The Commercial Hoopla can Stay

[talon]

Since much of the décor, music, food, parties, movies, etc. in December (and often in the weeks and even months leading up to December) are secular and have virtually nothing to do with the Christians' holy day of Christmas, I don't mind them and even enjoy them.

Tell me what's Christian about Santa, snowmen, flashing lights, decorated trees, drunken office parties, and wrapped presents. Point out the Christianity in "The Night Before Christmas", "Frosty the Snowman", "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town", "Santa Baby", or "Jingle Bells", or "White Christmas" or "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus", or Charles Dickens' "Christmas Carol"?

I agree with the sentiment David Silverman expresses by saying, "It's not about being out against Christmas, it's about Christmas being a monopoly.", except I would be a bit more precise. It's not about being against Christmas (or the entire winter holiday season); it's about the vocal and obnoxious Christians claiming a monopoly on the entire season for their one holy day.

I wish Christians well on their holy day and much joy in celebrating it. They can stage their Christmas Pageants in every single Christian church all month long, and I'm happy for them to do so. They can set up crèches on church and private property all they want, and if they're cute enough, I might even smile at them. Christians are more than welcome to celebrate their Advent in their churches and homes, and to celebrate the birth of one of their Gods (unless they subscribe to the theory that their son of god is also the father of the son of god - which is so science fictiony what with time travel and all) in their churches and homes.

But when they step outside of their churches and their homes to invade the markets and the malls, the public buildings and workplaces, and to intrude onto my personal and private property and insist that I am "at war" with Christmas just because I celebrate several of the other festivals and holy days that exist at that same time of year, they've just gone too obsessively, stupidly, far.

I am not a Christian. I do not celebrate Christmas. I do not invade churches and the homes of Christians and demand that they not hold their Christmas pageants or conduct their Christmas rituals. I do not demand that they stop singing the songs written specifically for their holy day (of course, being hearing impaired, I can't hear most of it, but if I could hear it, I wouldn't mind). I do not insist that they acknowledge or participate in my winter holy days and festivals. I am not "at war" with them celebrating their holy day among themselves or inside their religious places and private homes.

I do, however, strongly resent those Christians who insist that their holy day is the One And Only Holy Day between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day and that we must all participate in their one holy day. I resent it mostly because many of the things they insist we all do have virtually nothing to do with their holy day at all.

Gift exchanges, for example, are not traditional for their Christmas. Giving gifts to the church was traditional, but not to one another - that's a relatively recent addition to Christian behavior, and was appropriated from several other religions and then kind of perverted into the guilt-laden orgy it has become. I sort of blame merchants and manufacturers for fostering it. I would be happy to see those Christians realize that this behavior is far from Christian and cease to engage in it or insist that all the rest of us also engage in it.

Exchanging gifts at this time of year isn't a part of Numenism except when we are giving gifts to people we only see at this time of year - and this is only because we have ceased to trust the Post Office, UPS, or FedEx to deliver the packages we paid them to deliver. We give tokens of appreciation at New Year's to thank service people for a year of dedicated service (the mail carriers, trash collectors, firefighters, police, medical personnel, etc) and as a plea to continue such good service in the coming year (usually money, sometimes food gifts), but those aren't "Christmas" presents, they're year end gifts. We give gifts for birthdays, anniversaries, Firsts, weddings, funerals, and as tokens of appreciation or just because. But we don't give gifts just because it's someone else's holy day.

Insisting that we use only their holy day greeting to everybody diminishes all of the other festivals and holy days occurring during this time of the year, including their own. I'll wish a "Merry Christmas" to someone I know is Christian, and "Yummy Cookie Day" to fellow Numenists, and whatever holy day greeting is appropriate to people whose religions I know, and "Happy Holidays" to everyone else. I think that is the best way to do it because it's respectful to Christians (acknowledging their holy day) and to all the different holy days, festivals, and celebrations that are packed into the winter weeks. To demand everyone use only "Merry Christmas" and throw tantrums and accuse us of "making war" on Christmas when we don't is rather - petty and juvenile, don't you think? I'm glad not all Christians are like that, and I kind of feel for them having to deal with and see those badly behaving Christians.

