Editorial:
There is excitement in the air! You can feel it as you drive through the neighborhoods. This year, unlike last, there are more Christmas lights on the houses, there are more shoppers out, and probably most importantly there is a feeling of hope for the New Year.
We all know that it has been a very tough few years where the Christmas joy has been low key as we all have struggled to survive and find ways to make do as we await better days. We are still waiting but there are signs that better days lay ahead and that next year brings a promise of hope and relief from all that we had to struggle through.
It is through the efforts of the community, like our front page story of National City Middle School demonstrates, it is the community coming together and working to help our neighbors that we find happiness. There is a sense of joy and comfort in knowing that the community is there for them.
Even the Occupy movement, though their goals are muddled, it is a community of people coming together and supporting one another in their struggles to survive and send a message. The Occupy movement gives a large segment of the community hope for the future, that there can and will be change.
In Escondido recently we have seen the community come together and fight for political equality in seeking out district elections for equal representation. This is again a community coming together and offering hope for the future.
Christmas is about the future, about salvation, and the Birth of Jesus Christ.
We celebrate Christmas with a Las Posadas, the nine day search for a home, a place for the birth of Jesus. On the ninth day, Christmas Eve, Joseph and Mary are offered a place to stay. Today we celebrate this by breaking a piñata and attending church service
Christmas day we celebrate the birth of Christ with the children, family and the giving of gifts.
The final act is that of the 12 days of travel by the Three Wise Men which concludes on January 6 when the Wise Men present their gifts of Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. This tradition is celebrated with Rosca de Reyes with a baby Jesus hidden in the bread.
It is with this sense of hope for the future that we are Wishing All of Our Readers A Very Merry Christmas.