Happy seasonal spending

A banner hanging in Modern College of Northwest University reads "Strive to be outstanding sons and daughters of China, oppose obsession to Western holidays" in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. [Photo from web]

Christmas is huge these days.

So huge that it has made some people nervous.

On Christmas Eve, a college in a northwestern university organized a compulsory film-watching session to prevent students from leaving campus and celebrating the foreign festival.

In Wenzhou, a prosperous manufacturing hub in East China's Zhejiang province, education authorities told local schools that no Christmas-related celebrations should be held on campus.

On the Web, some young women dressed in traditional Chinese costumes protested the popularity of the Western holiday.

The northwestern college wanted to "safeguard traditional culture".The Wenzhou authorities didn't really explain why though guesses cite security. The posters in the hands of the young ladies echoed cultural worries.

This we have seen and heard all these years.

Yet nothing prevented Beijing from becoming "an outdoor parking lot" at rush hour on Wednesday; or bothered the young men and women who had fun in the name of Christmas.

But there is no need to be alarmed. Because, huge as it may be, Christmas is nothing to worry about.

Not only because Christianity has never been a religious mainstream here. But, except for the carols and mid night mass at Christian churches, the Christmas craze here has little to do with religion or spirituality.