Ah, December. It's time for the annual whining of the Religious Right concerning the entirely bogus "War On Christmas". You know, the "war" denoted that some companies have changed their sales circulars to read "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". See, we're supposed to feel sorry for fundamentalists because they think that "soon" they won't be able to celebrate Christmas anymore. What a laugh.
The truth of the matter is that Christians don't own the month of December and they cannot handle the fact that we live in a country that enjoys religious plurality.
Here's a brief list of some of the religious holidays that occur in December:
5 Monday Ashura - Islamic recognition of the Creation.
8 Thursday Bodhi Day - Buddhist celebration of Prince Gautama.
12 Monday Feast Day of Lady of Guadalupe - Catholic
21-28 Wednesday-Wednesday Hanukka - Jewish Festival of Lights.
21 Wednesday Yule - Wicca solstice observance - Northern hemisphere.
25 Sunday Christmas - Christian celebration of birth of Jesus.
26 Monday Death of Prophet Zarathushtra - Zoroastrian observance.
And that's the short list. By writing signs that read "Merry Christmas", retailers would essentially be saying to 24% of the American population "F--- You! We don't consider your kind welcome here!" Personally, I like the fact that "Happy Holidays" covers many holidays for many people. The fundamentalist Christians will just have to get over it.
In lighter news, my Pagan group (Turning Circle) got invited to open the worship services for the Unitarian Universalist church in Columbia, MD. Being the opposite of fundamentalists, the UU folk are very open-minded and inclusive. I was pretty happy that several UU members asked us about Paganism and some of them seemed genuinely interested in coming to at least one of our services at some point in the future.
My training at the police academy is going well. My test average for all the exams so far is 98%. Yay! Hopefully I will be able to keep it up. I have five more weeks of training before I am certified by the police department as a probation agent.
I am descended from Puritans - who banned Christmas as a knavish concoction of paganism and (worse) Catholicism. I find it ironic the fundementalist Prostestants who insist on Christmas are the ones who used to go around arresting people who were trying to celebrate it.
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