Happy Holidays anyone?

[PrincessFiona]

Is anyone here bothered by the fact that people in the stores don't say Merry Christmas? I'm not....I actually think its' respectful of all of the different faiths at this time of year...we have jewish friends and know a couple who celebrates Kwanza......I guess I think it's good that we're recognizing that not everyone celebrates Christmas during this season....but it seems like there is a lot of 'hoopla' about this. Our local Target has gone from saying "happy holidays" to "have a merry christmas"...due to pressure from some groups.

kris

[Rapunzel]

Around here you hear lots of Happy Hanakkah (we have a synogogue on my street and a couple of others within a two mile radius). Our neighbors that recently moved below us were Jewish (well, she was). I think if you celebrate a holiday then embrace it! I don't feel offended if someone tells me Happy Hanakkah! I wish them a Happy Hanakkah right back at them! I think the same should hold true for a person who celebrates Christmas. I tell people "Merry Christmas" because that's the holiday I'm celebrating! The Christmas cards I send out are unabashadly Christmas-y because that's what I celebrate. I think it would be pretty cool to get a Hanakah card, actually. Kwaanza - now that's not something you hear around here. It's primarily Catholic and Jewish country up here.

Edit: I have no clue as to the proper spelling of Hanakah, btw. Just know how to say it and I do - with the "Happy" tacked on!

Jennifer -- there are a couple of different spellings. I finally figured that out a year or two into preschool at a synagogue. I was confused before then.

[rainbabies]

[SueC]

It is a little nuts that people get so nuts over what should be a tiding of good cheer! I try to remember to tell my Jewish friends Happy Hanukkah (as well as to recognize the real major Jewish holidays since I believe Hanukkah isn't the big holiday as Christmas is to a Christian), but I'm pretty sure like mom2three mentioned, they wouldn't get irritated if I slipped and said the C word. I also think it is respectiful to be mindful of the fact that not everybody here celebrates Christmas. I certainly don't think a store clerk saying "Happy Holidays" is going to make or break my enjoyment of the season.

I am SO incredibly tired of this.

The whole debate is sucking the goodwill out of the season.

Happy, Merry, Blessed....looks like no matter what you say you're screwed.

This debate makes me want to cry.

[Rapunzel]

Well, in all fairness - I have a good idea as to where this all started. You see, in Boston there actually are people who get wildly offended by the merest suggestion of "Merry Christmas". There really are people who get offended by any mention of religion. No joke!

One example:
My friend owns a Mailbox, etc. franchise. When it was located on one of the major downtown streets of Boston she would decorate the enormous window of the store with hundreds (her count was around 380) of silver balls of varying sizes. The balls looked really neat with the lights and it was a stunning display. Unfortunately a customer found this offensive. What did the customer find offensive specifically? It was, in her words, "overtly Christian" and told my friend that she was completley foolish and ignorant if she didn't see the obvious Christian roots of the display of hundreds of silver balls of varying sizes. I will refrain from telling you all what religion that customer professed to be.

Anyway, I've heard of several instances like this among my friends here and if this happens often enough among just the people I know I must extrapolate that it occurs among a larger portion of the population in this area as well. Additionally, there have been lawsuits filed by various people across the U.S. who find nativity scenes displayed in parks, etc. offensive - even when placed along side the religious symbols of the other major religions. And, I do have my own experience as well: Most of the homeschoolers I know in and around Boston identify themselves as 'pagan' or earth-centered in their religious worship. Several of them have professed an avowed emotional repulsion of all things Christian. And, as such they do get upset if they hear a person tell them "Merry Christmas."

I think the bottom line is that it's about taking offense where none was intended. I see that happen often where I live - and I'll wager it happens in other parts of the country as well. Personally, I take it as a compliment if a person of another religion chooses to include me in their celebratory mood by wishing me a Happy/Merry/Joyful __________. Self-censorship on the subject of religious worship is just so very wrong and so far removed from what our First Ammendment protects.

Jennifer

[Sheherezade]

Yeah....the religion vs. religion stuff is intense in Boston. We were really disappointed when we lived there. We were hard pressed to find lights anywhere - and my children's school didn't even identify *Thanksgiving* because it was potentially offensive to Native Americans. I understand....but it does seem like a sad solution. DH gets positively livid on this topic!

