Christmas And Religion

Introduction Many people would agree that Christmas is the most important ceremony in terms of both religion and society in the Western nations. Christmas itself represents the belief of Christianity. However, this idea appears to be changed its original meaning over many years. It seems likely that stores tend to start Christmas sales quite early season: streets are full of Christmas decorations and advertisements. It can be assumed that the change is somewhat related to economic change. With change in economic conditions, people tend to follow materialistic attitudes, and abstract aspect like religious beliefs will be regarded as a less significant factor for their lives. But there will be other reasons in the context of this change.
While many of them know the real meaning of Christmas, they tend not to go to church. Even Christians accepted this attitude. One elderly person, who was a Christian, said that he was going to church on Christmas day, and Christmas had more religious meaning. But, he also mentioned that even if Christmas had not religious meaning, it would be a special time. That is, there is a tendency that Christmas is an annual event rather than religious a ceremony.

On the other hand, the meaning of Christmas has become more important in terms of family relationship. Nearly every interviewee answered that they stayed with family or relatives and did not say that they would go to travel. One young man said he was Christian and Christmas has religious meaning for him; yet, the most important thing was family relationship. Also one young female said she always stayed with her family. I thought that young people were more likely to spend the time with their friends as Japanese young people do in the New
As has been mentioned above, many of the interviewees think that to stay with their family on Christmas is the most significant thing. Although this attitude existed in the past, this tendency seems to be a more influential element, even for young people. The trend is somewhat of a reaction to the social change. It is likely that family size has shrunk in recent years. In addition, people may behave individually with a high standard of living. In short, it can be stated that there is less connection between families in daily life. Therefore Christmas provides the opportunity to reconsider the meaning of family relationships and to make the relationships more