Generally speaking Christmas day in Europe is a family gathering, when members will often travel very large distances to be together. In my family members take it in turns and gatherings now amount to about 30 odd. Children receive their presents on the 6th January, on a day called St. Nicholas or the 3 Kings in Spain. European immigrants to the US and Canada combined both into one day and hence the hanging up of the stocking for St. Nicholas on Christmas day. Unfortunately commercial interests in Europe now often have father Christmases walking around their stores and apart from confusing the children they no doubt hope that presents will be given on both days!

I was born in 1957. My memory regarding politics, history, culture etc. starts in the mid 1970’s when I became interested in these things. I remember my parents being bothered then already that saying “Merry Christmas” was replaced with “Happy Holidays”. The media had started the idea that saying “Merry Christmas” to someone that isn’t Christian could be offensive to them. They started forcing local gov’ts and schools to remove anything that has to do with Christmas.

I grew up in an area with a big Jewish population – New York. Most of my friends at that time were Jewish, but I did not like what was going on either. In the Jewish religion, Chanukah is not their most important holiday, but because it falls during the same time period as Christmas, they created Chanukah cards and the expression Happy Chanukah. Now we have Happy Kwanzaa. In Europe people still greet each other by saying “Merry Christmas” and they have huge Christmas displays in cities all over Europe.  This is the case despite the fact that most people are not religious. Until the late 1960’s / early 1970’s people used to say “Merry Christmas” to one another here too.  Then we were told it could be offensive to people that are not Christian (meaning Jewish people).  People were told saying “Merry Christmas” is offensive and that is how we got to the expression that offends me - “Happy Holidays”.

I’m not even religious and I once considered myself an atheist. I hardly ever go to church, but I do like the Christmas traditions and I resent people that are so petty that they want to force Christmas out of society. I’m sure there are Jews and atheists that don’t have a problem saying “Merry Christmas” or having someone saying it to them, but the people it does bother have the biggest mouths and they made it an issue. I believe it is Jews that are offended by Christmas that made it an issue.  Here is an article from 2007 about how a rabbi forced the Seattle airport to take down the Christmas trees they had up (the airport had been putting up a Christmas display for more than 25 years).  He threatened to sue.  This was reported on TV at the time. http://www.seattlepi.com/local/336038_trees19.html

In the early 1990’s the white gov’t was voted out of South Africa and majority rule was established (blacks make up over 95% of the population in South Africa). The media said “majority rule” was a central tenet of a democracy and it was a good thing. I agree and equal rights for minorities is also important for a democracy. But the last time I heard of a poll on this, 80% of the American people classified themselves as Christian and I don’t even know if that includes people like myself who enters a church once every few years. Shouldn’t there be majority rule in the USA?

There is a commercial on TV now where a bunch of young people (a beautiful blonde girl stands out among the dancers) sing “Go Christmas, go Chanukah, go Kwanzaa”. I find this insulting. These small minded, resentful people that have destroyed the celebration of Christmas should get a life.

johanne is right—it was winter solstice, which the Romans co-opted, pretending that they knew when (or if) a Rabbi named Jesus was borm on that day…they incorporated the best traditions of Empire—eating like a hog and spending money.

Boy, the comments certainly deteriorate from there! Must be that christian love we hear so much about…

Montana, I spell it like they say it, like ayright and auuunt and jewry

Wouldn’t that be: “I be speaken’ Ebonics”?

Come on folks.  Get over yourselves.  Christmas is for the kids!  It will always be
for the kids!  Don’t you remember how awesome it was when you were little and
woke up to see all those magical presents piled beneath the tree one snowy
Christmas morning?  Kids deserve to have toys and to feel that we live in a
magical world where utter perfection in the form of a fat benevolent white man
flying on a sleigh through the night—- these things make the world seem ‘not all
that bad’.  I mean geez… it’s only once a year!  I hope they keep Christmas even
after the death of Christianity!  I think it’s a great holiday!  Not just for Christians
but for everyone!

mandinka!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s KWANZAA man not quanzi…..

And it starts TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s an 8 day festival celebrating the harvest…

It’s a huge scam like Chanakuh except it never got off the ground….  Not enough jewish support I suppose…

Anywho, let the party begin….. I’m speaken’ EBONICS all day….

ps. I hope the brothers out there in truthdig land have a sense of humour….

Christmas can mean many things to both Christians and non-Christians all over the world. To most it’s just a pleasant holiday to be enjoyed with your family and friends.

