Shoe Taboo
There are several countries around the world known for quaint shoe traditions during the Christmas season. Most of these traditions feature a variation on the stocking concept, placing their shoes in the designated location to be filled with treats. Not so in the Czech Republic. The shoe tradition here takes on a more peculiar role at Christmas time. Single ladies, similar to tossing a bouquet at a wedding, stand near the door of the house and throw their shoe over their shoulders If the shoe lands in a position to be heading out the door, this denotes that she will be leaving the home and getting married in the upcoming year! If the shoe faces any other tradition she is out of luck for love in the upcoming year.
The Czech Republic is not alone in the enactment of silly rituals, though it may very well have the largest collection of them. Nearby European nations have their own bizarre traditions, and even America has a fair share of chuckle worthy practices ranging from the elf on the shelf, giant inflatable snowglobes on lawns, combative Christmas shopping, to placing our babies on an old unemployed man’s lap for a picture.
I don’t know of a time when churches and Christian families didn’t debate which festivities and practices to incorporate into the Christmas celebrations and which ones are taboo. Even here in Czech Republic it is quite common for many Christians to forego Christmas trees as they interpret them as a pagan symbol, alongside nativity scenes which they associate exclusively with Roman Catholic observances. Perhaps the only thing that remains to be agreed upon on this subject is that it will never be agreed upon, and will always be as varied as the people who seek to answer this question. Maybe more important than how we choose NOT to celebrate is how we DO celebrate Christmas.
On a personal note, even with the numerous ways we’ve been blessed to celebrate Christmas across church denominations and cross-culturally, I have yet to experience the crescendo of spirit that my heart longs for. I’ve yet to worship at His birth in a way that I felt celebrated Him in a way that sufficiently honored the occasion or His person. We’ve of course shared amazing moments of beauty and beholding and adoration, but none that I would dare proclaim to be the fulfillment or adequate gesture of the celebration. More often than not, I’m left pondering the insufficiency, perhaps even more so in these most beautiful moments. They drive us near, but never to fullness, and maybe this is the very gift we can bring Him while treading the fallen version of earth; to acknowledge that the best is yet to come, when we will worship Him not only in Spirit, but face to face, in the manifest glory of His presence in eternity. Maybe our sacrifice of praise at Christmas is like the fast that drives us to groans of hunger; to enact the rituals that remind us that He is coming, and we are indeed ready for Immanuel again.
