Dear Editor,
Re: “Is it ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ Reporters go head-to-head” News Dec. 23, 24.
Thank you Alan Campbell for being reasonable. Graeme Wood I have a few words for you — with respect.
The meaning and spirit of Christmas has been sabotaged and polluted by big business, saturated with advertising and fashioned into a materialistic, indulgent and debt-ridden sham.
Much of the success of the season is measured by business profit margins. To further rub salt into the wound, the dogmatic secularists, in the name of equality and political correctness, have attempted in the last several years to tease out the word “Christmas” from the Christmas season.
Without Christmas, there would be no “holiday season” or “happy holidays.”
Of course we could continue to break from tradition and create a holiday season and call it… a shopping madness holiday, or a just because gift exchange holiday, or a donations holiday.
Interestingly, other cultures and religious groups don’t seem to have a problem with the word, perhaps in part because they recognize their own vulnerability in a secular society.
Since we respect other celebrations such as Diwali, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Chinese New Year and so on, and call them by their proper name, I expect that the same courtesy be extended to the Christian celebration of Christmas.
I have noticed that this year there has been a resurgence of the use of the word Christmas.
And so to all who are not offended I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas.
N McDonald
Richmond
Lighten up and enjoy ‘Happy Holidays’
Dear Editor,
Re: “Is it ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Merry Christmas’ Reporters go head-to-head” News Dec. 23, 24.
Let’s review December holidays from oldest to newest:
Winter Solstice
Hanukkah
Yule
Christ’s Mass (a specifically Roman Catholic rite)
Christmas (the general holiday)
Christmas Eve
New Year’s Eve
Boxing Day
Looks like holidays (plural) to me, even for the religiously minded. Lighten up, all.
I’m Jewish, and UT if someone sincerely (not as a challenge) wishes me “merry Christmas,” I hear “may your celebrations be as filled with joy as I wish mine to be.”
So, I respond, with equal good wishes. “And to you and your family, too.”
For the religious: Jesus himself celebrated Hanukkah (it’s in the Gospels.)
For the non-religious: Do you expect strangers to greet you on your birthday (another event eclipsed by the general public’s agreed-upon dates for public greetings)?
Go peace or go home!
George Pope
Richmond
