The Catskill Chronicle

Twice Divorced – By Grayce Goin

Dear Twice Divorced,
I’m finding myself caught up in this Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas debate. I don’t want to insult people by wishing them a Merry Christmas if they’re Jewish or Hindu or Muslim. And certainly when I know what someone celebrates I’ll acknowledge that in my greetings. But seriously, people seem ready to kill over this. Doesn’t that sort of defeat the purpose of the holiday? Why can’t people just accept Happy Holidays and be done with it?

Confused

Dear Confused,

You have a great deal of company suffering right along with you through this inane debate. Instead of a simple thank you, well wishers often receive a diatribe on the “true definition” of the season. It never occurs to these ranters that there are other deeply held, and profoundly fulfilling beliefs which may not coincide with their own.

In addition to Jewish and Christian there are also Islamic, Buddhist, Wiccan, and Zoroastrian (and probably several others I have never heard of) rites observed around this time – seriously, can anyone of these groups claim exclusive rights to a time of the year? The very idea is absurd on its face.

So many of the traditional holiday rites practiced today predate Christianity by thousands of years: Yule – and the lighting the Yule Log – celebrates the returning of the light – a rebirth of the sun god as it were. In the same vein, the practice of lighting multiple candles was wide spread. The use of bells is to keep unfriendly fairies at bay. The decorating of evergreen trees (without cutting the tree down), the bringing of holly into the home and the hanging of wreaths on doors are all ancient pagan rituals. There is a wealth of information on the net concerning the issue – so enough of this history lesson.
What I don’t understand:

1) Where was the great hue and cry when Bing Crosby first sang Happy Holidays as written by Irving Berlin in the early 1950′s? Certainly there were plenty of faithful Christians in the country in 1952, or could certain extremists have created this non-issue to suck in reasonable members to their other causes?

2) Where is the “do unto others…” attitude? If you force your beliefs on others isn’t it inevitable that someday another’s beliefs will be forced on you or your descendants. Don’t think this is possible? How and why did our nation come to be?

3) Since those claiming to be Christians seem to making the most noise about this, where are the teachings of Christ on how we should be treating each other? Aren’t you supposed to be humbly grateful that you were born in a position to become a Christian rather than in another land and of another faith? There should be no domineering pride displayed here.

All this whining about a simple two word phrase which intrinsically recognizes the individual’s right to believe as they choose is about as far as you can get from the basic tenets of most faiths. To my mind the use of Happy Holidays acknowledges the integrity of every person and their inherent right to believe differently.
So…I wish everyone lots of love to fill your heart, good health to enjoy your loved ones, enough wealth to fill your needs with a little left over to share with those less fortunate and Happy Holidays.

Be Well