Thursday, December 01, 2005

Merry Seasonal Celebration #12

There's a move afoot in America to change the Christmas holiday. There are people who love to engage in the festivities and gift giving and parties and days off but don't want to acknowledge the purpose of the holiday, which is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

These folks prefer to refer to Christmas as "Xmas" or the "Winter Holiday". They feel that those who don't accept Jesus are offended by having to associate Him with the holiday that commemorates His birth.

There is a certain logic to this. Holidays are entirely too specific. I propose we sanitize all holidays.

Events like Memorial Day, a holiday dedicated to the memory of American war dead; Independence Day, commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776; and Veterans Day, honoring all men and women who have served America in its armed forces; are all days associated with war. What's more offensive to a liberal-minded American than war? And think about all those people who were victims of American wars; Japanese, Germans, Vietnamese, Iraqis, Southerners. How can we continue to offend and belittle those people by celebrating these holidays each year?

Now I'm not proposing that we discontinue the celebrations themselves. Like Christmas we can still have the day off. We can have the cookouts, parties, even parades associated with those summer holidays. We just need to leave out the objectionable identifying icons, like flags, military uniforms, armaments and such.

Likewise we need to neutralize events like Mothers Day and Fathers Day, which are offensive to those who either don't know their parents or abhor them. Labor Day is a slap in the face of the unemployed and Columbus Day has to rub some Native Americans the wrong way.

Even the word "holiday" is questionable. Its etymology is the Middle English for Holy Day. HOLY day? Sounds like government sponsored religion to me. What happened to separation of Church and State?

How about "Free Day". Or "Seasonal Celebration". We could number them, from Seasonal Celebration #1 on January the first to Seasonal Celebration #12 on December the twenty-fifth. That way no one is offended, the stores can still have their big sales, we get our days off and a good time is had by all.

I'm really looking forward to the Day Following the Third Day of the Month Following the Sixth Month. We're having a big barbeque.

1 Comments:

At December 07, 2005 4:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"That way no one is offended,...." Except for the people and thier descends that started and supported the meaning of this holiday.
If you don't like it create your own. The black community created Kwanza. I have no problem with them as long as my right to celebrate how I see fit.
I also have no problem banding a christian holiday as long as every other holiday is band as well.
It's really a shame how intolurant those who demand tolurance are.

 

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