It's almost December and already the Christmas music is playing in stores and the decorations are decking the halls. A lot of the usual commercial hype. But aside from that, it is a time to be jolly and think of what we'll do for the holidays. I haven't started Christmas shopping yet but I'm thinking about it. Probably this Christmas I'll do my traditional Christmas Eve Cornish hen dinner. Christmas has always been a special time for me and my family. It's my most favorite times of year. I love the Christmas traditions: the carols, the Christmas trees and decorations, the pagents and pantomimes, and I love Santa Claus too. Today, when I visited the mall, I stopped to watch Santa for awhile. There was a long line of children waiting to get their photos taken with him but at that moment he was sitting alone on his throne, a big jolly old elf just like Santa should be. And he even waved at me! (He must know I haven't been too naughty this year!)
Last week I saw on TV that one of our nearby towns has banned "Christmas holidays" from their school program. It now has to be called "Winter holidays". This isn't the first time that Christmas has been hijacked and erased from the week we know as Christmas Holidays, (from December 24 thru to New Years Day). In fact, in the last few years I've noticed more and more often the use of "Happy Holidays" replacing "Merry Christmas". Why? Because a certain group of our society feels that it is 'offensive' to other religious groups to refer to December 25 as "Christmas".
This political correctness crap has gone way too far. Sure, when 'political correctness' first came into being, it was meant to protect genders, cultures, religious rights, sexual preferences etc etc. But this is going too far. DON'T MESS WITH MY CHRISTMAS!
What would happen if we told the Jewish community they were no longer allowed to call their special holiday "Hanukkah"? or if we said the Muslims couldn't refer to "Ramadan" or the Hindus were not allowed to celebrate Diwali? Even the Wikken people celebrate Winter Solstice. Is it right then, that the Christian community (Protestants and Catholics among others) should have to drop "Christmas" from our holiday? I don't think so.
December 25 is Christmas. It's been called that for centuries. Should we obliterate it all and go back to the pagan Saturnalia of the Romans? Would that make all these 'politically correct' people happy?
In that case though, I suppose we'd have to abolish Santa Claus too. And I, for one, would be very unhappy about that!
2 comments:
I don't necessarily disagree with your desire to keep the season known as "Christmas," and I'm not a great believer in blanket political correctness. However, you need to put a little stronger argument.
For one thing, correct spelling would really help your credibility. Typos are one thing; but misspelling "Wiccan" as "Wicken" really hurts your credibility. Not checking the spelling of a word like that is a bit disrespectfulto the practioners of that belief (how would you feel if someone spelled followers of Jesus "Krischens?") and it also means you didn't take much time to vet your own stuff.
Also, I find it a bit ironic you're using the example of "going back to Saturnalia" to advance your argument. You're actually arguing against yourself. Saturnalia existed before Christmas, as you've pointed out; did you know it was essentially usurped by the Roman Catholic Church in order to push the "Christmas" agenda during the early days of the first millenium A.D.? The Roman Catholic Church realized rather than trying to completely outlaw Saturnalia, it would be easier to try to integrate into Christian celebrations.
Don't you think people back then could easily have voiced the same argument you are voicing now - "we don't want to call it Christmas, we want to keep it Saturnalia." Think about it. Is the modern changing of "Christmas" to "Holidays" really any different than the ancient changing of "Saturnalia" to "Christmas?" Seems to me it's the same thing, just at different times. I'll gladly admit I'm wrong if you can provide a logical, non-emotive argument to prove otherwise.
Asking the rhetorical question "Should we obliterate it all and go back to the pagan Saturnalia of the Romans?" is, if not a bit hypocritical, at least very faulty logic.
I have long been an advocate of traditional Christmas. But I'm also aware we always have to be open to incorporating new ideas into our celebrations. If the ancients had followed your prescription we might very well still be celebrating Saturnalia instead of the traditional Christmas you and I love.
The point was: why should we drop 'Christmas" when other religions are using the names for their own celebrations?
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