Banning Christmas?

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Although the holidays of religious festivals are still going strong, the religions in themselves have very little cultural meaning anymore. It used to be that religion was so important that Catholics and Protestants would war and kill in the name of their religion. Now, we make war on a Muslim country not because it is Muslim but because it is a dictatorship.

The differences between religious sects seems to become less and less important over the years. I can honestly say I have no idea as to the religion of my closest friends- I've never thought to ask. Is this not living proof that our world is already becoming culturally diverse? On this note I can also say that there are very few words that people find inherently insulting any more, including swearwords and ancient insults. If you call someone a B*stard they very rarely even bat an eyelid, or at the most, retaliate verbally against that person.

Doesn't it sound ridiculous that these days you can hurl insults at people and they don't care, but if you use a word of religious preference in their presence they rally to have it espunged from society?

Just because it tickled me, a short quote from "Love actually"...

"There was more than one lobster present at the birth of Christ?"

"Duh..."

 

We have a few that are superfluous here. May day bank holiday is a waste of time. August bank holiday (that's it's name), and a couple of others. All these can be removed and changed to cover things like Hannakah, end of Ramadam, things like that. Not only would it perhaps make people aware of, and celebrate other religions festivals, but it might help reduce some of that fear factor that people have with other faiths.

In the current climate of terrorism and fundamentalism, broadening horizons, and increasing awareness of other perspectives in the world can only be a good thing IMO.

[ December 13, 2004, 19:18: Message edited by: Takara ]

 

The other big thing to bear in mind with all these 'public' holidays is that so many people don't even get the day off on those days any more anyway. So many shops and restaurants etc seem to be open on public holidays that it probably doesn't matter what becomes designated as a statutory holiday any more.

With this in mind, if certain days of the year become more popular than others, then they could become psuedo-holidays for those that want them. For example, I know several people who take a day off on St Patrick's Day because they like the idea of drinking all day, but it is unlikely that it would ever be declared a national holiday. Also, plenty of Chinese people take the day off on Chinese New Year. So we can have a situation where all sorts of culturally diverse days are celebrated without having to officially sanction them (or offend others by sanctioning some and not others). Providing an official government decreed holiday for things like Ramadan or Hannukah would probably cause more problems than it would solve.

 

Man, I HATE this PC sterilisation of Christmas. I'm hardly a devout Christian (in fact, I have a problem with any organised religion, but that's a different topic), but Christmas is now so throughly secularised in Australia that it needs no strong link to Christianity to be celebrated. Just enjoy it for what it is to you - if it means something different to someone else, great, fine, let them do whatever they want. Me having a Christmas party isn't going to somehow destroy any non-Christians in the room, and I wouldn't care if it was a Kwanzaa party, a Chanukah party, a Solstice party, whatever - the important thing is the spirit of the occasion.

Of course, try telling some people that. Proof to me that there is no monopoly on intolerance, and that common sense really isn't.

@ DHB: Well, they might be Futurama fans...

 

I agree with Takara:

In the current climate of terrorism and fundamentalism, broadening horizons, and increasing awareness of other perspectives in the world can only be a good thing IMO.

As long as these perspectives don't directly conflict, both gain from jointing together to celebrate eachothers traditions. I don't expect a religeon that forbids alcohol (Mormon, Muslim) to go out and get drunk on St. Patricks day, but if there are traditinal foods for a particular holiday, then sharing who we are can only add to the richness of the nation that hosts these cultures.

 

I don't agree I'm afraid.

In England - not Britain we seem to have lost our sense of national identity. At the moment it seems to be a confused mixture of conflicting ideas.
There is strong tradition and pride associated with Scotland, Wales and Ireland but not in England. I really don't think changing public holidays for these reasons is going to help anything or anybody at this point.

 

Yeah and that ain't coming back, you know who you have to thank for that.

That is because Scotland, Wales and Ireland lacks something England has a lot of!

 

This is mental. it's like the national census done in Britain a while ago. For those who don't know, it was done to see who the British people were. One of the questions asked you to tick the box representing the nationality. One of the boxes was labeled 'Jedi'. I want a jedi holiday!
I demand a day off to celebrate 'Happy Darth Death day'!
Insanel.

 

Bah...I've been celebrating Christmas with all my Christian friends since kindergarten, and I'm Muslim so...

This is crazy...atleast in India people aren't banning Christmas.

 

What? You can't mean racists, because they are everywhere, not just in England.

 

You're right, I can't mean racists. You've got the wrong end of the stick.

 

Oh, I guess you missed my not-so-subtle hint then.

 

Yes, I guess I missed your not-so-subtle hint.

 

I am a Christian (if you couldn't tell by my name) but in reality, it's our Holiday. I don't mind non-christians celebrating it, they can go ahead. I really don't mind. What I do mind is them trying to stop us from celebrating it the way we want to. *Christ*mas. It's about the birth of Christ. I don't care if you don't celebrate it for that reason but at least let us celebrate it for the reason it exists.

I swear I'm moving to Canada if this keeps up... if people feel "left out" of christmas, then they should become Christians! Not that that's an up and done thing, but come on, if you feel left out, you obviously shouldn't be celebrating it.

You can celebrate it how you want, fine with me, but don't screw it up for the rest of us.... Blech, darn government.

 

In the USA Christmas is not a legal holiday. Originally it was a religious holy day. Christ wasn't born in December. There are Christians who do not celebrate Christmas.

However-IMO to ban Christmas because some people are offended by it is (to be polite) stupid!

Personally I am offended by a lot of things at Christmas. I spend a quiet time with family and friends.

Would the world be a better place without Christmas? I don't think so.

I agree with HB. If you don't want to do something just don't do it.

Aha, let's do away with Mother's Day. Oh, that's always on a Sunday so most business are closed.

 

Godrules44, Christmas is not a christian holiday, a feast has been celebrated around the winter solstice throughout recorded history. The early church thought that instead of ereasing the old pagan celebrities it thought it would be much better to just replace them with christian ones at the same time. Thus people could keep his old traditions and at the same adopt the new christian noes. Here in Sweden christmas is still called jul/yule, the old pagan name of the midwinter celebrations.

 

Why not get rid of Sunday also? We should only have a six day week because non-christians could obviously be offended by the fact that the entire 7 day week system is based on Creation.

 

I doubt it is, seeing as none of the weekdays have christian names in any of the germanic languages. Pagan through and through, Moon day, Tyr day, Odin day, Thor day, Freja Day, not sure about Saturday in English but in Swedish it is lördag which roughly means "washing day" iirc and then Sun day. Not very christian is it? The sabbath is on different days in the various religions based upon the old testament as well.

If I am not completely mistaken the seven day week is based upon the moon or somesuch and have nothing to do with any of the modern semitic religions.

 

IIRC Babylonians had seven-day week and each one of the seven days was representing a deity.

 

I believe Saturday is Saturn's Day. The seven day week has nothing to do with Christianity. The last time I looked the 'Old Testament' was jewish. God took seven 'days' to create the world. Maybe the ancient Jews got the seven day week from the Babylonians when they were in exile. I think that is were the idea of Satan originated.