Every December, like clockwork, the same song resurfaces: Feed the World / Do They Know It’s Christmas? And every December, I find myself cringing.
The irony is staggering. Ethiopia—one of the oldest Christian nations in the world—has the ancient Ethiopian Orthodox Church, with roots stretching back to the 4th century. Yes, they do know it’s Christmas. In fact, they celebrate it on January 7th, following the Julian calendar. So the question isn’t “Do they know?” but rather “Do we know?” Do we know that Christianity is not a Western invention, that its rhythms and feasts are older and broader than our own?
And yet, we persist in blasting this song from the first of December, as though Christmas were a month‑long shopping season rather than a holy feast. Advent—the season we’re actually in—is meant to be a time of waiting, of preparation, of quiet hope. Instead, we drown it out with a chorus that manages to be both patronising and tone‑deaf.
Maybe it’s time to retire this anthem of misplaced pity. Or at least to ask ourselves: what story are we telling when we sing it? Is it one of solidarity, or of superiority? Is it about feeding the world, or feeding our own nostalgia?
Christmas doesn’t begin on December 1st. And it certainly doesn’t need a soundtrack that questions the faith of one of the world’s oldest Christian communities.