Christian contribution to carnival missing
From all accounts Dunedin's mid-winter "carnival" (carnival - "to put away things of the flesh"), celebrated in the Octagon at the feet of a Christian cathedral was imaginative, artistic, and enjoyed by all. And yet the nagging questions remains: what has happened to the Christian contribution to this festival?
Why is the evolutionary Christian leaven, which even a few decades ago was known to bring imperishable new relevance to ancient rituals, nowadays completely ignored?
Do the "carnival"organisers not know that June 24 is also Saint John's Day, the anniversary of the birth of John the Baptist whose powerful words "He must increase and I must decrease" have resounded down through the centuries?
The deeply Christian founders of New Zealand, let alone Dunedin, would be shocked. The first Christians did not merely copy or adopt the old pagan festivals, they christened them, baptised them - brought them to their full meaning and significance.
In the northern hemisphere of course, St John's Day is in mid-summer. Its message then refers to the inner Christ/Sun in the human heart which "must increase" to the measure that the outer sun of nature decreases.
These are profound thoughts which have been increasingly denied to recent generations of the very Western peoples who carried them over the blood and ashes of human error for so many centuries.
Colin Rawle
Dunedin
[Paul Smith, trustee, Dunedin midwinter celebrations, replies: "The Dunedin Midwinter Carnival is run by a non-profit trust which aims to celebrate the seasons in Dunedin by marking the shortest day and longest night. It is a secular event that involves widespread public participation by many volunteers, artists and communities. The imagery and meaning of the event is open to a variety of interpretations. Thank you for your comments."]
