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Q: has anybody tried to explan what Christmas is to their students?
I tried to explan it to my wife once but she didn't realy get it
so If your asked by a student how do you go about it.?
Stick a bible in their hand ?
I know alot of younger people in the west these days dont even know that much.
but how do you give them a quick simple answer ?
12 years 17 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Just today, in a private class, I explained, step by step, exactly what my family would do for Christmas. The deeper meaning illuded her but she got the sense that it was a religious family holiday. I also went through Chanukah and Ramadan, and talked about why many of us say, "Happy Holidays" out of respect for non-Christians. She's one of the few with half a brain, so she might actually get how offensive the Chinese are this time of year.
DaBen:
I'm just wondering.... is this the normal flip out for this time of year or did something actually important happen to you recently? I'm asking because if it's that you freak out when religion is shoved in your face, hell, I have to warn you that I might troll the hell out of you during Easter ;)
We had already covered the concept of Jesus birth when explaining the timeline, including BC and AD, so the explanation of Christ and Christmas (Christ Mass) was relatively easy. The students all seemed to understand that the Christian religion had been a basis to many of the things we now take for granted, including the current calendar. My students also understand that effective communication only occurs when you understand both language and culture.
Harder to explain is why a lunatic fringe want to get rid of the word "Christmas", and subsitute a different Christian word, "holiday" (from old English Holy Day). To deny an inherent part of the foundation of western culture, Christianity, and to change common usage of the language, surely has a negative impact on the ability for effective communication to take place.
kchur:
The calendar we use was first developed about seven hundred years before Christ was born and - ignoring leap years and a few other papal idiosyncrasies which caused about a one week difference after about 1500 years - largely reached its present state under the orders of Julius Caesar, who was considered a living God. And, by the by, talking about Christianity to your students here is technically illegal, which shows you how seriously they take Christmas as a religious holiday here.
kchur:
Oh, yes, the AD/BC thing was popularized by Bede, mainly through the influence of later Northumbrian monks who spread over Europe, a good 600-700 years after Jesus died.
kchur:
I teach my students that the names of the days of the week and most months come from pagan Gods. As did Easter. Me, I don't want to get rid of the word Christmas, but I like "the Holiday season" as several other major religious holidays take place around the same time, as I mentioned in the post you thumbed down and wrote a passive-aggressive rebuttal to. Happy Saturnalia!
Traveler:
Thank you for your multiple comments, which I will hopefully be able to understand more fully sometime in the future. I was actually talking about the timeline, and AD and BC. I doubt very much that these were developed seven hundred years before Christ was born.
Almost all English speaking Chinese seem happy with Merry Christmas, so I stick with that, rather than confusing them with a passing fad that is not accepted by most people. It is confusing when the universally accepted name of a Christian celebration is replaced with a different and generic Christian term that has no direct relevance to the celebration.
Just to show you that I hadn't previously given you a thumbs down, I have now. So now you have two. No need to apologise for your previous error.
kchur:
I hope you do teach your students all about your Christianity and etymologically-driven prescriptive grammar and your apparent inability to read because I'd love to see the Chinese government put a bullet right between your eyes, you fundamentalist crackpot. Happy Saturnalia!
adminanswer:
Kchur, your last comment about Traveler's post is rather abusive in nature. We have to put a temporary ban on you. This site should be free of personal attack and threat of any kind. Admin
Shining_brow:
I don't see why "Happy Holidays" (if it is a holiday... or Holy Day) would stifle communications in any significant way... At the very least, it is more culturally sensitive and accurate. The reason that it became more common is for a large number of people around the world, 'Christmas' doesn't exist.. it has no meaning, other than that garnered from TV and movies. And, given that a large number of foreign students who come to China do not follow Christianity - or other American ideas - why not give your Chinese students all the available information you have? I am one of that 'lunatic fringe' that you chose to just throw away as irrelevant... me, as well as my religion! BTW - in reference to the dating system you educated them on - do you also mention that BC and AD are falling OUT of mainstream usage, and is being replaced by CE and BCE... Common Era and Before Common Era - especially in academic circles? Oh, and when you mention this 'birth of Christ' story and the significance of 'Christmas', do you also mention a) this is a religious myth (ie, the Virgin Birth) and thus only has meaning for those who follow that religion, and b) that Jesus' birth did not actually happen in Winter? Or c) that the timing was taken to woo the pagans away from their parties, and to come over to Christianity? I prefer to teach comparative religion alongside history... it gives a less biased viewpoint that the students are more able to relate to!
Traveler:
Shining_brow: Of course: the terms "Common Era" "Current Era" and "Christian Era", all of which they will possibly encounter while studying in the West. I also explained why the Time "Number Line" has no Year Zero. That is where it became necessary to discuss the birth of Jesus, and the impact of Christianity on many aspects of Western Culture, such as the numbering of years. We also looked briefly at how other cultures have different calendars. All part of the Education Bureau approved school curriculum we have designed.
I don't go into the details of my personal beliefs, or the theories of others about the reality or otherwise of the event. Simply that it is an important aspect in the evolution of western culture, and one of the major common beliefs that binds togther what is commonly referred to as "Western Culture."
Well the word christmas has the word "christ" in it. You can start out by pointing that out to your students. The word "mas" in spanish means more so you can explain it to them that they should be "more like christ". Giving gifts, being good and just being more like Christ. You'd have to teach all that stuff of course. 
Some virgin had a kid now a old man in a red hat breaks into your house and leaves you stuff.
I teach the story, emphasising that it is a religious thing... so if you're not of that religion, then it shouldn't have any meaning to you. The fact that it's become completely commercialised also comes into it. I also tell them not to greet every foreigner with a Merry Christmas, because it's not a 'foreigner' festival... it's a selective one! What'd be the point of saying Merry Christmas to a Pakistani Hindi or Muslim??
We have New Years Day as a good time to celebrate, because most of us use the western calendar, and the date is pretty much devoid of religious significance.
I also mention the Winter Solstice, as it's a global phenomenon (well, the Solstice part of it is... obviously, Summer or Spring is related to which hemisphere you're in!)
GuilinRaf:
Actually, I think if you tell the religious history in an objective way ("people believe," or "by tradition many believe") you should be okay. Now , if after you finish your lecture if you were to say something like "And this is the truth, if you don't believe it you will burn in Hell forever" THEN you would be in trouble.
Shining_brow:
Thanks GR... but given I'm a pagan, that last bit's not too likely :p Interestingly, I don't actually 'teach' anything of my religion... other than to say that I celebrate the Solstices and Equinoxes... and leave it at that!
GuilinRaf:
I also like to include the other celebrations like Hanukkah , Kwanzaa. I never thought of including the Solstice and Equinox until now. Thanks!
I had quite a few Chinese wishing me a merry Christmas and asking about a traditional English Christmas at English corner last Sunday, appropriate as it was Christmas day. I found that most of them had quite a good idea of what Christmas was and they were eager to find out more about it. I explained about the religous festival and also how most people now celebrate it as time when families can come together. Most of them already understood some of the religous side as well as Santa Claus and a few of them were going to church later that day as well.
philbravery:
Thank you for a simple and helpfull answer Merry Christmas
