EDITORIAL | The Christmas Eve moment

Happy Christmas Eve. Perhaps more than ever, 2020 is the moment for this day to shine.

Well, that’s not exactly the best verb, is it? Christmas Eve doesn’t ever “shine.” Christmas Eve is not, technically, a holiday. In fact, it is the ultimate non-holiday, the day that’s specifically designated as the one where you wait for the next day to come.

Christmas Eve is about anticipation. It’s not the moment for celebration. It’s the moment before the celebration; celebrating on Christmas Eve itself is not really the idea.

That’s what makes it a perfect reflection of the moment we’re in. December, 2020, is the moment where the coronavirus pandemic is still raging, where we still have to hunker down, wear masks, and generally avoid human contact. It’s a dark, sober, dangerous time.

But there’s a vaccine that’s safe and effective; health care workers are getting inoculated at this very moment. A second vaccine hit the Manhattan area this week; the county health department is vaccinating emergency workers, too. The government is saying that everybody ought to be able to get the shot by July.

So there’s hope. We know that, come tomorrow, there will be sunshine. There will be life and laughter. Faith will be rewarded.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow everything will be better. Tomorrow the riches of heaven will be ours. People get ready. There’s a train coming. Don’t need no ticket, you just get on board.

Or, well, at least we’ll be able to go to the grocery store without fearing deadly viral contamination.

Today is not yet that day. Today is the day to anticipate, the day to look at those shiny gifts under the tree. Today, we still wear the mask. Today, we keep away from each other. Today, we order the groceries online. We wait. That’s the best thing we can do.

But the beauty of Christmas Eve is that we know what’s coming, what tomorrow could bring, what’s promised to us if we keep the faith.

The beauty is that, on Christmas Eve, there’s hope.