Insisting that we include displays of their nativity scene is public decorations is greedy as well as petty and juvenile, seeing as Christians have so many churches around which they can erect such displays, not to mention private homes. Public property (not just publicly owned property like government offices, but publicly used property like malls and parks and streets) should be left free of religious decorations, not just during the winter festivals and holy days, but all year round.

It's pure entitlement for those Christians to think they should overwhelm and crowd out and scare away all other religious expressions.

I understand that some Christians feel attacked when those of us who aren't Christian speak up and say, "Hey! We're here, too!" What they need to know is that our presence doesn't diminish or invalidate them. They are still there, still have their churches, still can practice their beliefs in their churches and in their homes and out in public as long as it doesn't interfere with what others are doing. For example, they can hold prayer meetings and vigils in parks as long as they secured the proper permits and don't force everyone present to participate. They can pass out literature about their beliefs so long as they don't demand that everyone take it or insult the decliners or accuse the decliners of blasphemy for refusing their brochures or bibles. They can stand and preach on the street corners or on soap boxes so long as they realize some (maybe most) people will just walk on by and ignore them.

It's not a war when the adherents are perfectly free to own property and erect buildings dedicated to their religion, to gather to participate in the rites and rituals of their religion, or to tell people they belong to their religion without fear of arrest or violence to themselves, their families, or their personal property.

Asking (and later, insisting, sometimes through the force of law because they refused to listen) that they refrain from taking over public spaces or forcing non-Christians to participate in their rites and rituals is not an act of war, it's an act of peace.

The only people warring on Christmas are Christians. The rest of us want to make peace and celebrate family, love, joy, good fellowship, good food, and to be charitable towards those less fortunate than ourselves. We wish people "Happy Holidays" because we wish to make peace, not war.

We wish people "Happy Holidays" because the reason for the season is axial tilt, and the reasons for all the festivities are myriad and diverse and there are many different holy days during these weeks. The Christians have designated December 25th as the day they celebrate the birth of their Jesus. The Jews celebrate Hannukah to commemorate the rededication of their temple around this time of year. Kwanzaa begins on December 26th to celebrate family, community, and African culture. December 17 - 23 is Saturnalia, to celebrate social role reversals, family, friends, handmade gifts (often candles or earthenware figurines), and parties. December 8th is Bodhi Day for Buddhists to celebrate the day Buddha experienced enlightenment (it's not a big holy day, but it's still a holy day). Dogzhi is the Chinese winter solstice festival. December 21 is the Slavic Korochun - a kind of solstice celebration. December 23rd is Night of the Radishes, just to celebrate radishes. Yalda is the Iranian Solstice, and birth of Mithras. Yule is a period of time with symbols and traditions of its own lasting from late December to early January. Cookie Day is December 12th. And then there's New Year's Eve, just to name a few of the festivals and holy days in December.

How rude is it to dismiss all of these other holy days and festivals and to force all of them to fall under the heading of one single religion's single holy day? Not to mention dismissing all of their own religion's other holy days that month - whether their sect of Christianity celebrates it or not, those other days are also Christian (if not pan-Christian) holy days. I'm thinking of St. Nick's Day (December 6th), St. Stephen's Day (December 26th), Advent (the Sundays preceding Christmas), Gaudete Sunday (the Sunday before Christmas or third Sunday of Advent), and probably more I don't know about. Christianity is a pretty big religion, and it has lots and lots of holy days. Just because one sect (or denomination) doesn't celebrate it doesn't mean it's not Christian. That one sect would try to force out even the holy days of its own religion by trying to force everyone to acknowledge just one holy day (hint: it's the one they like most) for the whole month of December is just such a bully move that I, for one, am going to speak out against it and make sure as many of the other holy days and festivals are mentioned as possible.

The reason for the one single holy day called Christmas is Jesus, but that's just one day, not the entire time from October 31st to December 25th.

The reason for the season is axial tilt; people are the reason for the celebrations.

Now, let's move through Kwanzaa and on to New Year's!