The last 60 days of the 365 day year is packed with various holidays and religious observances. There's the Christian holiday Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Jesus; the Jewish holiday Hanukah, which celebrates the Jews independence from the Greeks; and the Islamic holiday Eid, which celebrates the ending of the Holy Month of Ramadan.
And those are just a few religious holidays.
There's also the Indian (and I believe mostly Hindu) light celebration, Diwali; the African-American celebration of unity, Kwanzaa; and my favorite, Thanksgiving (my favorite because it is something that everyone can and should participate in; we all have something to be thankful for). To be sure, this is just a short list of the many holidays, celebrations and observances that occur towards the end of the year.
Since this nation is one made up of immigrants, it only seems right that we respect the multitude of cultural and religious observances. But to be completely honest, until recently, we haven't really tried to. We have only truly observed Christian holidays as a nation; arguably the biggest national holiday of the year is indeed Christmas.
During this so-called "Holiday Season," I found it particularly interesting how Politically Correct this nation has become. I suppose this is a good thing since every race, religion and nationality is represented here in this nation, and I guess (after 200+ years of existence) people are starting to recognize it. I also found it funny how people, mostly the powerful "Christian right" from the Presidential Election, were upset that major stores, like Macy's, now say "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays," in lieu of "Merry Christmas" because it is more inclusive.
Well, look, Macy's is right. You can't claim "melting pot" status as a country if you don't recognize the fact that not everyone here celebrates Christmas.
It has long been my opinion that truly realizing our Constitution is a realistic impossibility. There is no way that you can truly claim to respect everyone's right to the freedom of religion when there are Government holidays based on the Christian religion (like Christmas), or when our money says "In God We Trust" on it when clearly not everyone believes in God. Even if everyone believed in "God," in which God do we trust; and for that matter, why not "In Gods We Trust?" It just can't work.
Consider, there is no official language here, but until recently, everything was done in English (I was shocked to see a section of cards written in Spanish the other day while at a card shop). So why not just make English the official language of the nation, or offer everything in multiple major languages. There is no official religion here, but the only religion that has government holidays ascribed to it is Christianity. So why not make Christianity the official religion of the country, or make national holidays out of other religion's observances.
So to truly avert this problem, and truly fulfill the promises outlined in the Constitution, we need to either become a theocratic government like Saudia Arabia (where it would be perfectly correct to make religious observances, like Christmas, national holidays), or to demand religious transparency like France (where no one can wear any religion defining garment in school).
It's a very complex problem, and as I've stated, unless there are extreme measures taken, there are going to be upset people on both sides of the board. But honestly, if we want to be as inclusive as possible, the Christian right should recognize the reality of this nation, which has no official religion, and respect the fact that there are plenty of other religions represented in the great nation.
So as we approach the end of Kwanzaa, and approach the New Year, I'd just like to say, Happy Holidays to everybody!
-Maelstrom
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