This year's Christmas is special. For me, this is the first Christmas as Mayor of Sitges, the first Christmas in which I’m performing a prime responsibility in the management of the municipality. A task that fills me with pride, but at the same time I feel an enhanced sense of responsibility.
The situation of extreme economic hardship suffered by many people today makes this Christmas a new opportunity to rethink the values of our society. Often overly influenced by uncurbed and alienating consumerism, Christmas has lost somewhat its real meaning in our society: the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a celebration of love, faith, joy and a great opportunity to meet with your family and the people you love and you share your life with.
Last week, during a meeting with one hundred unemployed in Sitges, I had the opportunity to share with people who are suffering as no one among us the hardest and critical aspects of the crisis. People who struggle to find a job, people that must make their way to overcome the obstacles that are the unfortunate characters of personal tragedies. Those are the people to whom I want to address in a more significant way during the celebration of Christmas: I wish that these days of spiritual joy and family meetings are also days of hope and light.
I will take advantage of these lines to invite everybody in Sitges to participate in the traditional Christmas events that we hold in our town. The exhibition of nativity scenes and dioramas, the representation of "Pastorets" (Nativity play), concerts or Christmas Park, among others, are a demonstration that among us Christmas is alive, a tradition that endures and strengthens its meaning.
I wish you Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, I wish you good health and a better 2012.
