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poltr1As some of you may already know, some Christian conservative groups have taken offense to the multicultural aspect of this holiday season, and have started efforts to take back Christmas. They're insisting that cashiers at stores wish their patrons "Merry Christmas" and not "Happy Holidays". I am troubled by this.
I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. We always had "holiday concerts" in school, from elementary school to high school. They always included a Hanukkah song or two, to honor the Jewish holiday. Not one parent ever complained that it should be a Christmas concert. We learned to coexist, and even share in each other's holidays.
But this is not acceptable to some people now. The family of one of my best friends was lambasted on Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club" years ago, only for suggesting that their school's Christmas concert be rebranded as a holiday concert. Robertson said that they were "liberals out to undermine the fabric of America". Nothing could be further from the truth. I've known the Singhs for years. They are Sikhs, and therefore don't celebrate Christmas. But they wanted to be included in the holiday program. Is that so wrong?
We live in a multicultural world. Some people celebrate Christmas. Some people celebrate Hanukkah. Some people (including myself) celebrate the Solstice. Some people celebrate Kwanzaa. And some people don't celebrate anything at all this period. So, out of respect, some people (including myself) have taken to wish people "Happy Holidays".
Now, if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, I won't take offense. I won't look them in the eye and proclaim, "How dare you presume I'm Christian!" Instead, I might just say "Thank you", or "Thank you, but I don't celebrate that holiday." But I don't think people should be foreced to stick with one greeting. Nobody has a monopoly on the season.
In fact, many of the European Christian traditions we've come to know and love have their roots in pagan celebrations. We celebrate Christmas on December 25th only because some Pope in the 4th century decreed that the birth of Christ be celebrated on that day. I have a hunch that that the winter solstice occured on or near that day, back in that century. (This was centuries before the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and the correction factor applied.) And that's when the Romans celebrated Saturnalia.
Something else bothers me about this time of year. When I get heavily regligious greeting cards from people who either don't know or don't care that I'm now a pagan. I received one from a cousin, and one from a friend from a science fiction club I used to be in. Is it a proclamation of their faith, or are they really trying to force Jesus down my throat? This is my issue to grapple with. One friend -- Linda in Florida -- used to include religious tracts with her cards. Two years ago, I sent the tracts back, asking, "Please don't send me any more tracts." She stopped sending me cards altogether.
I grew up in a suburb of Buffalo, NY. We always had "holiday concerts" in school, from elementary school to high school. They always included a Hanukkah song or two, to honor the Jewish holiday. Not one parent ever complained that it should be a Christmas concert. We learned to coexist, and even share in each other's holidays.
But this is not acceptable to some people now. The family of one of my best friends was lambasted on Pat Robertson's "The 700 Club" years ago, only for suggesting that their school's Christmas concert be rebranded as a holiday concert. Robertson said that they were "liberals out to undermine the fabric of America". Nothing could be further from the truth. I've known the Singhs for years. They are Sikhs, and therefore don't celebrate Christmas. But they wanted to be included in the holiday program. Is that so wrong?
We live in a multicultural world. Some people celebrate Christmas. Some people celebrate Hanukkah. Some people (including myself) celebrate the Solstice. Some people celebrate Kwanzaa. And some people don't celebrate anything at all this period. So, out of respect, some people (including myself) have taken to wish people "Happy Holidays".
Now, if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, I won't take offense. I won't look them in the eye and proclaim, "How dare you presume I'm Christian!" Instead, I might just say "Thank you", or "Thank you, but I don't celebrate that holiday." But I don't think people should be foreced to stick with one greeting. Nobody has a monopoly on the season.
In fact, many of the European Christian traditions we've come to know and love have their roots in pagan celebrations. We celebrate Christmas on December 25th only because some Pope in the 4th century decreed that the birth of Christ be celebrated on that day. I have a hunch that that the winter solstice occured on or near that day, back in that century. (This was centuries before the Gregorian calendar was adopted, and the correction factor applied.) And that's when the Romans celebrated Saturnalia.
Something else bothers me about this time of year. When I get heavily regligious greeting cards from people who either don't know or don't care that I'm now a pagan. I received one from a cousin, and one from a friend from a science fiction club I used to be in. Is it a proclamation of their faith, or are they really trying to force Jesus down my throat? This is my issue to grapple with. One friend -- Linda in Florida -- used to include religious tracts with her cards. Two years ago, I sent the tracts back, asking, "Please don't send me any more tracts." She stopped sending me cards altogether.
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Some things are returning to the balance I once knew
Date: 2009-12-18 04:29 am (UTC)The program included a Hanukkah song, Cathy's first Eid song (with strange quarter-tones on the musical scale, and lots of lyrics consultations with the area Muslim adults, who were even less inclined to force non-Muslims into Muslim worship than they were to join in worshipping outside their own), and Lots of Christmas carols & songs. (The Chipmunk Song, complete with soloists equipped with hula hoops and toy airplanes, was a hoot.)
I remember singing Christmas carols in my public school (including non-secular ones, at that), balanced with Hanukkah pieces, and thinking that that sort of a balanced thing wasn't possible any more.
And BTW, the 700 Club was conservatives out to undermine the fabric of America, and cut out huge patches of its cloth, so that all they saw were those just like themselves.
Re: Some things are returning to the balance I once knew
Date: 2009-12-18 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-18 07:19 am (UTC)I personally don't like cards that proclaim any faith to me. Nor do I send them to people. The only exception to that is my former mother in law, she sends me cards with Angels because she loves them, and honestly sees them as just a form of winged messenger of love, She knows and agrees that if paganism had kept it's control those same winged bringers of love would be fairies. She's fine with that idea, and often adds glitter to her cards for me, as a form of fairy dust.
Happy Holidays is the greeting that I best accept from strangers, but I am not above returning the same greeting they give me. Good wishes are good wishes after all.