Editor:
I was shopping for See’s candy last week at a local store. I made my selections, paid and the woman wished me Merry Christmas. “I like saying, ‘Happy Holidays,'” I responded. “It’s more inclusive. My best friend is Jewish.”
“I guess we’ll go our separate ways,” she said. “I’ll stick with ‘Merry Christmas’ and you can stick with ‘Happy Holidays.’ I’m kind of a traditionalist.” I felt like I had been hit with a bucket of cold water. What if I were Jewish or Muslim?
Is there something traditional about not recognizing the diversity of people here? Well, maybe so. The world I grew up in 60 years ago was all white (or pretended to be), all protestant, all heterosexual. That world was run by rich white men.
Do we want to live in a world in which we honor our diversity and all religions, races, ethnicities and sexual orientations? Or do we want to live in a world run by rich hetero white men — and everyone else is not OK?
Let’s think about what our words truly mean.
Wanda Naylor, Eureka
This article appears in Top 10 Stories of 2020.
A useful exercise for the person who professes Christianity might be to ask themselves how they would feel if, during the holiday season, everyone around them wished them a Wonderful Buddha’s Birthday, thought they were arrogant for replying that they weren’t Buddhist and so preferred “Happy Holidays,” and then insisted that such a request was part of a war on Buddhism.
As a retired pastor, I often wish people Merry Christmas with love. But I also wish them Happy Holidays (holy days), especially when I know they are not Christian. We all worship (or not) the same God, and I dont believe God really cares what we say; God cares what we do, and how we treat our fellow humans.
The world is made up of many who are not Christians…..stop being selfish, wish Happy Holidays to all.
Diane,
You believe in a god who is the object of worship of about 55% of people alive today, although only 31% of people call themselves Christian, 24% call themselves Muslim, and there are a few people who call themselves Jewish. I neither worship nor “not worship,” that god, any more than I worship or “not worship” the various other gods who people have invented.
For obvious reasons, I think what is important is what we do, and how we treat our fellow humans and other animals. That matters regardless of what supernatural beings you choose to believe in. What frightens me is the willingness of such a large number of people to put more “faith” in supposed holy statements that have managed to reach us after several thousands of years, rather than in our own consciences, and those of people like Mahatma Gandhi.
The holy days are only holy to me to the extent they cause people to reflect on such things as the Sermon on the Mount or Rabbi Hillel’s one sentence description of the Torah. Such personal introspection could do nothing but help. Worship of the supernatural is easily perverted, as I’m sure you realize, and has been used throughout history as a way to divide people rather than unite them.