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Altoids Addict (![[info]](http://www.journalfen.net/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} altoidsaddict) wrote,@ 2008-03-10 11:33:00 |
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The War On Christmas Part 2
Let me preface this by saying I believe the War on Christmas stuff is bullshit. Given that the Christmas season encompasses, depending on the year, holidays of several different faiths and persuasions from Paganism to Islam to Judaism and beyond, it is entirely more appropriate to wish someone "Happy Holidays" if you do not know their faith than "Merry Christmas." It is an appreciated courtesy, particularly in this state where we have a great deal of religious and secular diversity in how we celebrate our respective faiths. Hell, I'm a mostly-secular Jew who is influenced by Islamic teachings but holds on to a mostly Dantean view of the afterlife, and I still love Christmas. But wish me Happy Holidays, because it's the right thing to do. If someone rails on about the "War on Christmas," what they're really against is courtesy - and in a season supposedly about peace on earth and brotherhood to men (or sisterhood to women), why would you immediately flag yourself as a hypocrite and defend those values by doing the opposite? Inclusion of other faiths does not mean exclusion of your own, and anyone so threatened by inclusion that they need to say "Merry Christmas" as some sort of political/religious statement must be incredibly weak in their faith that mere etiquette can shake it to the very core. If you're that threatened by "Happy Holidays," you seriously need to go back to your pastor and get some fucking counseling. The reason you feel threatened is because of your lack of commitment. I don't need for everyone else to worship as I do right down to using the same phrases to feel solid in my faith, and it's the most hodgepodge fucking thing ever.
The same goes for allowing gay people to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. (Ah, say the readers, there's the relevancy.) Gay people like St. Pat's. Everybody likes St. Pat's. You know they can make cosmopolitans green now? So let 'em march, what does it hurt? Gay people are Irish, Irish-American, whatever. If our parade allows clowns, Civil War re-enactors, casino buses, and an entire mile of Shriners, I sure as fuck hope there's an atomic drag float in there somewhere. This holiday, unlike Christmas, is secularized here to the extent that it is for everybody. This year, for example, the Catholic Church moved it to March 15th because the 17th falls during Holy Week. Did anyone notice, outside of extremely devout Catholics? Fuck no. The 17th will be just as big as ever, a bunch of drunks listening to music played by other drunks. Fabulous. The parade's on the 15th, you might say. That means nothing, since here St. Pat's often begins the 1st of March and carries on well after the 17th. The parade is always on the nearest Saturday regardless of date. Denver's the drunkest city in America, after all, and if St. Pat's didn't exist we would invent it. St. Pat's here is a city celebration, a celebration of the coming of spring, and most of all, a celebration of beer and whiskey and shiny things. The saint himself - well, not even sure what he looks like, honestly. I don't know anyone who talks about him other than the Guinness commercials, and even that's to make a link to beer drinking, and nobody cares that a religious feast day has been totally, and thoroughly, turned into this. In fact, the Church has utterly capitulated to the secularism of the holiday - the reason they moved it is so people can drink without feeling guilty. They're enabling it. The Church has decided our livers must suffer, and sent all the Catholics on their way to debauchery saying "Slainte" at their backs.
Does this sound like a religious affair to you?
So why... why is there now a slight push to rename this to "Shamrock Day"?
FUCK THAT. "St. Patrick's" is about as offensive a name as "St. Louis" or "Yves Ste. Laurent" or "Los Angeles." The Church practically washes their hands clean of any involvement so we can properly let off steam, whereas Christmas, I hear, is still kind of a big deal. It's a far different situation. We do not need a war on St. Patrick's Day. I can't imagine it ever getting off the ground. "Shamrock Day" is fucking stupid, and also is harder to pronounce when drunk.
Let me preface this by saying I believe the War on Christmas stuff is bullshit. Given that the Christmas season encompasses, depending on the year, holidays of several different faiths and persuasions from Paganism to Islam to Judaism and beyond, it is entirely more appropriate to wish someone "Happy Holidays" if you do not know their faith than "Merry Christmas." It is an appreciated courtesy, particularly in this state where we have a great deal of religious and secular diversity in how we celebrate our respective faiths. Hell, I'm a mostly-secular Jew who is influenced by Islamic teachings but holds on to a mostly Dantean view of the afterlife, and I still love Christmas. But wish me Happy Holidays, because it's the right thing to do. If someone rails on about the "War on Christmas," what they're really against is courtesy - and in a season supposedly about peace on earth and brotherhood to men (or sisterhood to women), why would you immediately flag yourself as a hypocrite and defend those values by doing the opposite? Inclusion of other faiths does not mean exclusion of your own, and anyone so threatened by inclusion that they need to say "Merry Christmas" as some sort of political/religious statement must be incredibly weak in their faith that mere etiquette can shake it to the very core. If you're that threatened by "Happy Holidays," you seriously need to go back to your pastor and get some fucking counseling. The reason you feel threatened is because of your lack of commitment. I don't need for everyone else to worship as I do right down to using the same phrases to feel solid in my faith, and it's the most hodgepodge fucking thing ever.
The same goes for allowing gay people to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade. (Ah, say the readers, there's the relevancy.) Gay people like St. Pat's. Everybody likes St. Pat's. You know they can make cosmopolitans green now? So let 'em march, what does it hurt? Gay people are Irish, Irish-American, whatever. If our parade allows clowns, Civil War re-enactors, casino buses, and an entire mile of Shriners, I sure as fuck hope there's an atomic drag float in there somewhere. This holiday, unlike Christmas, is secularized here to the extent that it is for everybody. This year, for example, the Catholic Church moved it to March 15th because the 17th falls during Holy Week. Did anyone notice, outside of extremely devout Catholics? Fuck no. The 17th will be just as big as ever, a bunch of drunks listening to music played by other drunks. Fabulous. The parade's on the 15th, you might say. That means nothing, since here St. Pat's often begins the 1st of March and carries on well after the 17th. The parade is always on the nearest Saturday regardless of date. Denver's the drunkest city in America, after all, and if St. Pat's didn't exist we would invent it. St. Pat's here is a city celebration, a celebration of the coming of spring, and most of all, a celebration of beer and whiskey and shiny things. The saint himself - well, not even sure what he looks like, honestly. I don't know anyone who talks about him other than the Guinness commercials, and even that's to make a link to beer drinking, and nobody cares that a religious feast day has been totally, and thoroughly, turned into this. In fact, the Church has utterly capitulated to the secularism of the holiday - the reason they moved it is so people can drink without feeling guilty. They're enabling it. The Church has decided our livers must suffer, and sent all the Catholics on their way to debauchery saying "Slainte" at their backs.
Does this sound like a religious affair to you?
So why... why is there now a slight push to rename this to "Shamrock Day"?
FUCK THAT. "St. Patrick's" is about as offensive a name as "St. Louis" or "Yves Ste. Laurent" or "Los Angeles." The Church practically washes their hands clean of any involvement so we can properly let off steam, whereas Christmas, I hear, is still kind of a big deal. It's a far different situation. We do not need a war on St. Patrick's Day. I can't imagine it ever getting off the ground. "Shamrock Day" is fucking stupid, and also is harder to pronounce when drunk.
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