John Robertson: Matariki the spiritual spearhead of a broader ideological movement

Now, cue the inevitable deflection: “But what about Christmas and Easter?”

It’s the go-to rebuttal. As if raising questions about one tax-funded spiritual holiday demands you condemn all the others. But let’s get something straight — this isn’t about whether a holiday has religious roots. It’s about how that holiday functions today.

Mary Hobbs: Christmas and the great kiwi summer holiday

To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer. — Mahatma Gandhi

The Christmas and summer holiday break in New Zealand is loved by most.

It is an intrinsic part of the Kiwi culture. It’s a time to take it easy, rejuvenate, catch up with family and friends, get outside, enjoy the summer, and tune out the world’s woes. A calm spreads throughout the country. It gives most of us at least some time to enjoy summer.

John MacNabb: China Cancels Christmas in Hong Kong – Leaving Churches Fearing for Their Future

I thought it was just me, but it transpires there are fewer Christmas decorations in Hong Kong this year than in previous years. A colleague confirmed, under orders from China, Hong Kong had been instructed to tone down the outward manifestations of the Christmas festivities this year.

Clive Bibby: A timeless message for a world in dire need of reconciliation

Unfortunately for true believers, the original Christmas message appears to be lost in this country and around the world as it increasingly fails to resonate in the modern secular society.

While there is more hope for an end to the killing and displacement of millions because of the pursuit of naked self interest by those in control, we as a species still have a long way to go before that hope turns into a lasting peace.

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Half a century on from ‘The Lotus Eaters’

Lotus-eater: someone who has a very comfortable, lazy life and does not worry about anything - Cambridge Online

Xmas is approaching, and the perennial question of what to get for whom is becoming more pressing by the day – a fairly simple one to answer for the youngsters, often not so for the oldies on one’s prezzy list.

DVDs of quality television series make good Chrissy prezzies. By ‘quality’ I tend to mean old (mostly 35-50+ years) British ones – just the thing for rellies drawing the old-age pension. Now let me see, we want something not too lengthy and commensurately expensive… I’ve got it – give serious consideration to buying them ‘The Lotus Eaters’, a 14-episode series from the early 1970s set in Crete.

Karl du Fresne: All this cultural appropriation must stop

A couple of weeks ago, I took part in a flagrant act of cultural appropriation. So did several thousand other people.

We watched a Christmas parade. Santa Claus was in it, complete with mock reindeer. Most of the floats were decorated with Christmas symbols: fake snow, tinsel, stuff like that. A brass band played traditional English carols. 

Barend Vlaardingerbroek: Saving Black Pete from the New Puritans

It shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows anything about names to learn that I’m Dutch. My parents took advantage in 1961 of the assisted passage scheme that brought 10,000 of us to NZ between the years 1947-62.

One thing I had to get my little head around was that Saint Nicholas didn’t do his annual stuff in the Antipodes on the 5^th of December as he did back at home, but almost three weeks later. 

Well, he’s a busy guy, I surmised, so I guess he starts in Europe and works his way down, and that takes time. But he didn’t quite look the same in NZ either – perhaps his wife was washing his Northern Hemisphere clothes when he went south.