# "Holiday Break"? You aren't fooling anyone. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 20, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105 "2003-12-20T02:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![agiantdwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@agiantdwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agiantdwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/1 "2003-12-20T02:47:56Z")
Hannukah starts long before my school starts the “Holiday Break.” Now, I’m not telling them they should start break when Hannukah starts (even though my school is about a quarter Jewish). But at least they shouldn’t try to sound inclusive when they aren’t. Schmucks. End of rant. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/2 "2003-12-20T02:54:13Z")
So, what do you want? Do you want the date that “Holiday Break” begins to change every single year? ---
**Author:** ![agiantdwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8c91f0/32.png) [@agiantdwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/agiantdwarf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/3 "2003-12-20T02:57:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Airman Doors, USAF \* > \*\*So, what do you want? Do you want the date that “Holiday Break” begins to change every single year? \*\* Maybe if you read the thread, you’d realize I didn’t want that at all. But because the “Holiday Break” is obviously scheduled around Christmas, not around other holidays, you might as well call it “Winter Break” or something. It has nothing to do with other holidays, but with that name they sound like they’re trying to be inclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/4 "2003-12-20T03:02:00Z")
Oops. How embarassing. Forget I ever showed up here. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/5 "2003-12-20T04:22:16Z")
I hate hate hate hate when people refer to “holiday” when they mean Christmas. If they use “holidays” and thereby implying more than one holiday (could be Hannukah, could be New Year’s, could be Christmas, could be all three) that’s okay by me. There’s an ad right now that refers to somebody’s dog’s “first holiday.” Gimme a break. You are sitting by a CHRISTMAS TREE. I’m guessing you’re not Jewish. I think most of the time I was in school it was officially called the winter break, though everybody called it Christmas break anyway. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/6 "2003-12-20T05:00:17Z")
Yeah, that dog one is really jarring. I think it was a last minute change for inclusiveness or something. I’m going to check to see if the dog is circumcised next time Haj ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/7 "2003-12-20T06:00:05Z")
So, we’ve got Christian Christmas, Pagan/Wiccan Yule, Secular/Bartender New Year’s Eve, black American Kwanzaa, and a couple of others wedged into a two week period along with a sporadic (or erratic) celebration of Chanukah in the same period. The Christians have (some grudgingly, some graciously) surrendered their name to the generic “holidays,” and you want to bitch about it. Okey-Dokey. ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/8 "2003-12-20T06:10:04Z")
What grates on me is when advertisers, school music teachers etc. change the word “Christmas” to “Holidays” in song lyrics. I’m all for inclusiveness and sensitivity, but not when it involves replacing a TWO-SYLLABLE word with a THREE-SYLLABLE word and wrecking the scansion! ---
**Author:** ![Dizzy\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dizzy\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dizzy_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/9 "2003-12-20T06:11:27Z")
Oh, and I’m Jewish. ;j ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/10 "2003-12-20T06:15:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\* The Christians have (some grudgingly, some graciously) surrendered their name to the generic “holidays,” and you want to bitch about it. \*\* Who the fuck asked you to do that anyway? Haj ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/11 "2003-12-20T06:40:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by agiantdwarf \* > \*\*Hannukah starts long before my school starts the “Holiday Break.” Now, I’m not telling them they should start break when Hannukah starts (even though my school is about a quarter Jewish). But at least they shouldn’t try to sound inclusive when they aren’t. Schmucks. > > End of rant. \*\* There are a bunch of holidays clustered around the New Year and (assumedly) as an observant Jew, based on your OP, you are insufficiently pleased with … what exactly? Insufficient sensitivity to, and recognition of, your specialness, and being lumped in sans a major holiday to celebrate with the rest of the Festivus scrum? Jews have a rich and complex history to celebrate, but in practical terms they comprise a miniscule 2.2 % of the US population, and there are practical limitations on the ability of nominally secular school systems to make special accomodations for each faith in terms of large scale holidays. If you want to live a less angry life I might suggest you accomodate yourself to this fact, or make arrangements to emigrate to Israel, because the practical demographics governing how Jewish holidays are observed in the majority of US school systems aren’t going to change anytime soon. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/12 "2003-12-20T07:39:53Z")
From what I’ve been told, Hannukah isn’t a major Jewish holiday anyway and just got attention for occuring near Christmas; have I been misinformed? We always got time off for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur when I was in school. ---
