of candles, and a nativity.

The tradition of nativities came about in A.D. 1223 when deacon Francis of Assisi created a tableau of events surrounding the birth of Jesus (Yeshua).

We often set out wooden statues of shepherds and their flock of sheep first, around a stable with only an ox. Then Joseph (Yosef) and Mary (Miriam) would arrive with their donkey. Across the room, figures of wise men (aka magi) would lead camels laden with gifts.

Before our evening meal, we’d pray and then light the number of colored candles for the current week of the season. They sat on our dinner table amid a wreath of fake evergreen. How I loved to be chosen for that task. I loved the liveliness of fire dancing upon the wick. More importantly, the candles counted down to Christmas.

Sometimes we’d attend a “posada,” which is a nine-day Mexican custom reenacting efforts of Jesus and Mary to find a place to stay in the town of Bethlehem. Although of Mexican descent, I didn’t know Spanish. Yet I understood what took place in those homes with the simple theater, music, and tasty refreshments.

Christmas traditions

On Christmas Eve or so, my father would buy an evergreen tree for us to ornament. We could finally play my parents’ collection of classic Christmas recordings with uncommon songs and singers such as Perry Como and Nat King Cole. The exoticness delighted me.

On Christmas Eve night, my family would worship God at Mass and marvel. Back home, a figurine of a baby Jesus would be passed around and rocked in our hands as we sang. After kissing it, we’d place it between the forms of his earthly parents in the stable and sing “Happy Birthday.”

Then we sang posada carols in Spanish, which signaled that a plate of treats would soon be in my greedy grasp.

Next the gifts, if any, would be distributed. Sometimes we followed an older tradition of both Mexico and Germany and receive presents not on Christmas Eve, but on the holy day of Epiphany (aka Little Christmas, the 12th day of Christmas, etc.) on Jan. 6. Epiphany celebrates Jesus being revealed to non-Jews, such as the three magi whose figurines at last arrived at the nativity stable.

I initially believed Santa Claus visited our house to reward good children, but a friend destroyed that illusion early on. Since I was the youngest in my family, the charade didn’t continue, but my mom instead labelled my gifts “From: Baby Jesus.”

In truth, God is the best present I ever received from my parents.