The end of the holidays

For millions of Italians, apostolic, Catholic and Roman people (see the dominant accent on TV), Christmas marks a widespread shift in living and feeling memories, emotions and feelings. Everyone better and more well-disposed is the watchword that circulates more frequently and everyone, truly everyone, at least in words and intentions, seems to adapt and embody this mantra that resonates in the festively cloaked global village. The "gift" in all its forms is the objectification of this feeling, a practical as well as commercial translation of a "motus" that from the depths seems to ignite souls and move every conscience with impulses that dwell in hidden ravines during the year.

Our ego cultivated with passion and extreme consideration lives its worst period, asleep in a corner waiting to re-emerge with the new year more aggressive and overbearing than before. But is it really a new world that we live in these weeks? A collective examination of conscience? A bath of redemption in which the convention, the calendar or one's beliefs oblige us to immerse ourselves to remind us, at least once, that we are not alone in this world? I am profoundly optimistic and I think that every year something truly magical happens and that all humanity, at least for a few moments, raises its thoughts beyond the threshold of everyday feeling, of the known horizon, of the pure and simple self-interest to embrace and savor a larger and impalpable dimension, one that we can never focus on in the continuous acceleration of our existence.

"Tout court" television leaves in time and anticipates everyone with a programming that from the beginning of November begins to converge in a single direction, that of Christmas in all its many interpretations and in all its forms, the commercial one in the lead. But if advertising is taken for granted, it is the films with a Christmas atmosphere that build the real backbone of a massive attack on the stronghold of indifference and widespread selfishness. On each network, the theme is infinitely declined in a series of proposals united by a single denominator and with the same imperative: there is no escaping Christmas. Finally, after a long run-up, everything happens and is soon forgotten, overtaken by the wait for the New Year's Eve party. Once the barrels are over, the propitiatory dances, the widespread dinners, the cribs unpacked and the lights off, even the television forgets the good intentions and turns the spotlight back on the real world ... Welcome back home and happy new year!


Michelangelo Dotta
NP January 2023