# Religious/Secular holidays in America (mostly Christmas, split from the Columbus Day thread)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-secular-holidays-in-america-mostly-christmas-split-from-the-columbus-day-thread/954138>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [November 5, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-secular-holidays-in-america-mostly-christmas-split-from-the-columbus-day-thread/954138 "2021-11-05T20:10:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 59

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**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\
**Post date:** [November 10, 2021, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religious-secular-holidays-in-america-mostly-christmas-split-from-the-columbus-day-thread/954138/59 "2021-11-10T18:27:23Z")

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> [@Columbus Day v Indigenous People's Day v Leif Erikson Day](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/columbus-day-v-indigenous-peoples-day-v-leif-erikson-day/952323/371):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Because people buy Christmas presents doesn’t mean they’re not also celebrating a religious holiday.
> 
> If they’re not _also_ engaging in actual religious activities, then it does.

They are also engaging in actual religious activities.

(Note: the first part of that quote is from me, the second is MrDibble answering me. I can’t find my original quote now in either this thread or the one this was split off from, though it may be somewhere in one or both of them.)

> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> they indicate that Christianity is a part of the shared cultural context, which, yes, it is. And sure, that’s “normalization” - so what?

So those of us living in the USA are living in a country in which a significant portion of the population is actively arguing that the USA is specifically a Christian nation; that children ought to be taught that in school; and they are voting on that basis, to try to impose laws on the country as a whole which are based on the religious beliefs of their specific sects of Christianity.

> [@MrDibble](#):
>
> You’d prefer if I referenced some sort of Christian One-Drop Rule instead? Because that’s the position you and others have taken - the slightest stain of religious iconography renders a holiday Christian

That is not in the least the position anyone in this discussion has taken. You’re arguing with a drastic misrepresentation of what I and others have said.

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