From: sedayao@sousa.intel.com (Jeff Sedayao)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american
Subject: Re: So this is Christmas?
Date: 28 Dec 92 23:42:01 GMT
Reply-To: sedayao@chopin.intel.com
Organization: Intel - Information Technologies

In article <1992Dec27.184358.7281@news.columbia.edu>, gld@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Gary L Dare) writes:
> 
> Just got back from a restful Christmas break of two and a half days ...
> after spending it the way that I did, and looking at the usual flamefest
> maybe I can inject an interesting topic (yes!) for discussion:

> 	"How do you look at and spend Christmas?"

[stuff deleted]

> Now many years later as an adult, I've come to wonder if the greater
> religeous consciousness since the '70s and stronger ethnic identity
> fostered by larger numbers of recent arrivals (the people who came in
> the 20's through the 60's in my hometown are now dwarfed to the point
> of irrelevancy, and their children like me scattered all around) will
> ever allow that to repeat itself again?  Fundamentalists want to take
> back Christmas (they have a point, even if they overlook that Jesus
> was a Jew and that the Yule itself was pagan in origin .... you know
> the people that I mean) and ethnophiles who are against assimilation
> (I'm not flaming anyone here) may possibly lead us to a future where
> the secularized Yuletide season as portrayed in Dickens' "A Christmas
> Carol" and like I knew in my childhood through the late 70's and early
> 70's may not be repeated by future generations of Asian-Americans (and
> those outside of the New World in the Asian diaspora) growing up and
> as well those newly arrived.

> [Actually, I don't believe that which I wrote ... it's for debate.]

I agree with you - I think that future definitions will be doing the 
secular Christmas thing.  I doubt that that after a few generations, any 
immigrant group will be able to avoid some acceptance of secular Christmas.
When I went to the malls this season, many Asian Americans were shopping
for Christmas.  It looked to me as if they bought into the American style
Christmas.

Also, you seem to assume that all Asians don't have a Christmas tradition.
Filipinos have a Christmas tradition.  My wife (who is from the Philippines)
always complains that Christmas is so much better there than in the U.S.

[Gary's christmas deleted]

My Christmas eve started with a 5 mile run, in preparation for the massive
orgy of eating I knew would soon occur.  After the run, my wife and I went
to her sister's house, where we ate and opened presents.  After than, we went
to my parents house and ate dinner.  From there we went to a Catholic midnight
mass (along with a zillion other Filipinos).  After the mass, we returned to
my parents house and ate once more.  We opened presents, and then went home 
to sleep.  On Christmas day, we went to another party and ate.  We then 
visited some other friends and ate.  We then went directly home, unable to return
to my parents house, who wanted us to eat some more.  Day after Christmas - long
work out!

> I hope that your holiday weeks will be just as enjoyable!

It was enjoyable, especially if you like to eat.

> gld
> --
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Je me souviens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Gary L. Dare
> > gld@cunixd.cc.columbia.EDU 		Support NAFTA
> > gld@cunixc.BITNET			 Eat Mexican  (El Teddy's ad)

-- 
Jeff Sedayao
Intel Corporation
sedayao@chopin.intel.com
..!uunet!intelhf!chopin!sedayao
Newsgroups: soc.culture.asian.american