Thursday, December 23, 2004
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Chrismakkah???
I just don't get it..... If we are all supposed to appreciate the individuality of all people, why does everyone try to fit the rest of the world into one mold? I don't celebrate all the religious and non-religious holidays celebrated during winter. I never will.... however I will stand up for anyone who feels that their right to do so is not respected... I feel the same about Christmas, Chanuka, Kwanza, Diwali, Yule... and any other holiday I may have ignorantly left off.
Blending the holidays into one is not a way to respect the beliefs of another culture. Blending them into one is a way to eliminate them, to exorcise the signifigance of the least widely celebrated and blend it right in until no one recognizes it anymore. Didn't the Christians do that with most of the Druid holidays and other holidays that existed at the time the Christian faith was growing? Christmas was moved to coincide with a winter festival... Easter was moved to coincide with a planting and fertility festival. It was easier to ring the bells louder and set a bigger feast table than it was to get the non-christians to stop their traditional celebrations.
Now, Christmas is watered down to make the religious connotations seem unimportant. It is blended with other holidays to encourage non-christians to participate, and it has become a celebration that begins with the first day of November and ends after New Years so as to encompass all the other holidays from every major religious group.
It doesn't make it ok. I don't want to celebrate Christmas with a snowman made of matzoh balls. Witches and ghosts are not a reason to skip Halloween if another culture does not hold them to be symbols of evil. I will not mutate a Christmas tree into a Chanuka Bush or a politically acceptable holiday ficus, and I am saddened that there are people who feel that they must create a holiday that is socially acceptable rather than respecting the indivuality and origin in the tradition of the real holidays that they could be enjoying.
Blending the holidays into one is not a way to respect the beliefs of another culture. Blending them into one is a way to eliminate them, to exorcise the signifigance of the least widely celebrated and blend it right in until no one recognizes it anymore. Didn't the Christians do that with most of the Druid holidays and other holidays that existed at the time the Christian faith was growing? Christmas was moved to coincide with a winter festival... Easter was moved to coincide with a planting and fertility festival. It was easier to ring the bells louder and set a bigger feast table than it was to get the non-christians to stop their traditional celebrations.
Now, Christmas is watered down to make the religious connotations seem unimportant. It is blended with other holidays to encourage non-christians to participate, and it has become a celebration that begins with the first day of November and ends after New Years so as to encompass all the other holidays from every major religious group.
It doesn't make it ok. I don't want to celebrate Christmas with a snowman made of matzoh balls. Witches and ghosts are not a reason to skip Halloween if another culture does not hold them to be symbols of evil. I will not mutate a Christmas tree into a Chanuka Bush or a politically acceptable holiday ficus, and I am saddened that there are people who feel that they must create a holiday that is socially acceptable rather than respecting the indivuality and origin in the tradition of the real holidays that they could be enjoying.
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