I had to post because we have never experienced this in a different area of the country. In NYC at Columbia we used to go down for the night they'd light the giant menorah on the steps....and the night they lit up the Christmas trees. I suppose that could have changed - probably has. But I prefer to have all the holidays recognized instead of one. "Happy Holidays" works fine for me. I even enjoyed learning about Ramadan from a Pakistani friend. I say let's do them all!

[BonBon]

I say let's do them all!

That sounds like a plan to me! (I don't think I would fare so well during Ramadan though)

This debate drives me bananas, as does all "PC" stuff gone overboard.

Now if someone walked by me and said "F*** you!", then I would be offended. That's just not polite.

[houseelf]

Hey, Happy Winter Solstice Everyone!

Oh, wait, that was celebrated by some pagan cultures....

How 'bout...Happy shortest day of the year!

Oh wait, does that overemphasize the Northern Latitude's issues over the South?


Yes, this is all tongue and cheek, because I can't believe that the first amendment is being construed to mean that non-government actors are prohibited from acknowledging or advancing religion and various traditions. Even the government may permissibly acknowledge religion, as long as they don't promote it.

Maybe the real issue is that we have a large segment of the culture that feels disenfranchised and unrepresented y mainstream cultures. Surely, there are better avenues for voicing this opinion than begrudging holiday traditions, no?

Kelly

I'm a "Happy Holidays" gal - but don't care what anyone says to me. I think the fuss over this is just silly. Have you all seen this? Must confess, I got it from Nellie - who got it from the Washington Post (I think).

Tis the Season
>
> VERBATIM
>
> Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.) recited the following poem on the House
>floor Wednesday concerning House Resolution 579, which expressed the
>sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of
>Christmas should be protected. Preserving Christmas has been a frequent
>topic for conservative talk show hosts, including Fox News's Bill
>O'Reilly.
>
> 'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the House
>
> No bills were passed 'bout which Fox News could grouse;
>
> Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,
>
> So vacations in St. Barts soon would be near;
>
> Katrina kids were nestled all snug in motel beds,
>
> While visions of school and home danced in their heads;
>
> In Iraq our soldiers needed supplies and a plan,
>
> Plus nuclear weapons were being built in Iran;
>
> Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell;
>
> Americans feared we were on a fast track to . . . well . . .
>
> Wait -- we need a distraction -- something divisive and wily;
>
> A fabrication straight from the mouth of O'Reilly
>
> We can pretend that Christmas is under attack
>
> Hold a vote to save it -- then pat ourselves on the back;
>
> "Silent Night," "First Noel," "Away in a Manger"
>
> Wake up, Congress, they're in no danger!
>
> This time of year we see Christmas everywhere we go,
>
> From churches, to homes, to schools, and yes . . . even Costco;
>
> What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy,
>
> When this is the season to unite us with joy
>
> At Christmastime we're taught to unite,
>
> We don't need a made-up reason to fight
>
> So on O'Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter, and those right-wing blogs;
>
> You should just sit back, relax . . . have a few eggnogs!
>
> 'Tis the holiday season: enjoy it a pinch
>
> With all our real problems, do we honestly need another Grinch?
>
> So to my friends and my colleagues I say with delight,
>
> A merry Christmas to all, and to Bill O'Reilly . . . Happy Holidays.

[rainbabies]

[SueC]

I hate to beat a dead horse, but I thought that was kind of interesting:

By Joan Chittister, OSB
As if we don't have enough religious topics to go to war about these days, we're now fighting over the Christmas tree.

To be frank, for some rather established historical reasons, I don't really care where people come down over whether or not a decorated evergreen tree is a "Christmas tree" or a "Holiday tree." At the same time, the thinking behind the question may be more important than the answer itself.

Boston, Montreal, and Lansing, Mich., -- and apparently President and Mrs. Bush's choice of greeting cards -- sparked debates. By calling the city's seasonal tree lighting event the illumination of the "Holiday Tree" rather than the "Christmas Tree," each area launched major religious brouhahas. (You've got to admit it's interesting: Say you're a Christian and you believe in the death penalty and nobody blinks. Say an evergeen tree is not a sacred Christian object and the world descends into spiritual spasm.)

President and Mrs. Bush, by wishing people "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," managed to provoke a national debate on the issue all the way to Congress. (And that's no small feat when you realize that we barely managed to get that much Congressional consternation over going to war in Iraq.)

The arguments were fierce and impassioned.

Some people complained that the whole thing was part of a plot to secularize Christmas, as if we haven't managed to do that in every mall in the country.

Others said it was the denial of the fact that we are a Christian nation, as if the Constitution itself doesn't do the same.

