It’s that time of year again...the time when we hear people
adamantly claim that “Jesus is the reason for the Season” and that we should
NOT say, “Happy Holidays” but instead, should say, “Merry Christmas” and “Keep
Christ in Christmas”. The posters on Face Book will be rampant with ‘political
incorrectness’!
Aside from the fact that Jesus was most likely NOT born on
December 25th but instead was probably born sometime in the fall, http://www.ucg.org/bible-faq/when-was-jesus-christ-born-was-jesus-born-december-25-christmas-day,
there
are several other religions that have celebrations coinciding with the
Christian holiday, which is by no means, the oldest.
Even as a child, my father, who was an Episcopal priest with a
Master’s Degree in Theology, explained to me that the celebration of the birth
of Jesus coincided with the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. He told
me that the reason for this was to make it safer for Christians to celebrate
their beliefs thereby avoiding more persecution. In my online research I have
not discovered any information to corroborate his explanation but it sounds
like a good story anyway! It seems the current theory is that celebrating the
birth of Christ during the pagan celebration of winter was somewhat of a ‘ploy’
or early marketing technique to convince people to join the Christian movement
as they were already accustomed to celebrating at that time anyway. The point is
that any original December celebrations had nothing to do with the birth of
Christ.
I have long been aware that there are many other festivities
that take place during the “Christmas” season but I had to look up how many
there are and the names of them all. We're all familiar with Hanukkah, the
Jewish holiday. Then over the past decade or two, we’ve become familiarized
with Kwanzaa, the African Heritage holiday. There is also Hajj, a Muslim holiday;
Bodhi Day for the Buddhists and Diwali for Hindus, also called “The Festival of
Lights”. Here is a good source for a quick summary: http://www.sixwise.com/Newsletters/2008/December/17/What-Are-the-Other-Religions-Holidays.htm?source=nl
I believe the original outcry on the part of Christmas
celebrators was in objection to the lusty commercialism that we experience
with ever-increasing zest on the part of merchandisers. And if you are in
business to make a profit then obviously the holiday season is a very important
time of year to get yourself “in the black” but...starting before Halloween? It
does get oppressive!
I find it ironic that people who are so adamant about the
meaning of Christmas, which includes feelings of love, peace and goodwill to
all mankind, can get so militant about expounding on the virtues of ‘Christmas’
and what it stands for to the exclusion of so many other and OLDER religious
celebrations.
I think we should all be grateful that we are able to
celebrate our Christian beliefs with those who do not but instead are
celebrating their own beliefs during the same time. After all, it could be
worse...we could be ‘celebrating’ from the end of September (when Christ is
purported to have been born) to the end of December making our shopping season
three months long! How ‘happy’ would we be then?
So, let’s just say ‘Happy Holidays’ and be truly happy about
being inclusive. No matter what the particular belief is, it’s all about
celebrating a happy time for all of us!
Enjoy everybody’s Holiday Season!
Cindy Hurd
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