Friday, December 24, 2004
Merry Christmas! We won't go into all the recent stories about who is attacking or defending Christmas, except to say that O'Reilly is acting like a boob, and most conservatives are making a mountain out of a molehill. We will, however, address the generic "Happy Holidays" greeting. Which holiday are we talking about? The holiday in question is the legal Federal Holiday of Christmas Day. Here is the relevant federal law (5 U.S.C. 6103): (a) The following are legal public holidays:New Year's Day, January 1.
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January.
Washington's Birthday, the third Monday in February.
Memorial Day, the last Monday in May.
Independence Day, July 4.
Labor Day, the first Monday in September.
Columbus Day, the second Monday in October.
Veterans Day, November 11.
Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November.
Christmas Day, December 25. So it would appear to be entirely appropriate ( and accurate) to wish everyone - no matter what their religious inclination - a Merry Christmas.
posted by Quiddity at 12/24/2004 07:07:00 AM
7 comments
So it would appear to be entirely appropriate (and accurate) to wish everyone - no matter what their religious inclination - a Merry Christmas.Well, sure. Although, most people, when saying "Happy Holidays", probably mean the week between Christmas and New Years, when many people are on vacation visiting relatives, or, in my case, having an easy time at work.
And, of course, the people who have made an issue out of this only care to emphasize the Christ-y part of the greeting as a challenge, which is really the whole point.
I do not consider the Christmas Day holiday to be religious. Neither do I consider using the number 2004 to identify the current year a religious affirmation.
Both had their origins in religion, but both are now part of a secular calendar.
If you are so concerned about the religious nature of things, why say Happy Holidays, when "holiday" is derived from Holy Day?
Pudentilla explains why the Red Christianist insistence on "Merry Christmas at the Mall" is hardly Christian at all.
That's the other thing I've pondered - since "holiday", as you mentioned, is derived from "holy day", why can't the wingnuts be happy with that as well? Instead, a banal wish of pleasantries has become a tribal battle cry. Good thing there's no ulterior religious motive to asking "How are you?", or answering "Fine", or else they'd be screeching about that, too.
It's so heartwarming to see how they've turned this into a hatefest, but I guess that's just their nature.
Or I could wish everyone a Happy Holidays since there's like fourteen different celebrations taking place in this small chunk of time and I celebrate none of them.
Or I could do what I really do and just evade contact with anyone who would expect such pointless well wishing. Namely, everyone who isn't giving me a present. Pony up, bitches, Christ is angry.
"why can't the wingnuts be happy with that as well"
'cause then the "US" vs. "THEM" equation would become unbalanced.
Some people are uncomfortable with the idea of "live and let live" (as is evident by some comments here) and others (like your "wingnuts") are threatened by the idea.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
What the hell is wrong with the country when, despite everything going on in the world as a whole, people are bitching about Christmas?
How many of you offended non-Christians don't take advantage of the Federal holidays because of your "beliefs"? Thought so... you take advantage of Christmas/Christian perks and turn around a bitch about them in your next breath. Typical crap for this country anymore. Is there nothing out of control? The religious right, the bully Bush, the censoring FCC... I'm a gay person in a somewhat large college town in the midwest that refuses to make discrimination against gay people illegal; it's hard to hold out hope when, in spite of it all, people are getting all upset about something as trivial as this when there are so many more pressing issues to get upset about.
Canada is looking so good anymore.
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