The Holidays

We are in the midst of the holiday season, formerly "holy day" season, and questions persist about what's okay and what's not in terms of language and other "official" recognition of what is clearly a Christian holiday.

In my school, we were instructed years ago, and reminded again, to use the term "winter break" rather than Christmas break. I sometimes wonder if that is an attempt to cover up the tacit celebration of a Christian holiday or whether there is genuine concern for other cultures and traditions.

And, at some point, we do need to answer that question: What is the purpose of "winter break" if not to celebrate Christmas and the New Year? I think the answer is clearly that the purpose is celebration and recognition of the largest holiday on the Christian calendar and that's fine, if that's what we want to do as a society.

But, when it comes to public schools and education, language is important and means something definite. Wouldn't we be better off acknowledging up front that this is Christmas break and a celebration of a Christian tradition? We don't fool many people by putting different language around it, and actually, it gives ammunition to some right wing commentators to feel like "their" tradition, and even "their" country is under attack by God-less secular humanists.

Thus the war on Christmas.

On the other hand, for Jews, Muslims, Animists, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Kwanzaa observers and even Pagans and atheists, the rubbing in the face of Christmas must be a little off-putting, especially in a country that claims to practice a separation of church and state. Is there a way to acknowledge diversity and protect the rights, interests and beliefs of the minority while still going forward with the observation of Christmas, and other Christian traditions?

I guess that's what's being fought over in the media, but amidst all the shouting, it's hard to tell if there's any progress being made.

For myself, while I observe Christmas with my family, I do not feel the need to have the entire machinery of the nation-state exclaiming the importance of the holiday. Whatever happened to the notion that government support and endorsement cheapens, rather than heightens, the social reality underlying it?

I, for one, would like social institutions to be less political on every level around the holidays, and if they is a scuffling for appropriate language to call what is a very much needed break in the school calendar, why not just acknowledge that it is in recognition of a traditional Christian holiday? The one where a man in a red suit flies down from the North Pole and delivers packages to everyone, 80% of which end up in a landfill within a year. Isn't that the religious holiday that everyone is fighting about?