Kun Pasko baja kinahanglan gajod bibo? When one goes deeper and understands Christmas, it is really a religious event, not just a “social” one. Although it encourages interaction with others through the displacement of love, respect and goodwill, the event stems back to being of the spiritual context. Yet, materialism, commercialism and other stuff occur this time of the year.
When people seem to lack the resources like money, significant companions, new clothes and even social gatherings, the event seems threadbare. This is probably the reason why there is such a thing as “holiday blues”.
Feelings of sadness that last throughout the holiday season—especially during the months of November and December—are often referred to as the holiday blues. The holidays are usually viewed as a time of happiness and rejoicing. But for some people, it can be a period of painful reflection, sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression (Cherry, 2020).
According to webmed.com, sadness is a truly personal feeling. What makes one person feel sad may not affect another person. Typical sources of holiday sadness include: Stress, Fatigue, Unrealistic expectations, Over-commercialization, Financial stress, the inability to be with one's family and friends.
But looking into the main culprit of the development of holiday blues, we can glean that it is the inability to understand the event and attach it with something which muddles with people’s emotions. This is probably brought about by traditions, media hype, commercialization and the recently theorized FOMO (fear of missing out) caused by the social media posts.
Ghio Ong of the Philippine Star reports: A man surrendered to police in Taguig City after killing his two children on Christmas day 2020, a day after his wife’s death. Aiko Siacunco, 28, admitted to strangling his three-year-old daughter and one-year-old son in their room at his father’s house in Barangay North Signal, according to a report sent to city police chief Col. Celso Rodriguez. Rodriguez said Siacunco turned himself in after surviving an attempt to hang himself. Following his surrender, police officers rushed to Siacunco’s room at around 7:30 a.m. and found it in disarray. The floor was covered with unidentified stains and the children’s bodies were lying on a mattress on the floor.
In radio interviews, Rodriguez said Siacunco’s wife, Karina, 28, hung herself on Thursday, a claim that her family denied. Siacunco and his wife, who worked as a call center agent, had been arguing over his failure to find a job since the government imposed a lockdown in March, police said.
This might be a sad outcome of the so-called holiday blues phenomenon. If uncontrolled, emotions can cause the neurons in the brain to go haywire. If not for the pressure the suspect felt for the “happiness and joy” they have to feel during Christmas, he could have stayed sane and accepted the fact that the event will only pass.
Emotions become associated with objects, things, places, time periods, and any other element in your life. Once we have formed an emotional association between an object/scenario/thing, etc. and a psychophysiological state, just by simply sensing (i.e. seeing, hearing, tasting, etc.) it again, the same emotion is often evoked. This is one reason to the “attachments” on the Christmas season. We attach it with food, new clothes, gatherings and other material stuff. And without them, we feel depressed.
It was mentioned a while ago that the event is a religious one. So, the attachments people must have with it should be spiritual activities like going to church and reflecting. It is a Christian event so the activities must be in line with what Christ was presenting like humility and simple living. We have to remember that he was born in a barn, not a hospital. Ergo, not lavish but down-to-earth…
Religious people are happier than those without spirituality in their life, says psychologist Dr Stephen Joseph from the University of Warwick, and those who celebrate the original, Christian, meaning of Christmas are, on the whole, happier than those who primarily celebrate the festive season with consumer gifts.
Research entitled "Religiosity and its association with happiness, purpose in life, and self-actualization" published in Mental Health, Religion & Culture reveals a positive relation between religiosity and happiness. The study also suggests that the reason for this is that religious people are happier because they have more of a sense of purpose in their lives than non-religious people.
Dr Stephen Joseph, from the University of Warwick, said: "Religious people seem to have a greater purpose in life, which is why they are happier. Looking at the research evidence, it seems that those who celebrate the Christian meaning of Christmas are on the whole likely to be happier. Research shows that too much materialism in our lives can be terrible for happiness."
With these facts, it is high time for us to detach materialism from this event since it is basically a spiritual journey. We need to be in step with reality rather than getting stressed with something that we do not have.
As entertaining as it can be to escape daydreams from time to time, there are certain lifestyles, attitudes, and behaviors our society presents as being cool and desirable which are actually far more harmful than they are aspirational (Aggeler, 2017).
Ultimately, we can all be into whatever we choose to be into. But when you're deciding how to build your life and what to fill it with, make sure you're making a decision based on facts, and not some romanticized version of reality.
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