Which is exactly what I’m saying. Convincing the dominant culture it’s more inclusive to say or do other things under the guise they’re being accepting is bad because it preserves that dominant culture while allowing its participants to pretend they’re not forcing their culture to remain dominant.
It’s all very dishonest, and the only solution to achieving true inclusiveness is the wholesale dissolution of all holiday seasons in general. I view this half-hearted attempt at inclusiveness a barrier to this.
It’s immaterial whether I like them or not. I actually really love Halloween, and actually rather like some aspects of the current season. I still avoid mentioning them openly to other people and make every effort to pretend in my daily life that no holidays are coming up so as not to accidentally ostracize someone.
Yes, that might have been the most surreal thing I read on this board yet.
Also, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a non-Christian person complaining about Christmas. Seems to be mostly internal strife–it’s not Christmassy enough or there’s not enough Jesus. I have never actually heard someone say they felt alienated by Christmas. I think most people who don’t celebrate it are happy enough to get on with it. But hey, considering how stressful a holiday it is, can’t really blame people for looking for a reason to bitch about it.
My Jewish math teacher in seventh grade was very vocal in her opposition to overt “Merry Christmas” expressions and everything else Jesus related, like kids being forced to sing and hear songs about baby Jesus during the holiday concert.
Of course she wasn’t popular for this stance, but I admired her for being brave enough to voice a minority opinion.
It hurts them most to see their kids not being part of the Christmas revelry. I’ll believe that a lot more than adults telling me they’re offended by Christmas greetings. That is so much BS to me.
I know of a great movie that you want to see. It’s called “The Grinch who Stole Christmas.”
If you aren’t big in to holidays, that’s fine. But you live in a society, and “celebrating holidays” is basically one of the defining things that societies do. If you don’t want to be around people doing people things, go to a cabin in the woods or something.
Yes, this. However you spell Chanukah (try this: חֲנֻכָּה), it was historically a minor holiday, because the story isn’t Biblical. (That is, not in the Jewish Old Testament, which doesn’t include the Apocrypha). The story is told in one of the apocryphal Books of Maccabees. The real biggie Jewish holidays are Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), which are very serious and solemn, literally Holy Days, not festive at all.
Like you say, modern חֲנֻכָּה got its current big mojo from its proximity to Christmas, and more particularly, from being grossly over-commercialized. In this, it is a very American thing. I don’t know how חֲנֻכָּה is currently celebrated elsewhere in the world. (Anybody?)
And how about Christmas too? From all I’ve ever heard, that was also a very minor holiday in Christian history. The Bible doesn’t make a big deal of birthdays in general, and some Christian and Christian-like churches completely disavow it. (Jehovah’s Witnesses, in particular, but I think there are others.) Easter is the major important Christian Holy Day. It was American Over-The-Top Commercialism that made Christmas the festive potlatch that we see today. חֲנֻכָּה simply followed in the footsteps of that.
ETA:
Not a bad idea. Not a bad idea at all! I wish I had a cabin in the woods like that!
I’m sorry. This thread was in error. You know your ideas are off the rails when you begin writing a long post that ends with advocating the mass simultaneous suicide of the human race as the ultimate good act because allowing a group of beings that can feel suffering the opportunity to feel more suffering is immoral. That’s a wretched idea that I can’t believe I actually came up with and almost posted.
I have problems going to insane ideas when I get the idea in my head that a single, solitary person somewhere in the world may be the slightest bit hurt by something. After writing that post I mentioned, it became clear that pretty much everything I’ve said in this thread is really dumb. I’m sorry.
I’m serious that I never knew that New Years was a big thing, though. Like, I knew “New Years parties” were a thing, but they never struck me as any grander than, like, 4th of July parties which I consider to be super minor as well. A convenient excuse to meet up with your friends but nothing more meaningful than that.
I think the true issue is that there are those who perceive a diminishment of traditional Christian preference when people offer non-denominational greetings like “Happy Holidays”. While I appreciate Hanukkah greetings I’ve accepted that I’ll probably get Christmas greetings, even from people who know I’m not Christian.
What sort of tweeks me off are Easter greetings, but that’s just because I remember the Easter Sunday when I was a 2nd grader and three 4th graders beat me up because I killed Jesus. That must have been some inspiring sermon the pastor gave at that year’s St. Raymond’s Easter youth service.
)