And, according to Reuters, even the Nova Scotian logger who cut down the tree the province sends to Boston every year was enraged. In gratitude for the city's help after a ship explosion wiped out part of Nova Scotia's capital in 1917, the tree has been a continuing bond between the two. This year, the logger said, "If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it's a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter." (This was a kind of contradiction in itself. After all, whether he realized it or not, Christian references in Holy Week to Jesus' "death upon the tree" are, indeed, a play on the relationship between the eternal life symbolized by the evergreen tree and the liturgical injunction to "behold the wood of the cross.")

Christian Fundamentalists threatened to sue people who foster misinformation about Christmas celebrations in public spaces. (Whatever that means.)

Don't doubt it for a moment: This is serious stuff.

Clearly, it might serve a purpose to get some information about the subject before we blow Christmas dinner out of the water over trees.

The fact is that people have been decorating evergreen boughs for a lot longer than there have been Christmas trees.

Have you missed a column?
Click on the archive link at the top of this page to read past columns by Sr. Joan Chittister.

Ancient peoples in the Middle East decorated trees long before Jesus was born. So prevalent was the practice that the prophet Jeremiah condemned them. "Thus saith the Lord," Scripture says, "Learn not the way of the heathen. ... For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest. ... with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not." (KJV: Jeremiah 10:2 4.) Translation: "This is not a spiritual thing. Don't do it."

Other early civilizations, too, used trees that stayed green all year to ward off evil spirits and death.

Some peoples, like the Egyptians, celebrated the Winter Solstice -- the shortest day of winter when the Sun God Ra seemed farthest away -- with evergreen boughs to pray for the return of Ra's strength in the spring.

The Romans decorated trees to pay homage to Saturn, the god of farming, a feast that degenerated eventually into drunken orgies.

And, irony of ironies, Tertullian inveighed regularly against Christians who practiced such a pagan custom. In fact, the church forbade the use of Christmas trees well into the third century when, some historians claim, the church managed to obliterate non-Christian practices by absorbing Saturnalia into the feast of Christmas.

Over the centuries, Celtic druid priests and the Vikings both used evergreen trees as a sign of eternal life, a gift of the gods that brought both healing and hope.

Not until the Middle Ages, however, in the 11th century, did Christians appropriate the tree --an apple tree, actually-- as a reminder of God's ways with us. The Advent "mysteries" or liturgical plays put on by roving troupes of actors to catechize the peasants used the tree as a symbol of Paradise and eternal life.

E-mail Alerts
.

Only in the 16th century did the Christmas tree as we know it begin to emerge in Germany, and even then not without resistance.

English Puritans and Oliver Cromwell, in both England and colonial United States, rigorously suppressed such "pagan mockery."

It wasn't until the 19th century, in 1850, in Cleveland, Ohio, historians tell us, that the first Christmas tree was put in the first Christian church in the United States. Oh me.

It gets clearer every day that there are two histories about everything.

The first history is history, the accumulation of facts over time that help us understand how ideas develop and why and for what purpose.

The second history is immediate past history, the period that spans our own life experiences back to the time of our great-grandparents. The history which for us, at least, "has always been this way."

From where I stand, it seems clear that the second kind of history always predominates. As a result, in my house, in our chapel, as long as I live, the Christmas tree will always be a Christmas tree. But in the city park? In a pluralistic society where only 76.7 percent of the country identify themselves as Christian? In another century? Who knows? That may well become another question entirely.

In the meantime, if I were you and I really wanted to be a sign of Christianity, I wouldn't set out to prove it by fighting over the Christmas tree.

[Rapunzel]

Ahhhh, an article that attempts to belittle the religious symbols of Christians by pointing out that other religions and cultures at various times have used the same symbols (albeit with different connotations). It's similar to the argument that Christmas itself is nothing special because Mithraism held the winter solstice as its traditional holiday (rebirth of the sun god Mithra). The entire argument ignores the fact that significant religious symbolism exists seperate from other religion's symbolitry.

The fact is that there are people who are offended by the mere mention of the word "Christmas" (there are organizations - such as the ACLU - that react in a similar manner). About as silly as a person being offended by the mention of Hanakah or Kwaanza - but serious in its attack on the religious beliefs and celebrations of others. I think the backlash you are currently seeing is in direct response to that reality.

[SueC]

Umm, I guess you could take it that way. I found it interesting (silly, uninformed person that I am) and informative.