Rachel Lavin| Magazine Editor
In December of my second year of college, I noticed a weird trend amongst my peers, where, around the incredibly cringe phase where everyone tried outlandishly hard to become a hipster, and with few and far between authentically succeeding, it became really cool to lambast the whole ‘Christmas’ thing. Something along the lines of ‘it’s forced happiness’, ‘a celebration of consumerism’, ‘invented by Hallmark and the Catholic Church’ ‘a commercialised capitalist triumph’, so on and so forth. Here’s the thing though, as much as I was willing to jump on this faux hipster pseudo-intellectual bandwagon at that incredibly cringe time of my wannabe-hip student life, I just wasn’t buying it.
Here’s the thing. I love Christmas! There I said it, even with an exclamation mark no less, how mainstream. I do though. I love fairy lights and Love Actually screenings and the fact that the entire student body turns out to see some badly arranged lights on a tree being turned on. I love tins of Roses and jumpers with reindeers on them and the same old songs becoming the soundtrack to every trip I make to a public place. And cinnamon, cinnamon on everything!
But aside from all these arbitrary holiday markers, and before you close this magazine in absolute disgust at the editor of a student culture magazine ever daring to seem so dreadfully unhip, let me explain why I think it’s the most wonderful time of the year (sorry, not sorry). Christmas, as corny and cheesy, as gluttonness and predictable as it can be, is perhaps the only time of year that the majority of society come together on three core principles, as a celebration to break up the cold winder months, as an excuse for the whole extended family to come together and also the food, let’s not forget the food. And while we may scoff at its conventionality, let’s just take a step back and realise how privileged most of us are in the first place to be able to do this. To take for granted these central characteristics that make conventional Christmas what it is. The cringey celebrations of carol singing and paper hats from Christmas crackers and tv specials to sit around with out family eating the last of the Ferrero roches, these are prescious luxuries many can ill afford. And I’m not referring to what is by far the poshest of Christmas sweets, but the warm home to go to, the family to sit with, the food to share and even the spare money to spend on other people, just as a token of kindness. When people scoff at Christmas, it makes me uneasy. How can anyone take for granted such a privilege, cringey and conventional as it may be?
So with that in mind, this month we decided to cast our gaze on those things around us we take for granted. Firstly, as college students, we realize that in itself is a luxury and the year 23, that firmly awaiting us as we finish college has it’s downsides. We also reserve the right to complain about being 23, for too often are young people’s concerns dismissed as foolish or that we ourselves are taking it for granted. We think no, it is older generations that are perhaps taking for granted how hard it can be for college graduates in Ireland today. We also managed to reach out to missionaries working in West Africa fighting ebola. And while there’s the obvious things we take for granted their, our health and wealth, there’s also the fact that many missionaries are dismissed as meddling where they don’t belong, that anything connected to the catholic church is seen as only causing harm, yet here are these three Irish nuns really making positive change as they near the end of their careers. They’re pretty bad-ass nuns if I do say so myself (and that is not a sentence I ever thought I’d hear myself saying). We also looked at some issues we may be under-estimating closer to home, and that is the very idea of the home itself, as articulated by a very impressive Spanish protest movement PAH who told us how the Irish home may be in danger. Elizabeth Brauders, Fashion editor emeritus looked to a seemingly small but quite significant issue of graduation caps being made available for both men and women, and why we shouldn’t take their equal use for granted. And our culture section has lined up many treats, including enough reviews, previews and interviews to keep you entertained all holiday. Finally, Clementine Yost joined VDP on their Soup Run which makes for a very sobering read.
So to all the supposed grinches out there, we at UTzine extend a glass of mulled wine to you and wish you a very holly jolly Christmas, it’s the best time of the year.
(couldn’t resist)
