War on Chrismas...I'll give you a war

[omahas]

In the past few years, groups of conservative and closed-minded Christians have developed the "War on Christmas". It is, in essence, a PR and marketing campaign meant to rally their right-wing masses into harassing honest, hardworking citizens of this country because many of them are not conservative, close-minded, right-wing Christians of the type these groups want them to be. Or so I thought.

But a very recent development in my back yard has caused a revelation for me. In SeaTac, a neighbor city of mine, a rabbi asked that the Christmas trees that were scattered around the SeaTac airport be dotted with a few menorahs. Didn't demand that the trees be brought down or anything...just asked that some of the ornaments include his religion. They were reticent about that, so he "encouraged" them by showing them a lawsuit he'd be willing to file if they didn't.

Lou Dobbs on CNN (thanks, shaterri for the link) has recently posted an article in which he makes his opinion of this situation known. He feels that the whole thing is political correct wackery, and that the Christmas Tree falls under the venue of the "Reindeer Rule" that the Supreme Court made in 1984, in which they deemed that if a symbol of Christmas is mostly secular, like a reindeer, Christmas tree, or Santa Claus, it does not violate church and state.

My first reaction was, what the hell?? Christmas is CHRIST'S MASS, you idiots! How unsecular can you get. Every time my kids hear the word, they are reminded of it.

Then I took a step back. No, in fact, that's not the case at all. To them, Christmas isn't about Christ at all. Christmas is about Santa Claus, and presents, and giving, and joy, and remembering that spring will come again. In fact, both my kids have been singing a lot of Christian themed Christmas carols without a clue to what they actually mean. 'Silent Night', 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing', and so forth. When I asked my seven year old what 'Silent Night' was about, she said it was a lullaby to a baby. No particular baby. Just a lullaby. She doesn't really know who Jesus is.

And I realized, in a revelation, that we are secularizing Christian elements of Christian celebrations that had been Christianized so many centuries ago from Pagan elements. And THAT is what the "War on Christmas" is really all about. We are doing to them what they did to my religious ancestors so many years ago. And they are terrified.

So, I'm going to take it one step further. Christmas is still 'Christ's Mass' in it's spelling, but not in its pronunciation. No one pronounces it 'Christ-mus'. They pronounce it 'Chris-mus'. I see no reason not to amend the spelling to complete the secularization...after all, isn't that what the Supreme Court ruled would have to happen for Christmas to be secular enough?

FROM NOW ON, I SPELL IT CHRISMAS. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE ELSE TO AS WELL.

(I've added it to my computer spelling dictionaries too).

Comments

[xthread.livejournal.com]

And I realized, in a revelation, that we are secularizing Christian elements of Christian celebrations that had been Christianized so many centuries ago from Pagan elements. And THAT is what the "War on Christmas" is really all about. We are doing to them what they did to my religious ancestors so many years ago. And they are terrified.

I believe that you have struck quite a square blow, and that particular nail will be sporting a serious bruise on the top of it's skull for the foreseeable future.

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

Brilliant, Omaha. Big hug coming your way next time I see you - you just reframed a lot of stuff for me in a way I can feel good about.

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

BTW, I always spell it Xmas, and pronounce it that way half the time ("X Mas"), and do you mind if I share this?

[omahas.livejournal.com]

...and do you mind if I share this?

Oh, no, of course not. Please do...spread the meme ;) Heheheh.

And Merry Chrismas!

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

I tend to just refer to the season as 'Yule', and use 'Gød Yule' in place of 'happy holidays' or any of the other traditional wishes. That is, when I don't use this:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all, and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or choice of computer platform of the wishee.
 
(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)

The above is why they don't let lawyers write holiday cards...

[omahas.livejournal.com]

For me, Yule is the religious holiday...lighter and smaller than Saimhain, yes, but still a fun holiday. Chrismas is the secular holiday...kind of like Thanksgiving. There's no religious aspect to it. The fact that they occur about the same time is incidental.

BTW, I *love* the legal holiday wish. Reminds me of the One Ring EULA I wrote a while back.

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

True enough, but for the vast majority of people, if they recognize 'Yule' at all, it's in the context of 'Yule log' or '...toll the ancient Yuletide carol' and assume that it's just an old name for Christmas or the holiday season -- and I have to admit that it tweaks my sense of humor to offer a religious benefaction to people who are too blindered to recognize it for what it is.

[halloranelder.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!

Thanks for sharing.

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

Hm. I thought Chrismas trees were the symbol of 19th-century aristocratic inbreeding...

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Well, if you believe Julius Caesar and his ilk, Germanic pagan tribes were decorating evergreens at the beginning of the common era. Several Roman writers described tree decorating as part of this holiday time period, though some of the decorations described were, well, not what we would do. Although these Roman writers had a motive for lying about that (they wanted the tribes to look bad so Roman citizens would continue supporting wars against them).

[hydrolagus.livejournal.com]

My lame joke. A lot of the popular "traditional" Chrismas imagery is from Victorian England, when reinterpretations of German traditions brought over by Albert's marriage to Victoria, the faddishness of anything semi-historical or done by the royals, and the availability of industrial manufacture spawned a trend of faux-traditional Chrismas kitch--just like in the old days, but new and improved!
Not like we do anything like that now...

[omahas.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sorry. Unfortunately, sarcasm doesn't often carry very well over the Internet. ;)