"Chuckie" wrote in message
ups.com...

I am tired of everyone being afraid of saying Merry Christmas

First off, there's at least two holidays in our culture going on under the
one name of Christmas. There's a winter festival that is symbolized by
evergreens, holly, and mistletoe; by our culture's embodiment of generosity
in Santa Claus, and related presents; and by wintertime snow and sleighs.
There's also a Christian holy day, celebrating the birth of Christ, which,
for various historic propagandistic reasons, occurs on the same day.
Christmas, as winter festival, and to a lesser extent, Christian holy day,
is a pervasive holiday in our culture. Capitalism has a lot vested in the
"presents" aspect of the festival, so it gets remorselessly promoted.

Most Christians don't have any difficulties with this promotion. Yes,
sometimes you hear from time to time, phrases like, "He's the Reason for the
Season" or "Put the Christ back in Christmas", which decries the
materialistic aspects of the holiday. But generally it does them no harm to
have their holy day in everyone's faces. It reinforces their viewpoint of
themselves as the majority religion, and it underscores their superiority.

People who are not practicing Christians but who come from a Christian
background still usually have no major problem with Christmas, as they can
fully participate in the winter festival and skip the holy day aspects of
the holiday.

People from flexible religions like Hinduism or Buddhism have some
difficulties, but not major ones. Buddhism has adapted itself repeatedly to
local deities and festivals. If Bodhi Day, the celebration of the Buddha's
enlightenment, which usually observed on December 8 gets moved out a little
to December 25 - what harm is there in that? You can even string lights on
your house to symbolize the Buddha's enlightenment, no problem. Our local
Hindu community had their own ceremony honoring Christmas, as they see Jesus
as a holy man and prophet. NBFD for these folks.

Jews are in a different situation. Their 2000-year history of being a
minority religion has caused the Jewish tradition to be very strict in
non-participation in the majority culture's religious festivals. Because of
our own culture's confusion between the winter festival and the Christian
holy day, most Jews feel that even the winter festival portion of the
holiday is off-limits. They will say that "Santa Claus" is a Christian
saint, for example, and therefore something Jews can have absolutely nothing
to do with. And to some extent they are right - at one time, Santa Claus
sort of was a Christian saint, who had a saint-day some time near solstice,
and somehow he got mixed up in the big winter festival. These same Jews will
point the Christmas tree, and say, look, it's a *Christmas* tree, for
heaven's sake, the word "Christ" is in it, there's no way it can not be a
Christian symbol - or, if you point out that it was originally pagan, well,
why should it being pagan make it any more off-limits to them as Jews than
if it were Christian? So, most Jews feel that they can't participate in any
aspect of Christmas.

At the same time, Jews are confronted with the holiday at every turn.
Christmas is this 400-pound gorilla of a holiday. *Everyone* is
participating in it. It's one of the few times of the year where one's
religious beliefs and practices are out there for public comment and
discussion, even by strangers: "Merry Christmas!" "Uh, actually, we're
Jewish, but thank you anyway." Anywhere in out in the world, you have to be
aware that the entire culture is preparing for and participating in this
massive event. It can not be ignored. Further, and annoyingly, the winter
festival is tremendously appealing. Christmas trees are beautiful. Christmas
lights are beautiful. Christmas parties are fun. Getting presents is fun.
Sharing in a generous spirit is fun. Many Jews then respond to Christmas
with deep resentment. Many Jews hate, hate, hate Christmas with a passion.

One Jewish response in North America to the pervasiveness and appeal of
Christmas is to take what was once a minor wintertime festival, Chanukah,
and pump it up. I personally think this is a mistake. Why?

A. Chanukah, because it is a minor festival, can never be as big and
wonderful as Christmas. It is always destined to be a junior Christmas. It
will never be as fabulous as what everyone else gets to do, and therefore
will just make the larger culture's festival seem that much more appealing,
and the situation Jews are in seem worse.
B. Having Chanukah around means that Christians can give it a little lip
service, and then do their own holiday in a Big Way with a clear conscience.
An example is the extremely annoying practice of having 15 Christmas carols
at the concert, and a little sop to the Jews with "I had a little dreydel."
"Why should you complain, huh? You *get* a damn Chanukah song, so shut up."

A sensible Jewish response, I think, is to promote genuinely important
Jewish holidays at home and in the culture. String little lights and hang
decorations on your sukkah, so it looks as pretty as Christmas tree. Do a
big pile of holiday baking at Purim, and hand out Purim baskets of cookies
to friends and neighbors. Have a big family get-together at Passover - still
the most widely-celebrated Jewish holiday in North America.

My personal response is to indeed decorate the sukkah, and do holiday baking
at Purim, and get together with family at Passover - and still enjoy the
winter festival aspects of Christmas. I have done enough genealogy to know
that I have relatives at each generation going back 150 years that have
intermarried into the larger community. If we don't have a reason to
participate in the religious holy day of Christmas, I still feel we, as a
household, have some claim on the larger cultural winter festival.

I carry a lot of ambivalences about Christmas. I feel I've also taught many
of these ambivalences, for better or worse, to my children. I hate the smug
triumphalism of it, but I like the honoring of the evergreen, the marking of
the darkest days of the year, and the celebration of the spirit of
generosity.


--
Warm Regards,


Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky