Posts Tagged → merry
Whatever your religious belief, our nation now basks in goodness
Christmas is America’s national holiday, and while there are many Christians reminding fellow citizens that there is a more spiritual and faith based core to the holiday, it is, in fact, a glorious time of year no matter what your religious beliefs may be.
Seven days ago, Hanuka began on the 25th day of the Hebrew month Kislev, as usual. Just after Hanuka ends this year, tomorrow night, Christmas will then begin on the 25th day of the Gregorian month of December, as usual.
The two holidays are naturally linked, as early Christians both tied their new religion to the parent faith with a holiday (“Holy Day”) on nearly identical dates, and then separated from it from Hanuka with a new holiday, “Christ’s Mass,” which has been turned into a conjunction, Christmas.
Much has been said about the Judeo-Christian roots of America, and our Christmas holiday is just one more example of that shared religious basis of our nation’s founding. It is a testament to the tolerant and open sensibility at the root of American identity, to shared values among many different people.
You don’t have to be Jewish to like Jewish-style rye bread, and you don’t have to be Christian to enjoy Christmas. Every American should enjoy Christmas, and wish one another a Merry Christmas. There is no declaration of faith in that, but rather it is a declaration of love for all things good and for a shared, common identity in a truly good nation.
Probably the only really good nation on the planet: We have the rule of law, more opportunity than anywhere else, the highest standard of living, etc. Christmas crowns that all at the end of the year, and it reminds us that the sum total of our year is simply good.
In that spirit of goodness, I wish all my fellow Americans and our many guests here Happy Hanuka, and Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas to one and all!
However it evolved into a fake insult, saying Merry Christmas is still the nicest thing one American can say to another.
Christmas is our national holiday. Religious Christians fret over its secularization, and certainly the commercilization and materialism surrounding Christmas stand in contrast to its roots.
But thanks in great part to 19th century British writer Charles Dickens, Christmas is, for all people, a time of cheer, good will towards one another, an abandonment of grudges, an embracing of love as the preferred force in human relations.
So, secularized as this all may be at this point, the message and culture now surrounding Christmas is good stuff.
So, whether you are Christian, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, Baha’i, Zoroastrian, or pagan, I wish you a very Merry Christmas. You’re an American, you’ve earned it.
Merry Christmas to one and all
Somehow
Somehow, wishing Merry Christmas to your fellow American has turned into a big time no-no. Out of fear of “offending” someone, I suppose.
Since when was a human culture based on not possibly offending someone, even unintentionally? The French culture is based on insulting and offending everyone. Like Africans, the Germans pass right by offending and go right for invading and killing.
The British snub everyone in every way, the most popular being the genteel way, of course. Etc.
Americans are so programmed to not offend the many cultures, ethnicities, and religions that make up our nation that now there’s a taboo against wishing someone Merry Christmas. What if they don’t observe or do Christmas?, goes the thinking.
Well, folks, Christmas is our national holiday. And it has become so commercialized and popularized that you don’t have to worry about someone wishing you a Merry Christmas and then in a fit of joy forcing you to eat something you detest, like pickled fish (Norway), blood pudding (Britain), etc. or that the well-wisher’s intent is to either convert you to a different religion (Mormonism) or to belittle your own beliefs.
Since when did wishing cheer and good will among men and women add up to an insult?
I’ll tell you where. In the minds and practices of America’s cultural police, who also promote atheism as America’s official religion, that’s where.
It’s not coming from a healthy place, this new taboo against wishing someone Merry Christmas. And therefore, it is with great relish that I wish all of you dear readers a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year!