**Author:** ![Nanoda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/13 "2003-12-20T08:03:50Z")
I go set up my holiday tree, wrap my holiday presents and put on some holiday music, and then I read this kind of thing. Thanks alot! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/14 "2003-12-20T08:27:28Z")
Your school is still in session next week, is it? 'Coz according to my calender, Channukah started at sundown on Friday. If Friday was your last day of school before the break, then in point of fact, the break starts _the exact same day_ that Channukah does. That would officially make this the absolute lamest rant ever. If you are indeed going to school next week (and it was originally scheduled that way, making up snow days doesn’t count), you might have some smidgen of a point. Except for the fact that your break would still cover Christmas, New Year’s (still a holiday last time I checked), and Kwaanzaa. Three holidays in one break=Holiday Break. ---
**Author:** ![SeekingTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/15 "2003-12-20T08:59:58Z")
Can anyone remind me the article/interview where a '60’s civil rights “leader” admitted he made up the Kwaanzaa holiday? I know I’ve seen it from a number of reputable news sites. (AP, CNN, etc) Merry Christmas all! ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/16 "2003-12-20T09:08:26Z")
Kwaanzaa is not a national holiday, no, but it’s as legitimate a holiday as Groundhog Day. Or President’s Day, or Mother’s Day, or Thanksgiving, or Labor Day, or Memorial Day. _Lots_ of our holidays were made up in the last century or so. So what? ---
**Author:** ![SeekingTruth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@SeekingTruth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeekingTruth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/17 "2003-12-20T09:11:26Z")
Point is, Kwaanzaa is is touted as an African religious holiday. Why aren’t African decendants outraged at this obvious pandering and promote actual festivities from the Motherland? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/18 "2003-12-20T09:29:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SeekingTruth \* > \*\*Can anyone remind me the article/interview where a '60’s civil rights “leader” admitted he made up the Kwaanzaa holiday? I know I’ve seen it from a number of reputable news sites. (AP, CNN, etc) > > Merry Christmas all! \*\* I never read anything where he was characterized as a civil rights “leader”. I also don’t quite understand where you’re coming from: is it your belief that anyone has ever tried to represent Kwanzaa as being anything _other than_ a festival invented in the mid-1960’s? If it is, here are a couple of quotes from [this website](http://www.christocentric.com/Kwanzaa/whatiskw.htm), easily enough found by Yahoo-ing the search term “kwanzaa, origin”: > [@](#): > > Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga, who is the leader of the Black nationalist cultural group US, and also professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. also: > [@](#): > > Kwanzaa is a seven-day holiday that was created by Dr. Karenga, a fact he does not deny. He doesn’t claim that it’s from another country or continent, but is an American-made celebration. He makes this clear in one of his earlier books titled: Kwanzaa: origin, concepts, practice. Dec. 1977: So. Before the intrepid investigative journalists at the reputable news sites uncovered this astonishing admission, what had been your impression of what Kwanzaa was all about, and who held it to be important, and why? ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/19 "2003-12-20T12:07:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by astro \* > \*\*…based on your OP, you are insufficiently pleased with … what exactly? Insufficient sensitivity to, and recognition of, your specialness, and being lumped in sans a major holiday to celebrate with the rest of the Festivus scrum?.. If you want to live a less angry life I might suggest you accomodate yourself to this fact, or make arrangements to emigrate to Israel, because the practical demographics governing how Jewish holidays are observed in the majority of US school systems aren’t going to change anytime soon. \*\* Wow Astro, take it down a notch. He’s saying the exact opposite. He’s not asking for any SPECIAL RECOGNITION, as a Jew. He’s pissed at how POLITICAL CORRECTNESS becomes so hypocritical. Don’t say “HOLIDAYS” when you MEAN “CHRISTMAS”; say HOLIDAYS when you mean HOLIDAYS. “Christmas” IS NOT a bad word that should never be said in front of a Jew. From what I gather, he’d rather just have it called “Christmas Break”. Call a spade a spade. End of. _I personally think the school probably calls it “Holiday Break” meaning Christmas and the Gregorian calendar’s New Year._ It’s interesting how you think the the OP has an angry life, yet you seem angrier than he does. Also interesting is how you figure all religions should just accept Christianity in public schools, or accomodate themselves in the Mother Land. You might have suggested private school instead of immigration. Certainly a contender for statement of the year. THIS is why people try to bend over backwards being politically incorrect. And THAT is what leads to an almost 360, being back where you started. Ironic little catch 22, isn’t it? Everything in moderation is what I say. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2003, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/20 "2003-12-20T14:14:04Z")
There appears to be no way to be politically correct. If you were to say Christmas, the PC police would bitch because there are other holidays. When you say “Holiday” people bitch because “you mean Christmas.” Get over yourselves. In general people don’t want to offend. If you are going to look for offense, you’ll find it every where. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105.md?page=2)