Sunday 18 December, 2005

Happy Holidays

I never saw anything bad about "Merry Christmas" before moving here.

Well, although Canadians are not nearly as bad with this as their friends in the south, there are certain PC element to the holidays here. No one has been offended by my well-wishes yet (I think), but one person did point out that they weren't Christian (only partly joking), and at one point I was told (also partly joking, I hope) that I shouldn't be wishing people merry Christmas if I wasn't sure of their affiliations.

I don't believe in God or Jesus, but still we've always celebrated Christmas in my family, and so have all my friends independent of there faiths. If someone wishes me "Merry Christmas" I always took that as someone wanting to wish me well - what could be offensive about that? I never took that to mean that I should be celebrating the birth of Christ. And before Raisa wrote about it (in Finnish) I would have said that in Finland nobody gives a fa-la-laa why you celebrate Christmas.

And in fact if you start nitpicking it, Christmas is originally a pagan holiday anyway, and there were probably people celebrating the Winter Solstice ever since man learned to count. Does that mean we should really be beating two sticks together and lighting fires so that the spring would come back? Over in UK the Archbishop of Canterbury disagrees and most definitely wants to keep Christmas Christian saying that "The truth is they're [our neighbors from other religious traditions] usually much happier with the idea of a Christian festival than with some general excuse to have a good time in midwinter." Right. That's still mild compared to some lunatics that think that the virtual world World of Warcraft should have a Nativity scene.

The thing is - I love Christmas. Personally I don't care what your reason is (as long as you don't force it on me) - I like the tradition that there is one time in a year where you can quiet down, sit down with your family, have a good meal and be nice to each other. I love the sights, smells and sounds of Christmas - the moment after the Christmas dinner is finished and we've lit the candles (real candles in our tree, of course) and sit down quiet. The smell of the real spruce, the candles softly glowing... anticipation of seeing your loved ones' faces when they open the presents you've bought them.

Honestly, what offensive is there about that.

Posted by kolibri at 18 December 17:58, 2005
Comments
# 1 - Henri (on December 19, 2005 01:01 AM):

You love "joulu", but do you love Christmas? If everybody in Finland was wishing you "Hyvää Jeesus-juhlaa", would you think differently?


# 2 - Les [TypeKey Profile Page] (on December 19, 2005 08:04 AM):

As an atheist I take a fair amount of flak when I use "Merry Christmas" as a greeting as though by nature of my unbelief I'm somehow prohibited from use of the words. At the same time there are some folks who worry I'll be offended if they wish me a Merry Christmas, but I take such comments in the same way I take the traditional "bless you" that inevitably follows any sneeze I might let loose upon the world: As pleasantry spoken with all good intention and it's hard to get offended over that.


# 3 - Rel Fexive (on December 19, 2005 01:48 PM):

Sometimes people can be so blinkered by the fear of offending anyone, it's surprising they bother to speak at all. Or come out of their house.

I like the "I was being pagan, actually" response. Christianity is the most klepto religion of them all, after all. About 90% of the traditions and rituals are stolen and/or converted from someone elses' religion. They still call Easter after the goddess of that name whose day of celebration they stole, for frell's sake.


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