Commonwealth Day Celebrations

What Commonwealth? What Celebrations?

Well, this event seems to have gone mostly unnoticed. However, the Queen celebrated it by attending a Commonwealth Day Observance Ceremony at Westminster Abbey. There were also several members of the Commonwealth nations in attendance: Hugh Masekela, a South Africa musician, performed at this particular gathering of global peoples.

This moveable feast, is celebrated annually on the second Monday in March, and this year the theme was Connecting Cultures. The service in Westminster Abbey was to ‘explore the golden threads that tie together people from every continent, faith and ethnicity.’ This was achieved through a mix of world music, dance and personal testimonies to around 1,000 selected heads of states, official dignitaries, faith leaders and school children.

In the past there were national exhibitions and parties to celebrate this connection within Commonwealth countries, now there is a whisper in the British media to mark its occurrence. I wonder if the origins and links of the Commonwealth have, at last, become an embarrassment to the British monarchy and nation.

The Commonwealth (aka the colonial British Commonwealth) was first set up in 1949 with eight member countries. As of today, 12^th March 2012 - Commonwealth Day, there were 54countries that were members of the Commonwealth. It is now referred to as the modern Commonwealth because it is now an association of free and equal member from independent countries who are linked by shared values, goals and equal votes in all matters.

Queen Elizabeth II, marking 60 years as head of theCommonwealth, said: “This year, our Commonwealth focus seeks to explore how we can share and strengthen the bond of Commonwealth citizenship we already enjoy by using our cultural connections to help bring us even closer together, as family and friends across the globe."

My question is, ‘What does the Commonwealth mean to you?’ To me it does not mean anything sweet or pleasant. The bitterness of colonialism still resonates in daily life – especially in the failure to give a rounded historical account of the colonial times in British schools. This leads to ‘unconscious bias’appearing in the everyday life of people whose only real experience of African, Caribbean or Indian life comes from the Eurocentric education or the occasional story of forced economic migration heard from a grand-parent.

I don’t think that the Commonwealth ever had any respectability, I would further suggest that it has now lost all veneer of respectability. This muted celebration confirms my views.

R.I.P. Commonwealth of Nations. The wealth of nations is anything but common.

Carol - Poetry by George Mackay Brown

In the first darkness, a star bled.

The war of cloud and summit, other wounds.

Hills cupped their hands

And the rain shone over knuckles of rock and dropped to the

            sources.

Precious that well-hoard.

The priests gathered in secret jars

Lustrations for the passionate and the dead.

You were blessed, young tree

With one apple.

Far on you must bear five godwounds, prefigured and red.

The deer runs on, runs on, swiftly runs on

Before bird and arrow,

Then bends, obedient to the arrow, its branching head.

A hunter’s hand has broken the wild grape

To stain and seed.

And the hunter’s hill opened with a green sound,

A stalk of corn,

And the blacksmith took from his forge a powerful blade.

Now this, a cry in our atom-and-planet night –

A child’s wailing.

A child’s cry at the door of the House-of-Bread.

George Mackay Brown (1921 – 1996)

Taken from The Twelve Poems of Christmas, Volume Three, Selected and Introduced by Carol Ann Duffy

Merry Christmas

Surely it’s a bit early for Christmas wishes? You may well agree.

However, this morning we received our first Christmas card for the year. It was hand delivered and at first I didn’t know it was a Christmas card, I mean it’s the middle of November. Christmas cards are not the first thoughts that spring to mind when picking up anonymous post.

When I went to the front door, there on the mat sat a small white envelope. My initial thought was that it was an invitation for M to attend someone’s birthday party. Bending to pick it up I went through a list of possible senders. It was addressed to me so I opened the small envelope and extracted the card. The query formed on my brow, “who could this be from?” Quickly I flipped open the card and then I smiled.

It was from an elderly neighbour. She lives alone since her husband died about three years ago. Although she has relatives locally the people on the street, including my son and I, often pause by her window to wave as we pass by or knock on her door for a brief chat on our way home. It was not dementia that caused her to send an early Christmas card; it was something quite different.

A few weeks ago we bought some chocolates and decided to give boxes to some of the ‘mothers of the community’ – she was one of them. As we couldn’t get hold of her when we went delivering chocolates we left her box with a neighbour. So this morning she sent a card saying “Season’s Greetings – thank you for the chocolates, what a lovely surprise. Have a great Christmas ...” Mrs C’s expression of gratitude, as well as our gift to her, reminds me that every day is a good season to greet someone and extend a touch of love.