It's Christmas Day
Dec. 25th, 2011 10:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thismazIt's Christmas Day and I want to send everybody on my flist my very best wishes. And that made me pause, because...
A while ago I saw a post made by someone in America that included the line - The winter holidays are rapidly approaching (my family celebrate Christmas, so if y'all catch me saying "Christmas season" please gently nudge me to cut it out) - and I was struck by this apparent assumption that 'Christmas' is a bad word to use in the US.
The most common theory I have heard for this is that it is avoided to prevent offence to non-Christians, but that doesn't make sense to me. I know that the UK is a highly secular country, especially by comparison with the US, but I honestly don't understand why being wished a 'Happy Christmas' would cause offence.
So I have a theory.
My theory is that this line about offence is a very clever way of trying to separate Christmas, the religious festival, from the commercial razzmatazz that has grown up around it.
Asking people not to mix the two has had no effect. But telling them that wishing non-Christians a Merry Christmas would cause offence, works, because no one really wants to cause offence in the middle of a celebration.
I remember seeing Rich Hall talking on QI about Christmas advertising in the Southern States of the US. I am absolutely certain he was exaggerating (he is a stand-up comedian, after all) but the example he quoted was something like, "KLG, the spark plug Jesus would have used". Now if that isn't a gratuitous and unwarranted (and potentially offensive) commercialisation of religion, I don't know what is.
If trying to get rid of that is the reason why it is now considered a social faux pas to wish someone a Merry Christmas in the US, I can totally understand the desire to use whatever means are necessary to make it socially unacceptable. However, it does create a need for potentially awkward work-arounds (Happy Holidays just doesn't sound right to me).
And anyway, is that the reason?
I'm not a Christian, but I grew up in a country that has a Christian past and heritage. Christmas is the time when people who have family that they get on with, or friends they love, try their best to get together and celebrate that friendship and love.
I therefore wish my flist a Very Merry Christmas. And (with due respect and solemnity) a very happy (belated) Solstice, best (belated) wishes for Bodhi Day, early good wishes for Makar Sankranti, belated good wishes for Hanukkah and Ashura, early best wishes to Rastafarians and to Orthodox Christians for Christmas, early good wishes for Oshogatsu and for the Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh, an early happy new year, and to everybody, the best wishes of the season to you all!
A while ago I saw a post made by someone in America that included the line - The winter holidays are rapidly approaching (my family celebrate Christmas, so if y'all catch me saying "Christmas season" please gently nudge me to cut it out) - and I was struck by this apparent assumption that 'Christmas' is a bad word to use in the US.
The most common theory I have heard for this is that it is avoided to prevent offence to non-Christians, but that doesn't make sense to me. I know that the UK is a highly secular country, especially by comparison with the US, but I honestly don't understand why being wished a 'Happy Christmas' would cause offence.
So I have a theory.
My theory is that this line about offence is a very clever way of trying to separate Christmas, the religious festival, from the commercial razzmatazz that has grown up around it.
Asking people not to mix the two has had no effect. But telling them that wishing non-Christians a Merry Christmas would cause offence, works, because no one really wants to cause offence in the middle of a celebration.
I remember seeing Rich Hall talking on QI about Christmas advertising in the Southern States of the US. I am absolutely certain he was exaggerating (he is a stand-up comedian, after all) but the example he quoted was something like, "KLG, the spark plug Jesus would have used". Now if that isn't a gratuitous and unwarranted (and potentially offensive) commercialisation of religion, I don't know what is.
If trying to get rid of that is the reason why it is now considered a social faux pas to wish someone a Merry Christmas in the US, I can totally understand the desire to use whatever means are necessary to make it socially unacceptable. However, it does create a need for potentially awkward work-arounds (Happy Holidays just doesn't sound right to me).
And anyway, is that the reason?
I'm not a Christian, but I grew up in a country that has a Christian past and heritage. Christmas is the time when people who have family that they get on with, or friends they love, try their best to get together and celebrate that friendship and love.
I therefore wish my flist a Very Merry Christmas. And (with due respect and solemnity) a very happy (belated) Solstice, best (belated) wishes for Bodhi Day, early good wishes for Makar Sankranti, belated good wishes for Hanukkah and Ashura, early best wishes to Rastafarians and to Orthodox Christians for Christmas, early good wishes for Oshogatsu and for the Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh, an early happy new year, and to everybody, the best wishes of the season to you all!
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 05:16 am (UTC)I don't like being shouted at, so I was ridiculously nervous about posting this (Not that I though any of my flist would shout, but *shrugs* LJ is an open forum) but I was also honestly puzzled and really wanted to know. I agree with a lot of PC adaptations to the way we speak, but when it is action taken for a pre-emptive fear of offence, then it is annoying because it becomes patronising in itself.
Happy New Year to you and your family, when it arrives.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 05:30 am (UTC)I get tired of people being super-pre-emptive, because not everybody is that touchy and not everybody *cares*, but if you're doing it because of the reaction of a few or of some of the places on lj, well...i don't really blame you. :)
Enjoy your holiday!
no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 06:27 am (UTC)