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Merry Christmas (Seriously)
2004.12.24 (Fri) 11:56
One thing that many of the fundies don't seem to get is that civil libertarians aren't just a bunch of grinches out to kill Christmas. In fact, some of us are very fond of Christmas, and would never give it up, let alone fight to take it away. This misunderstanding probably stems from the fact that many Christians don't seem to think that there can be any definition of Christmas other than their own religious view. Yes, the Christians got the whole holiday started (pagan origins notwithstanding for the moment), and no, you can't spell "Christmas" without spelling "Christ," but to some people, Christmas simply is not religious anymore.
Let's look at this from a few different angles. First, we have the people who claim that Christmas was never a Christian holiday since they just appropriated it from various pagan traditions. Well, that's a true statement, but it's a red herring. Yes, many cultures had a winter solstice celebration, and yes, many cultures had messiah/savior stories (often extraordinarily similar to the Christ mythos — and often predating it). Some other cultures, such as the Norse, even had Clausian figures, reindeer, gifts for the kiddies, and so on, and plenty of pagan cultures used trees as celebratory icons, or even worshipped them.
But every culture borrows from other cultures, making the resulting new ideas uniquely their own. Christians came up with the whole "Christ" thing (from the Greek χριστος meaning "anointed"), and "Christ's Mass" is obviously a Christian idea. Celebrating Jesus Christ's birthday shortly after the winter solstice is something invented by the Christians; after all, who else would celebrate Christ's birthday?
So, just because the roots of Christmas are pagan doesn't make it any less Christian in this incarnation. Accordingly, non-Christians should lay off the Christians for "not really having invented Christmas," because as far as their particular version of the holiday and their observance of it is concerned, they did.
That said, we can look at this from a different angle using the exact same logic. Just as Christians borrowed from other cultures to "invent" their Christmas holiday, modern civilization has borrowed from Christianity to create a new holiday which is also called "Christmas." To a large and growing part of the population of the planet, Christmas is not a day to celebrate Christ's birth, but a special time of year for charity, love, caring, family, decorations, and presents.
In effect, modern civilization has created a "new" holiday just as the Christians created a "new" holiday when they cobbled together their version of Christmas from past mythologies and rituals. And, in the same way as above, just because the roots of this non-religious Christmas are Christian, it doesn't follow that the new Christmas must retain any religious leanings.
So, in the same way that non-Christians should accept the Christian basis for the Christian Christmas, the Christians need to lay off the "Christmas is our holiday and it's all about Christ" bit. The modern Christmas, which many people observe, just isn't Christian anymore, at least not to everyone.
To be sure, some Christians understand and accept this, and some don't. Also, this certainly doesn't mean that all non-Christians must see Christmas in this same way; if they like, they can absolutely choose not to celebrate what they see as a religious holiday, and that's fine.
To us, and we suspect to many others, this modern view of Christmas has a connotation that is very different from the Christian holiday. To some, it is a time to slow down from the regular fast pace of life, to take time out, and to relax. To some, it is a time to see family and friends, both near and far, some of whom we may not see for much of the rest of the year. Some see it as a time to be together with a small group of people who are near and dear to them, while others prefer to gather as many people together as possible. Many of us will eat more good food than we ought to, and many of us will give and receive various gifts, large and small. Even if no prayers are uttered, and no services are attended, and even if Jesus' name isn't mentioned at all, it is still Christmas.
At the end of the day, Christmas is, to many people, a time to be with the ones we love. To those who can't accept that, well, tough. To everyone else — no matter what your beliefs are, and no matter what you are doing for the rest of this weekend: Merry Christmas. We'll catch up with you next week...
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[ Filed under: % Civil Liberties % Greatest Hits % Religion % Two Percent Company ]
Comments (3)
% Trackback » 2005.02.05 (Sat) 18:57
"The Progressive Majority" from RealityBuzz.org
This is a blogroll of a who's who of progressive bloggers culled from a list of bloggers -- aka "The Progressive Majority" and "The Indie 500" -- who went on the record to oppose the Alberto Gonzales confirmation. This is, of course, by no means an exh [More]
angus, 2007.06.19 (Tue) 03:21 [Link] »
Charles Go, 2007.07.15 (Sun) 11:35 [Link] »
Jeff from the Two Percent Company, 2007.07.15 (Sun) 12:56 [Link] »
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