This was written as a response to a FaceBook thread that I started complaining about folks forcing Christmas to be more Secular and inclusive. I wanted to share…
I got an email reminding me to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" and to play "White Christmas" or "Winter Wonderland" over "the totally inappropriate Silent Night" in order to avoid offending.
On the same day I got another email that listed all of the "pagan rituals" included in the "Christan" (sic) celebration of Christmas. Seriously? Someone sent that to ME?
In response to that thread someone else said, “Dude, if you have Santa visiting, have a Christmas tree in your house, or any of the other hundred non-religious elements of Christmas, you are already embracing a secular Christmas.” so I added this bit:
Which all sort of makes it ironic that you mention Christmas Trees as secular symbols. They’ve been used as religious symbols since the 16th century but have been recently "debunked" as pagan symbols.
How long does a tradition have to be celebrated before someone avoids trying to tear it down? At what point does a symbol transform meaning?
Does that mean that my father, grandfather and great-grandfather.. were confused about the symbology of the Bethlehem Star that they placed on their pagan trees? Or that the angels my grandmother hung on her tree actually represented the Germanic christkindl so she was a heretic?
The emails forget to mention that the pagans, like the Romans before them and the Egyptians before them used "sprigs" or "boughs" cut from a tree rather than the trees themselves. And they forget that, Martin Luther (the father of protestant reformation) is credited in some circles as creating the first Christmas tree completely and wholly as a symbol of the stars in the sky over Bethlehem and that he also gave rise to christkindl which translates as "first child".
In the same email that I’m reminded that an item that has been celebrated as a symbol of a Christian holiday for hundreds of years is pagan symbology I’m told that it is my duty to recognize and respect Kwanzaa but they forgot to mention that Kwanzaa was invented in California in 1966. Bit of a one-way street that.
If YOU had sent the emails <name> I would have just assumed that you were poking me with a sharp stick to get a reaction… the people that sent them though were serious and got what was probably an unchristian response.
Some days I enjoy FaceBook a great deal.
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I’d just like it a lot if we all concentrated on what’s important here, (and I realize what’s important to me might not be what’s important to you.)
They started displaying Christmas (Holiday?) decorations and playing seasonal music in our local stores before Halloween.
That’s a first, and an indication how frightened they were about sales this year. Of course, many fell right into the “Sale!” trap and excitedly spent money they might need pretty badly after they get their coming “pink slips” as the economy tanks.
I want to concentrate on family, friends, and those less fortunate than me. I think that is the way Christ would want me to behave, birthday or no.
To my new friend Jinksto, who I have learned to like a great deal in spite of never having met him, I wish the best I can wish…
I hope you wake the day after we celebrate my Lord’s birthday, sigh and smile, with fond memories to dwell on for the rest of your life.
Me?
I’ll be spending Christmas and the next few days moving my son from Phoenix to Los Angeles, so there WILL be memories.
I’ll let ya know later if I’m smilin’ about them.
Your facebook page must be an interesting place…
I hope you have a blessed and joyous Christmas, Jinksto.
cjh
My Facebook page is indeed interesting. I work in the financial industry at a very large bank so I have made friends over the years that have a decidedly liberal bent. They’re great people (except for being wrong) and I enjoy poking them with sticks some mornings to get them going.