Christmas, you said?

This is an article about a bit different Christmas to the one that you are normally used to. It is about Christmas seen through the eyes of an Atheist. I assume that at this point many of you are angry at me and think that it is nothing but arrogance to put Christianity and Atheism together and are in temptation to scroll down or to report this article for being annoying or not interesting. But, before you do that I would like to ask you to give me a chance and I may convince you that this is not mixing apples and oranges.

   Now that I have your attention back I will start from the beginning. I was not always an Atheist. I was born and raised in religious family that followed the principles of the Orthodox Church. And those who are familiar with this branch of Christianity know that Orthodox Christians have rules about everything and tons of legends about what happened to those who did not obey them. The normal reaction of a child that grew up under these circumstances would be to become a loyal Christian following the example of the parents and of the close family members. And normally the story would have ended here and you would not have to read this but I did something that in my family is still considered to be “taboo”. I thought outside the box. It was long time ago but I think that my first “sinful” thought was about Christmas. Isn`t it the best invention of all times? If I had minimum knowledge of science I would have said that there is a so-called “Christmas formula" and that is how Christmas was created at first place. A simple but genius formula to make everybody happy. Believers celebrate the birth of their God, children receive presents from their favorite character - Santa Claus and companies have this “grand finale” at the end of the year after their income has been increased by 80% thanks to their loyal customers and their idea of spending all the money on presents. It sounds pretty genius to me. Fortunately, this holiday has a second face; the more profound one. The one that is more concentrated on giving and receiving love, sharing happiness, forgiveness and hope. And if you ask me this has nothing to do with Christmas. It has to do with something bigger than that - humanity. Sounds familiar? Here`s a hint. It is a word that does not apply for Christians or Muslims or Jews or religion in general. It applies for humans and being a human is a mystery for itself. It does not surprise me why there are so many holidays. They exist to remind us to what specie we belong to and what are the responsibilities that come with it. We usually forget who we are and why are we here. And it is not until Christmas or Easter or Hanukkah that we rediscover the urge to treat others right and use our human powers to make ours and other people`s lives easier. It is good to have reminders, I mean, we need them. Seventy years, more or less, is a long time for a human. The problem is that we spend twenty days of trying to be good people and the others three hundred and forty-five to demolish everything that we were more than lucky to get as ones. Constant behavior for two thousand years and not a single religion could change it. The question here is unavoidable. If the religions don`t have a solution, then who has it? The answer is simple. We just need to change the perspective and take a closer look. Imagine the World as a place where every day is Christmas. Close your eyes and you can see people with cheerful faces greeting each other and wishing good health, love, happiness and wealth. The enchanting melody of carols makes you sing. The whole family is gathered for dinner. The adults sit by the fireplace and drink hot wine while the kids use their absence of attention and eat all the cookies at the table. The less fortunate are not longer to be forgotten. They receive clothes, food and shelter. People forgive and forget. The World is in peace…

    It feels good, right? The good part is that we don`t have to imagine it, we can do it. We are humans. We have absolute power to do whatever we want. We have the power to create the World and recreate it over and over again. If we just for once stop investing in all those absurd wars and start investing in our own happiness… I will finish the article with the words of Elvis Presley and leave you space to think about it.

     “Oh, why can`t everyday be like Christmas,

Why can`t that feeling go on endlessly

For if everyday could be just like Christmas

What a wonderful world this would be.”

Intercultural Evening

Recently the members of the OLE project took part on an event which is always very special for the volunteers: an Intercultural Evening. This event, organized by the volunteers of Life+ project (and also our dear friends) took place in Free Wine Pub and was opened to all the community, to give Romanian people the opportunity to learn more about different cultures.

And what cultures are those, may you be wondering. Since there are volunteers from dozens of different countries, this type of event tries to explore the diversity at its best. This time the beautiful countries presented were Spain, Italy, Portugal and Macedonia and there was time for a lot of different activities to show the best about them.

As soon as the guests arrived they could immediately see and recognize the presence of the four countries through decorations, flags of each country, photographs of the most traditional cities, symbols and traditions. Then, as the night went on, the guests had opportunity to learn about interesting facts of each country through a guessing game, to watch and participate in traditional dances of different countries and even to watch a performance about Italian gestures!

Popular songs from each country were accompanying all these great moments because, as we all know, music is such an important part of every culture! In the end of the performances everyone had the opportunity to taste typical food from Spain, Italy, Portugal and Macedonia and I can honestly say that congratulations are in order, since the food was amazing! Lots of Romanian people tried it and we could see the happiness in their faces while eating tortilla de patatas, rabanadas or apple pancakes!

In conclusion, this was an amazing event that allowed the volunteers and the locals to share their cultures, try different foods and get involved in a new experience of culture exchange. To be repeated very soon, for sure, because one of the most beautiful things of volunteering abroad is opening up to new ideas, cultures and knowledge, at the same time as you share your own!