the magic of lights

 So exciting!  Why are lights so thrilling?  And here we are in Cape Town and some of the lights celebrate some of what is special to us ... at least the protea does, everything else here is fairly generic.

But here amongst the generic celebratory stuff is a woman and a baby.  This is, after all what centuries of many cultures have chosen to remember in time (mid-winter/mid-summer) when people are looking for something to do.  

But here is another specific.  An ancient pagan god, unsuccessfully combined with a mythical "saint" and (unrecognisably) jollied up by a fun-demanding culture.

So I ask myself, is Christmas really just "the festive season", with nothing real to celebrate, just some fun images of old imaginary stories geared for cold northern winters?

Is there anything to choose between Jesus and Father Christmas?  Do the reindeer and the shepherds with their sheep all belong together in the Adderley Street procession of lights?  Is the protea the only real thing shining into the night?