I?love no part of the devil, and will contribute to no disguised agenda of his. And so I will not be one of Satan’s souls assailing Charles Moore and his ilk “while hiding behind the National Flag”.
I will be attacking them from in front of The Broken Trident.
Letter writer Mr Moore is not only hopping mad; he is haplessly muddled.
Like him, “I grew up in Barbados where our Christian values . . . were at the forefront of our culture and decision making”. But, unlike him, I never observed in my boyhood that “the Christmas season commenced in early October and ran to Christmas Day”. I never noticed this on either CBC or Rediffusion (or Starcom, as the latter would come to be known).
Barbadian-broadcast Christmas music was mostly based on church choir recordings and concert hall performances, and where individuals featured, they were your typical North American Christmas carollers like Bing Crosby offering standards like White Christmas and Silver Bells, and Harry Belafonte with Mary’s Boy Child, alongside Beethoven’s Ode To Joy and Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The playing of Christmas music was based too on the calendar of the church, whose new year actually began on Advent Sunday – which this year is on December 2 – falling as a rule four Sundays before Christmas Day.
Mr Moore might recall, if he did grow up when I did, that the season of Advent represented – as I was taught by Reverend Oliver Haynes and Sunday School principals Mr Reginald Harper and Ms St Elmo Taitt – the coming of Jesus to earth when he was born in Bethlehem 2 000 plus years ago.
October never stood for the time of waiting for the arrival of Christ and Christmas, as far as the Christian church was concerned; certainly not St Barnabas.
And God forbid that anyone would be so crazy as to start playing Christmas music publicly in the tenth month of the year. Christmas music has its time and place, and to deny it such is to tamper with the spirit, mood and occasion of the season’s mellifluous melodies.
What?has?become a trend in more recent years is the advertising by commercial houses of their Christmas wares – in glossy newspaper insertions – as early as October and into November.
And those of us offended by the practice have simply and contemptuously thrown them away, the more forgiving, or those inclined to be politically correct, holding them until such time as it was feeling “a lot like Christmas” – in December.
We are not suppressing the spirit of Christmas by displaying some measure of control in that we are able to determine we will not be assaulted by reading material or music that seem out of place and definitely out of season.
October is the time we hope to breathe a sigh of some relief, tempered by the best will, that we will make it safely past the hurricane season, but sometimes have to wonder if indeed it is “all over” when we are reminded of our frailties by the likes of Rafael and Sandy.
November is when we look forward to celebrating Independence – those of us left with any patriotism – and we will not be likened unto the devil for it!
We get into our ultramarine (or deep blue), our gold (or rich yellow) and a sinew of black, showcasing them in our wear and in the wrappings around our cars, houses and commercial buildings – those of us unintimidated by the Charles Moores.
That advertisers feel they must regale us with their radio and TV commercial Christmas messages is no good reason for Mr Moore and his kind to grate the sensibilities of those of us who would separate October and November from December 25.
I couldn’t stand hearing Silent Night and Joy To The World at the National Independence Creative Festival Of Arts (NIFCA) in November. Who really would? Mr Moore is right about one thing: let us all enjoy Independence, and leave Christmas out of it.
Christmas music in our Independence Month just doesn’t cut it.
We ought not to be shaken from the belief that to everything there is a sure season.
• Ridley Greene is a Caribbean multi-award-winning journalist.