From: gpalo@digi.lonestar.org (Gerry Palo)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Banned: ``Happy Holidays'' [sic]
Date: 30 Dec 92 17:34:42 GMT
Distribution: soc
Organization: DSC Communications Corp, Plano, TX

In article <1992Dec26.010453.11722@microsoft.com> frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) writes:
>In article <1992Dec22.060515.1745@osf.org> sp@osf.org (Simon Patience) writes:
>>In article <1992Dec18.211132.19133@microsoft.com>, frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) writes:
>>> In article <1992Dec15.123843.13440@its.bt.co.uk> tjo@its.bt.co.uk (Tim Oldham) writes:
>>> >In article <suplick.724377812@mikey> suplick@convex.com (Jean Suplick) writes:
>>> >>Happy holidays!  ;-)
>>> >
>>> [deletion]
>>> >
>>> >I don't know what the fuck you celebrate in December in other parts
>>> >of the world, but in Britain and Northern Ireland it's Christmas and
>>> >the New Year.
>>> >
>>> >Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year,
>>> >
>>> 
>>> I'm sure all the British Jews will be happy to hear this.
>>
>>Why worry about the Jews? At least they have honiker (this is definitely
>>*not* how you spell this) to play with but what about all the muslims,
>>hindi, etc who don't have a religious celebration about this time of year.
>>Let alone the atheists who everyone seems to ignore when it comes to
>>talking about religious freedoms (see G. Bush).
>>
>>Let's face it, christmas is the celebration of a religious minority and
>>shopkeepers.
>>
>
>While I completely agree with you, Simon, I mentioned the
>Jews not as the only ones who are left out of "Merry
>Christmas" but merely as a symbol for all the non-Christians
>in any Western society, British, American, Continental, or
>Canadian. Also, there is the fact that there are a lot more
>Jews in my little slice of the great world than Hindus or Muslims.
>About Buddhists, I'm not so sure. We atheists, on the other
>hand, are as scarce as hens' teeth.
>
>-- 
>Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
>	"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda

My view of Christmas is that, although it is a Christian festival, the
good will and cheer in which it abounds for everyone, without requiring
that they change their beliefs.  For this reason I often wish people
a merry Christmas when I don't know for sure their personal religious
orientation.

I see and feel Christmas as a cup running over, and I am happy when people,
especially non-Christians, can partake in it, if only in the form of
holidays, good food, gift giving and receiving, and generally being
together at the quiet turning point of the year.

The blessing of the angels was "Peace on earth, good will to men [the
Greek means "human beings"].  Or another translation has it, "Peace
on earth to men of good will."  This did not restrict itself to only
Jews at the time nor, do I believe, that it is restricted to Christians
today.

Of course I try not to offend, and if I know someone is Jewish I tend to
make an appropriate greeting.  Tact is obviously the important thing, for
what good is a wish for peace and goodwill if it offends? Yet I find many
non-Christians, e.g. many orientals I know, who accept the greeting 
and return it with cheer.  I have also found that Moslem friends accept
and return the greeting cheerfully at face value.  Generally only Jews and 
some atheists, in my experience, tend to be sensitive about it, and they
each have their own special reasons to feel so.  

One of my favorite stories is Dickens's Christmas Carol.  It has been observed
by fundamentalists that there is no mention of Christ in it anywhere, that
it is really a pagan spirit that pervades it.  So it does, and so it is
also a good keeping of Christmas.  Christmas is a time for inner nourishment
(viz the scrumptious meal) and renewal, and also peace, not for doctrinal
disputes or evangelizing.  It is also a time to look outward towards others.
I really believe that angels do bend near the earth at this time and that
many people feel it one way or another.

But there are many ways to keep Christmas and to spread the cheer of it.
I am a Christian, but I also feel that especially at Christmas the earth
itself breathes in a new healing impulse that reaches beyond individual 
creeds and touches on humanity itself.  I feel it myself every year when
after resolving to be frugal and simple in my gift giving and turn to
the deeper meaning of Christmas, I rush out at the last minute, helpless
to resist the urge to buy gifts for everyone under the sun.  Dreadful
lack of self control.

So God bless the shopkeepers and everyone for whom Christmas means mainly
getting and giviing gifts.  They deserve a Christmas too --and they help
make mine as well.

And God bless all atheists, unconditionally, as they are.  

Christmas cheers (on the sixth day of Christmas)
Gerry Palo (73237.2006@compuserve.com)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british