Month: December 2016

Has Christmas Lost its meaning?

 

Christmas is different for everyone. For some it’s a time to spend with families,for others it’s a time of giving and unfortunately, for many, the focus of Christmas is centred around receiving.

Has Christmas become a marketing ploy for multimillion dollar companies
to lure innocent shoppers into spending hundreds of pounds on presents and Christmas dinner and decorations? We, the naïve public, spend this
money and for what? One day. One day of joy in materialistic good that is over in twenty-four hours. One day people look forward to and one day that others dread for the whole year. It has become a month or two of commercial nonsense being constantly advertised in shops and on the television. With lights decorating every house in sight rising, rising the electricity bill, plastic Santas and decorative reindeers on every street corner. All of this contributing on destroying the planet for one day of the year. One day for fake happiness, family arguments and presents that you pretend to love. No one, except maybe some young oblivious children, is completely happy on Christmas Day. Many adults are penniless by the time Christmas arrives and are scrapping by until their next pay check.

Christmas, from a Christian perspective, is supposed to be a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ and to give and not expect anything back. Although no one knows the exact time he was born; the
25 Th. of December is the date which Christians have selected to celebrate
him coming into the world, or at least they are supposed to.

It is a time that should be about religion and people’s relationship with God. How they view themselves and each other in terms of religion and morals. In children’s minds Santa and what he leaves under the Christmas tree is the most important thing about Christmas. Should children be brought up this way thinking that it is only about receiving? Believing that everything is materialistic and that it is a selfish affair; that Christmas is only one day that everyone should be looking forward to all year. One day out of three hundred and sixty-five that is celebrated for no real reason in the eyes of many.
Although Christmas means different things to each individual person it has become a selfish affair; where few cares about what they give and only
what they receive. It’s is all about shopping for pointless presents, that no one will ever use, and spending large amounts of money on nothing. As bright Christmas lights flash all around us, insistent on being noticed, and presents rise is piles around plastics tress coated with colourful baubles and miles of tinsel I can not help but wonder if Christmas has lost its true meaning. How did we get so far away from our saviour in the manger?

 

By Aisling McAllister

Books come to life with Enterprise sculptures.

In 2011 ten beautiful sculptures made from books mysteriously appeared at libraries and cultural institutions across Edinburgh. The sculptures came with a simple message: ‘a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words… in support of books, libraries, words, ideas’. To this day, no one knows how they arrived and the identity of the sculptor remains a secret.the-tiger-who-came-to-tea

The book sculptures traveled around the country in the Gifted exhibition. This was designed as a tribute to the presence and vitality of libraries and arts institutions in Edinburgh and across Scotland, and to the generosity of the anonymous artist’s gesture. The sculptures were also intended as a gift to the communities which supported such places.the-hobbit

In response to this 1st year Enterprise pupils created their own book sculptures based on a favourite childhood, or current book. Work began by deciding on key characters and events within their book and through initial research and creative thinking pupils began to create paper sculptures suing paper mache. They created a scene or character from the book and used text from their chosen book as the final layer. The book sculptures were displayed in the Enterprise exhibition and Tidelines book exhibition at the Harbour Arts Centre in Irvine.

faraway-tree

 

Thank you to Mrs Bell and her enterprise pupils.

The Book sculptures are currently on display in the library for everyone to see.

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