Thanksgiving is a few short days away, which means Christmas decorations have been up in retail for about a month now. Yes. Christmas decorations. Believe in it or not, the reason for the season is Christmas and I’m not about to lessen the value and meaning of Christmas by saying anything different.
I would imagine that somewhere along the line, celebrating the fourth of July offends some illegal immigrants sitting in a slum in the inner city, quivering at any flashing blue light. But who is going to stop us from celebrating the birth of our country? I’m not saying we shouldn’t respect other religions or cultures, but let us do it in due course.
December 25th is Christmas. The large green pine trees in Times Square and the rotunda of the White House are Christmas Trees. At what point in history did tradition eradicate itself to give way to some ill conceived notion that people cannot handle a holiday specific to a particular culture? I say this not only in relation to Christmas, however.
Many colleges and universities with large Jewish populations receive multiple days off during the academic year for religious days such as Rosh Hashanah and Passover. Most colleges and universities excuse students of the Muslim faith from most academic work during the period of Ramadan. So every other religion is entitled to their Holy Days, so named, so celebrated, and so accepted, but the most time honored of all is not?
No one is trying to force the Christian religion on any other people. Beliefs are beliefs, and no one can take that way. The request we make is simple, give us our Holy Day back.
Commercialization aside, it is a day of religious observance, subordinate in religious importance only to Easter. I’ll wish you L’Chaim on Rosh Hashanah and Mazel Tov on your bar mitzvah, just wish me Merry Christmas when its time. Sometimes, being politically correct is a pain in the ass.
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