One of the conversations I had this week...
Me: Have a Merry Christmas.
Confused: Hey now, that's not the most
politically correct thing to say.Me: Would you rather I say Happy
Holidays?Confused: No, I would rather you be yourself.
So, as I sit and write this, I wonder if the person that I was conversing with is antiChristmasestablishmentarianist, or was she just providing insight into her companies policy regarding wishing someone 'Happy Holidays' rather than 'Merry Christmas'. Whatever it was, I was astounded at the answer. 'No, I would rather you be yourself'. So profound. Who are we to sit around telling one another what someone else should say? Is Christmas not an actual day? It may hold significance to some people, but if it holds no significance to others that does not mean it has ceased to exist. You cannot just make it go away. However, the same applies for the other celebration days. Why would I get upset at someone telling me ‘Happy Hanukkah’? If I do not hold that holiday dear to my heart it does not mean it does not exist. I get over it and say ‘Happy Hanukkah’ back. Do I want them to have a bad Hanukkah? If someone holds that day sacred, let it be. Should I get upset if someone tells me have a good Tuesday? Info on Tuesday from Wikipedia…
The name comes from Middle English Tiwesday, from Old English Tiwes dæg, named after the Nordic god Tyr, who was the equivalent of the Roman war god Mars, and
Greek god Ares.In Latin, it is called Martis dies which means "Mars's Day". In
Romance languages except Portuguese, the word for "Tuesday" is similar to the
Latin name: mardi in French, martes in Spanish, martedì in Italian, dimarts in
Catalan, and mar?i in Romanian.The surviving Celtic languages preserve the
Latin names,[1] although none of these languages are descended from Latin.
Tuesday is dé máirt in Irish, Meurzh in Breton,[2] dydd Mawrth in Welsh[3] and
Dimàirt in Scottish Gaelic.[4][5][6]
So, someone wishing me a good Tuesday is really telling me to have a good Nordic god Tyr/Roman war god Mars/Greek god Ares day. Yet I don’t get upset, and I am not the only one.
What I really think this gets down to is that some Christians feel that they should use Christmas activism as a vehicle to spread Christianity. That is fine if effective. But… last time I checked, all this force feeding of Merry Christmas down companies throats has done nothing but make people mad. It makes Christians mad when companies make a ‘happy holidays’ policy and non-Christians mad when a company makes a ‘Merry Christmas’ policy. How about this, don’t make a policy at all. Just let people be who they want to be. Non-Christians are like moths drawn to light, not anger. Christ did not force feed himself on us, he offers himself to us as a gift. We are drawn to His light and all we have to do is ask. We should take his example and try our hardest to emulate it.
