So, I was reading some random blogs the other day as I sat in bed too sick to do anything else and I came across this one. I really liked what it had to say. I mean really, what is so bad about wishing people Happy Holidays? Why is it so necessary to boycott stores or programs because they tell their employees to wish people Happy Holidays instead of Marry Christmas?
If you haven’t started receiving them yet, prepare for your inbox to be inundated with emails about the “war” on Christmas. Thanks to Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Fox News, and my super religious aunts, I have to delete all those emails about boycotting Wal-mart, since they have told their associates to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. Do we have to do this every year? People have tried to argue that we should remember the “reason for the season” and not try to acknowledge other holidays that are during the same time period. Let’s look at why Christmas should be the focus of the holiday season.
First of all, Thanksgiving, which kicks off the holiday season, is about acknowledging Providence in generating that year’s harvest. It is also a time of family and community as we share a meal together and thank God for our blessings. So we shouldn’t say happy holidays because this doesn’t contribute to the message of Christmas.
Next we will be celebrating the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, the festival of lights, as it is also known, is to celebrate the Maccabean revolt. Most people haven’t heard the word Maccabeas, but it could have been a book in the Bible, it was left out and is now part of the Apocrypha. Enough of the history lesson, we wouldn’t want to recognize a holiday that celebrates lighting the way for other people and overcoming oppression from others.
Another holiday that I’m quite positive we wouldn’t want to include would be Kwanzaa, to celebrate one’s history, recognize where they have come from (Don’t we get a pedigree of Christ in the first book of the Bible?), to celebrate with lighting candles (Hanukkah) and giving gifts (Christmas & Hanukkah) that just might be too much for God, who Christians see as the ultimate gift giver. So obviously God doesn’t want to have us acknowledging and celebrating a holiday like this.
As the end of the holidays comes around we will be celebrating a new year and a time for personal reflection, we obviously don’t want to include this holiday in our happy holiday greetings. This is a time to look at rebirth (similar to baptism) and setting goals for the upcoming year (enduring to the end); this would be quite offensive to God, because really the only thing we should think about is the holiday that we call Christmas.
So let’s look at the gift giving holiday that we all know and love, Three Kings Day. What? You mean there is a day special for celebrating the wise men that came to Christ and brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and muir? That’s right, it may be part of every nativity scene, but we don’t want to recognize their contribution on any day but December 25th?
Then on to December 25th, Happy Yule Day, oops I mean Happy Horus Day, oh no I got it, Merry Christmas. I know we don’t celebrate Yule Day, because if we did we would have to cut down evergreens and take them into our homes. Horus Day, what was I thinking? Horus was seen as an enlightened Savior God, whose symbol is the all-seeing eye. Obviously that has nothing to do with Christmas. So yes, Happy Holidays is quite offensive to God, because the holidays that share the same season with Christmas do not share similar values as Christmas.
(pssst...Happy Holidays)
an annonymous blogger at byuagnostic.blogspot.com