Even in the Punjabi!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5eIbK5TzP0

we already have quanzi and black history month both have been historic FLOPS

iowaheretic,,,

It takes a modicum of intelligence to understand my posts so it doesn’t surprise me that you didn’t get it…..

Add a Japanese Valentine and its social counterpart, White Day, to that list: chocolatiers introduced Valentines practices in Japan, complete with a habitus of giving: female secretaries, clerks, lovers, wives, etc., are to give to their bosses, seniors, lovers, husbands, etc., respectively. White Day is the opportunity for males to return chocolate to the respective females from whom they received chocolate…

After reading comments by “montanawildhack” and “jb”,it’s easy to see how the LYING Religious Right can impose their moronic beliefs on other morons! The Muslims CANNOT and WILL NOT ever take over or destroy America! This is just ANOTHER LYING SCARE TACTIC by the Religious Right to scare people into christianity. Look around-how many Muslims do you see compared to people that aren’t? And how many of these really want to take over America? I thought the reason most of them came to America was for a better life, not the same old Middle-Age mentality they were living in. And as far as “devil worshippers”, they are just christians worshipping the opposite. You can’t believe in the devil if you don’t believe in god because it’s all part of the same story!

Let’s see; we spend ourselves into debt celebrating the birth of a shadowy entity that most likely was born in a different month in an approximate year in a “town” that did not exist at the alleged time of this birth to a married virgin who had other children. Wow, on top of all this we don’t know anything about this person from about puberty until adulthood and all those who “write” about him either never knew him or relate contradictory or fantastical stories about his activities in an era rife with political and social upheavals barely alluded to in the context of his supposed dramatic influence. Yeah, this is kind of like what occurred in France & Japan except we’re still buying into this bill of goods.

Most people in America go to church to hedge their bet…... “Just in case all this religion isn’t a huge crock of shit, I better go pay my respects to the baby Jesus.”

Do you know what the biggest difference between the Muslims and the Christians is????  The Muslims really believe in their God…..  And that is why they will eventually kick our collective asses…. Not because their God is any more real, mind you, but because they BELIEVE…..

Remember the scene in Star Wars -Empire Strikes Back when Luke can’t raise his Starship out of the swamp and then Yoda does it for him???  And then Luke says upon witnessing it, ” I don’t believe it.”  And then Yoda says, “That is why you fail.”  Same deal….

    “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown!!”

Christmas has never really been a christian holiday,it’s just what the christians keep telling everybody by distorting history! The Puritans actually outlawed the celebration of Christmas because they knew of it’s Pagan roots.When people started celebrating Christmas in America,it soon became all about money and sales of goods.  The only thing christian about Christmas is believing Jesus was born(but no bible says it was Dec.25)and going to church to celebrate it. EVERYTHING else associated with Christmas has Pagan roots practised centuries before Christ.

“Ancient people noted the winter solstice, and they left evidence that they held rituals or celebrations to mark the event. Prehistoric stone sites such as Stonehenge in Europe, an astronomically aligned stone altar in Guatemala and carefully placed windows on an ancient Native American stone house show that the ancients were in tune with the divisions of the heavens and demonstrated an amazing accuracy for astronomy. Since the daylight following the winter solstice grows longer, many legends and traditions across the world emphasize rebirth and new life with winter solstice celebrations.

“Egyptians recalled the rebirth of the god-king Osiris upon the winter solstice and ancient Greeks celebrated a winter solstice celebration called Lenaea when a god was torn to pieces and then reborn. In Rome, Solis Invicti was a winter celebration where the sun deities were worshipped. Other cultures equated the winter solstice with renewal and rebirth. In Japan, the Amaterasu celebration honored the sun goddess and her emergence from a dark cave. In Pakistan during the winter solstice, a purification ritual is performed prior to feasting, singing and dancing. From Iceland and Russia to Vietnam and West Africa, winter solstice celebrations are among the first recorded winter holidays.”

Actually, I believe Christmas celebrated as the birth of Jesus was coopted by the Church in the earliest days of the Roman Conquest of northern Europe. The northern countries already had a winter solstice celebration which proved adequate as a basis.  The hero of the day was blessed by the Church as St.Nikolas. Making Jesus the subject of the annual return of the sun’s light was convenient. I think I remember that December 25 was a purely arbitrary date that gradually became traditional.

Japanese use New Years as a kind of winter solstice celebration, a big deal, though religion is not a main theme.  In fact, the ancient history of that day as a national celebration of Amaterasu, (the goddess who was persuaded to open the door of her cave so she could be seen, and see herself—again a myth of light) is more or less forgotten now. Gifts and shopping are probably remains of the influence of the Occupation post-WWII.