By Nijan Datar
As we go about our season of good cheer, it is hard to miss everyone wishing each other a Happy Holiday. In fact, it is with determination that a specific holiday is never mentioned. Corporate emails, newsletters, brochures cheerfully exhort us to celebrate the “holidays”.
Like “He Who Must Not Be Named” at Hogwarts, there is a palpable fear of uttering the name of a particular holiday. This holiday is somehow considered unique in its ability to offend and exclude. No one has ever complained about it being offensive to them personally, but busybodies who have styled themselves the commissars of thought and language have decided to protect those people against your vicious use of those offensive words.
No Indian (Hindu especially) thinks twice before saying Happy Diwali during the Diwali season, nor do Jews (to my knowledge) think twice before saying Happy Hanukkah or Shabbat Shalom when appropriate. Ditto for Muslims. These are wishes of goodwill and nothing to be scared of.
So how did we get to a place where American Christians (and I suspect mainly on the East and West Coast) can barely bring themselves to say those dreaded words? Even when they do say it, it is only in response, and seldom proactively.
The irony is that most of these holidays are also celebrated in secular ways by people who have no quarrel with these traditions. I am a non-religious person, but I love the festivities, songs, and the general joyfulness of the season. FM106.7 is my go-to radio station in the car this time of year.
I find it bewildering, and saddening, that so many Christians have cowered before the DEI police and censored themselves. Nature abhors a vacuum, and these commissars have to keep busy like little elves. Just this week, their agents at Stanford decreed that the word “American” is offensive to people from other countries who are part of the American continent. These geniuses never stopped to think that America is the name of both our nation and our continent. Not so with Brazil or Canada.
My advice is to be like Harry Potter and Dumbledore, the two people who didn’t shy away from saying Voldemort.
So, to all the Christians, and to all people of goodwill who don’t spend their days sucking the joy out of other people’s lives, I say to you, and I hope you say to others, unapologetically: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
That is the most ridiculously inappropriate rant I’ve heard all year. It’s also largely false. I’ve exchanged a “Merry Christmas with many people over the past week, and I’ve said “Happy Holidays” to many others. Acton has grown a lot since I first moved here in 1983. We are a more diverse community, and I love that. During the pandemic I didn’t see much of my older friends who live outside of my West Acton neighborhood, but I made new friends from the many people who began to walk past my house while I’ve been outside with my dogs–people from Australia, Europe, and all parts of Asia! Honestly, I don’t care if I never hear another soul say “Merry Christmas.” My life is not so shallow that I need to complain about anything so trivial. Maybe next year you could be a Bell Ringer for the Salvation Army. That way you can bellow Merry Christmas to the while town and raise money for people who have real problems.
At one level, it is trivial. At another level, it is not. Christmas is a BIG holiday. The equivalent I can think of is Diwali in India, where there are festivities, lights, and fireworks all over the place, and people say Happy Holidays to not offend the non-Hindus. It would be bizarre. It is like not naming the obvious.
Anyway, I have made my point, and am glad to have received private messages of agreement.
Ah! The ‘War on Christmas’ nonsense.
Just say whatever seems appropriate to the person you’re speaking to. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Hannukkah, Happy Yule, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus … whatever. It’s a pretty crowded season for celebration.
The only real war on Christmas is it’s over commercialization and the orgy of spending that it seems to drive. Anyway, I’ve procrastinated long enough so time for some last minute shopping. 😀
Hindus will say Happy Diwali to other people they know celebrate Dawali. Jewish people will say Happy Hanukkah to other Jewish people they know celebrate Hanukkah. They will not say it to a random person on the street or in a store. If you know someone celebrates Christmas, please wish them a Merry Christmas. If you’re talking to someone you know nothing about on the street, in a store, or someone you’re striking up a casual conversation with, just say Happy Holidays and move on. No one’s telling you to never say Merry Christmas.
I’m chuckling all day long as I have been receiving texts and emails from friends and family who have been wishing me a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and NONE of them are Christian. In fact, all of them are (at least nominally) Hindu. Not a single one said Happy Holiday.
