Christmas, a lasting tradition

"Should we get rid of Christmas?” asks the Swiss professor François Berger, who dreads such a prospect. "We cannot overlook the fact that the last days of December ignite feelings of anxiety and a tendency towards depression. Some psychologists note that adolescents are particularly sensitive to the absence of ritual - of Christmas in this case - that they compensate for with circumstantial rituals such as 'special cannabis' events or 'special ecstasy' ones. It suffices to efface any given ritual to see it surface in another form, more dangerous as it is essential. The day we rid our society - and thus our schools - of Christmas, for a thousand 'good' reasons, we will unfortunately have condemned a human, relational and identity-forging factor of our lives, as well as our culture and traditions."

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