The pressure to save the celebration comes despite the fact that other religious festivals, including Christian ones, have been marked in muted fashion in recent months.
The UK government on Tuesday unveiled plans to temporarily ease coronavirus restrictions for five days from 23 to 27 December, allowing up to three homes to celebrate in “Christmas bubbles”. This means that small groups of family and friends will be able to meet face to face for the first time in the first month of the month.
England is currently under its second national lockdown and a total of more than 15 million Covid-19 cases have been reported in the UK.
“Christmas will be different this year,” said Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “Many of us are eager to spend time with family and friends, regardless of our faith or background, and yet we can’t be wary of the wind. The virus doesn’t know it’s Christmas.”
The previous day, Johnson had warned that while the festive season could be “a season to be joyful … especially with older relatives, there is also a season to be very joyfully cautious.”
Lighter rules for Christmas
The message that the autumn rules can lead to a more comfortable Christmas period has been repeated throughout Europe.
In France, a second national lockdown was imposed in late October, but despite the closure of non-essential businesses across the country, the government has approved the sale of Christmas trees by decree.
The slowdown behind the spread of the virus means France’s lockdown will begin to ease this weekend, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday. If the number of daily cases falls below 5,000,000 and the hospital ICU has only 2,30-3,000, the ban will be lifted on December 15.
“So we will once again be able to travel without authorization, including between the fields, and spend Christmas with our family.”
In a speech earlier this fall, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte urged people to comply with the country’s Covid-19 restrictions in order to enjoy Christmas. But since then Italy has noted a more cautious note.
The government wants to avoid big Christmas parties, said Sandra Zampa, undersecretary of the Italian Ministry of Health, on November 11. Instead, he said the gatherings would be limited to potential parents, children and close relatives such as siblings. “I don’t think we’re moving forward,” Zampa said in a local television interview.
Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar told state broadcaster RTE on Wednesday that the Irish government is ready to relax restrictions for about two weeks around the Christmas period and is considering gathering up to three homes for the holiday.
And in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel called on people to adhere to the limits of social distance in October, in order to keep the country celebrating Christmas.
On October 17, he said, “We must do everything we can to ensure that the virus does not spread uncontrollably. Every day counts now.” What winter will be like, what our Christmas will be like, will be decided in the near future. Days and weeks. ”
German lawmakers are currently considering a draft proposal that would allow as many as 10 people to celebrate Christmas and New Year together, NTV, affiliated with CNN, reported.
Celebrations shifted shifted online
Christmas has a unique and outsized place in the religious calendar lander. But since the epidemic began, Passover, Easter, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Rosh Hashanah and Diwali have been celebrated all over Europe.
All were marked peacefully without government discussion. No one attracted the excitement inspired by the prospect of an epidemic Christmas.
Anjana Singh, 48, runs the Hindu community group Amikal in Berlin. Singh planned an all-day virtual Diwali celebration to replace the more traditional festivals this November.
“Usually we have a lot of viewers, 500 to 1,000, that’s how we celebrate Diwali,” he told CNN. “It was clear in February that Corona was here. So Amikal decided, let’s do it online.”
“Christmas can also be easily celebrated online,” he added. “Through the digital platform we can all be together, yet we can be safe.”
It is also in Britain in the sense that some festivals are given priority over others. Many Muslims in northern England were cautiously detained in July, when the government banned the movement of people in some areas, just hours before Eid al-Adha prayers began.
“I think it is appropriate to have a lockdown during the Eid period,” said Nadir Mohammed, executive director of the London-based think tank Center for Muslim Policy Research.
“I guess it wasn’t so much that people just disagreed with the downdown, it was … the last several hours.” “There was no effective, or timely communication [about the restrictions.]”
Secular and spiritual occasion
Elizabeth Oldfield, director of the Christian think tank Theos, told CNN that the significance of Christmas now transcends religion, making it a national and secular event as well as spiritual.
“Christmas is low [Christian] Theological year compared to Easter, “Oldfield told CNN.
This year, he pointed out, “Christians could not mark Good Friday or celebrate Easter Sunday, which is really important for most Christians.”
He added: “This ‘saving Christmas’ is almost entirely a cultural, civic Christianity. [idea.] This is not about religion at all, it is about national identity, civic identity. “
Oldfield also said that governments know that a large number of people in Europe celebrate Christmas more than other religious days. In the UK alone, a 2018 survey by polling company YouGov found that 9 out of 10 people celebrated Christmas with gifts.
“Sometimes I think there are two festivals at once,” Oldfield said. “There is a festival run by a secular, pagan and consumer that brings its own joy and then a real Christian festival.”
Mohammed said: “Christmas is an occasion that is not seen as a completely Christian thing in the UK. We are spending those days, getting involved in every celebration in one way or another.”
Regardless of the government’s efforts, some European Christmas hallmarks have already been canceled due to Kovid-19.
In Belgium, since the German city is a market in Cologne, all Christmas markets have been canceled. However, the Viennese Christmas Dream Market in Austria, the Starsburg Christmas Market in France and the Basel Christmas Market in Switzerland are all moving forward.
On November 10, Estonia announced that all events in the country, including Christmas parties, would be canceled, although the government added: “Celebrating Christmas with family is allowed.”
Restrictions on return are set
Susan Hopkins, a government medical adviser in Britain, has said that if people get mixed up during the Christmas break, everyone will need to reduce their contacts again in the wake of the holiday.
“Coming to Christmas, we need to be very careful about the number of contacts and reduce transmission before Christmas and get as few cases as possible,” Hopkins said on November 18.
But other experts believe that people should not be at risk of getting together for the holidays.
“We haven’t sacrificed nine months to throw it all away at Christmas,” Professor Gabriel Scaly, a professor of public health at the University of Bristol, tweeted on 19 November.
Epidemiologist Shikt Das agrees with Scaly.
“The epidemic is going to stay here. The government is doing it [best] But these decisions will not help. “We will go into lockdown after Christmas and the R rate will go up,” Das told CNN.
“If you’re a very sick person in your family, maybe it’s better not to meet. Probably. Not a very good idea.”
If Europe chooses to celebrate Christmas with gentleness in lockdowns, there may be a price to pay in the new year.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergency program, said the country is a cautious story for the holiday season.
“The question is, can you do enough to control the onset of the disease, and can you, in a sense, give people a little more freedom … the Christmas period, which produces a sense of confidence and spirit? , Which people need right now – without letting the virus re-emerge in our communities. And this is a very important business, “Raj said in a news briefing on Monday.
Oldfield points out that it is natural for people to want to come together to celebrate.
“Sometimes this savings Christmas [idea] Bonkers feel, because you don’t want more deaths in exchange for your pig-in-blankets, “he told CNN. But at the same time there is a very deep theology [concept] About enriching by human connection. This really is [happening] Because we just want to be together. “
.
