Struggling with the Tradition

So…… Merry Christmas! And “Happy Holidays” too, to cover those days around Christmas, such as New Years.

I’m quite certain my blog doesn’t travel far enough to get me criticized, ridiculed, or arrested for the use of the “Christmas” word.

I do exaggerate, but as most of you know, not too much. It’s getting more annoying, if not outright worrisome how Christ is being taken out of ….. out of whatever we can politically correctly call this holiday.

The attempts of governments of every level to come up with some inoffensive terminology for what has always been a Christian celebration would be hilarious, if it wasn’t at times threatening to those working in schools and government institutions.

It just seems to most of us that Canadian society is falling over its own feet to accommodate any religion except Christianity. A few years ago Halifax shipped its annual “___” tree to Boston, a tradition that thanks the American city for quickly getting a trainload of emergency supplies and workers rolling toward the devastated Halifax following the 1917 Explosion. In the throws of political correctness, Halifax and the Nova Scotia government struggled to paste in “Holiday Tree” wherever possible, while the American recipients were quite prepared to accept what they intended to throw the switch and light, their “Christmas Tree”.

For goodness sake, the tree isn’t even a strictly Christian tradition, in fact its history is more likely pagan, but we couldn’t have that “Christ” word stuck in there!

Today’s Chronicle Herald features an article entitled, “Brits want ‘Christ’ back in Christmas”. It seems the plague has spread to/from there, and a goodly number of British citizens are getting pretty hot under the wooly scarf about their country’s efforts to not offend the few by offending the many. Debate on the issues in their House of Commons has seen the practice labeled “Christianophobia”. MP Mark Pritchard said, “Today many people from the Christian tradition feel that any religious allegiance is permissible as long as it is not the Christian tradition.” His comments come amid incidents of Christmas decorations banned from offices, Christian images disappearing from “Christmas” cards, and schools banning nativity plays and carols.

The strange thing seems to be that, outside of a few who wish to cause trouble, many people with other religious beliefs have no issue with Christmas, content with letting those who wish (which are the majority in our country) celebrate it, and celebrating their own tradition in freedom at its appointed time. The Chronicle-Herald article quotes Zaki Cooper, a Jewish consultant to the Inter-faith Program in Cambridge as saying, “The public celebration of a religious festival, even though it is not my own, is to be embraced. In fact many Jews and Muslims regard as a shame the declining religious content of Christmas and its evolution to a more secular celebration.”

We’re comfortable with Santa Claus, and comfortable with gift buying and giving, and certainly the merchants would go to the barricades before those traditions were abandoned, but perhaps this Christ fellow brings too much into the picture, when he requires more from us than just nailing stockings to our mantels– the comfort level of just giving and getting in a frenzy starts to look a little shaky. Purge Christ from our Christmas and what are we left with? While other religions are having celebrations embracing great ideals, heroic victories, and survival of their traditions over the centuries, we can cling to Frosty the Snowman and spread the word to others of his corncob pipe, his button nose, and two eyes made out of coal.

Nuts. No wonder fruitcakes are a “_____” tradition.

So, the day draws nearer…. a week from tomorrow is Christmas Eve. Then we awaken to Christmas Day. A celebration that has gone on for centuries to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s Son.

Have a merry one!

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One thought on “Struggling with the Tradition

  1. I enjoyed your blog entry today. I often wonder how much backtracking the retail industry and PC police would do if the Christian churches were to agree to celebrate Christmas in the fall and completely ignore the December celebrations of materialism. They could then have their holiday and we could have Christmas. If the church were to speak against extravagant spending sprees in the name of Christmas and instead promote the simplicity of the holiday, perhaps the meaning of Christmas would not be lost amongst the wrapping paper and cash register receipts.

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