I should have been more specific in my original piece when I made the comment about Diwali or Jewish holidays. I was referring to Indians living in India and Jews living in Israel.
I know no one is never telling me what to say – my point is that too many are reluctant to say Merry Christmas even when the audience is wide. So many newsletters and corporate emails deliberately avoid saying it. This is all fairly new, in the past 10 years or so.
It is part of the new narrative that sees the world as oppressor and oppressed. India and Israel are multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-religious, but the cultural foundation of the two countries is decidedly Hindu and Jewish, respectively. Similarly, America is a secular nation whose cultural foundation is decidedly Christian.
None of these countries need be apologetic about this fact. India and Israel are not. America increasingly is. In fact, our ruling class is becoming overtly anti-religious, especially anti-Christian. During the Covid lockdowns, liquor and marijuana stores were open, and so were the big-box chains, but churches and small businesses were closed. There was no reason to selectively oppress the voiceless and the religious. Canada went even further in punishing churches and pastors.
In the bigger picture, what is happening is a war on Western civilization. Our schools and colleges are hotbeds of indoctrination and propaganda. Cultural Marxism is running amuck, and shutting down unapproved viewpoints is increasingly accepted. One needs no more proof than the revelations of corruption and suppression exposed in the Twitter files.
The reluctance to say Merry Christmas is a result of that war on Western civilization. So don’t say Merry Christmas if you don’t want to, but don’t stop saying it because you are afraid to. You are not cursing, demeaning, or offending. If Hindus freely wish each other a Merry Christmas, how does it make sense for Christians to not do so ?
I’m still not understanding who you feel is holding back saying Merry Xmas? You point out your friends have said it to you. Where do you feel you are missing it? Perhaps people are not actually scared, but instead are open to the idea that people they do not know may not celebrate and therefore use a more generic term like Happy Holidays.
Your other commentary you’ve grafted on to this more simple discussion seems to be what’s really fueling your intensity on the situation.
Hi Bob,
To answer your last sentence, I’ve definitely grafted a few things going on in our culture, of which the “war” on religion, especially Christianity, is just one part. The new religion of wokeism (see John McWhorter’s books and articles on the subject) is largely responsible for self-censorship over myriad issues.
As for who is holding back saying Merry Christmas, one example is my current client (a well known firm). Several emails from managers, directors, and vice presidents, common this time of year as they try to rally the troops, never had the word Christmas in them. I gently responded to one of them privately asking why. He never responded (and he is always quick to respond to emails). The non-response in itself makes my point.
Finally, someone who liked my article forwarded me the following. I will put it in the category of “I am not alone in noticing this” :
I wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to my friends and colleagues, but it is difficult in today’s world to know exactly what to say without offending someone. So I met with my lawyer yesterday, and on advice I wish to say the following :
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress , non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious / secular persuasions and / or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all .
I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2023, but not without due respect for the calendar of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make our country great (not to assert or imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith, height, tattoos, hair color or sexual preference of the wishee .
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms :
This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her / him or others and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. The wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher .
Best Regards ( without prejudice )
Name withheld ( Privacy Act ).
I am a Christian. I guess I should be pleased at your defense of my religion. Honestly, I’m not. Your motivation seems to be more about using Christmas as a pawn in your culture war than anything else. For the record, I have never been encourage or told not to say Happy Holiday instead of Merry Christmas. That’s both inside and outside of work. Others experience may differ.
If there is anything to be concerned about it’s the secularization of Christmas. That’s seen in its commercialization rather than anything else. That’s capitalism at work. Something I believe you strongly approve of. Should we be using the greeting Merry Christmas when it has no meaning to the recipient. In much the same way we ask ‘How’s it going?’ with no real interest in the answer. Isn’t that diminishing its meaning?
Having said all of that, I suspect it’s going to take a little more than people saying ‘Happy Holidays’ to undermine society. I have faith that we are not that weak.