The Hammer comes down:
The ‘Holidays’

It should not offend anyone, be it in the public or private sectors, to refer to Christmas by its actual name

By Linda Hammerschmid

Inspiration to write often comes, as with many, from reading other people’s comments in the “Letters to the Editor” section of various publications.

For example, a while back in The Gazette, a lady from Dollard-des-Ormeaux, wrote about the plight of Christians which goes largely unheeded in the media. She made many valid points but one in particular caught my attention. She spoke of the dwindling number of Christians in areas such as the Middle East, Africa and Asia. This point cannot, in my humble opinion, be attributed to either the media or other religions per se. What it can be attributed to is birth rates. No longer do Irish Catholics or Italian Catholics have ten or more children per family. Contrarily, those areas mentioned, two of which are in themselves Continents, have ever increasing populations which will only continue to escalate (and which also gives rise to a myriad of other problems for our communal future well-being on Mother Earth).

I for one am saddened by the all pervasive ‘correctness’ that has overtaken every section of the globe.

India and China alone represent one quarter of the world population today. They largely are not of the Christian persuasion despite earlier colonial efforts, and so it is no mystery as to why the number of Christians is in decline.

But the sadness over the current custom of referring to Christmas as simply “the holidays” is absolutely warranted. I for one am saddened by the all pervasive ‘correctness’ that has overtaken every section of the globe. It should not offend anyone, be it in the public or private sectors, to refer to Christmas by its actual name. To me ‘holiday’ denotes July 1, Victoria Day (I still live in Canada so forget “La fête de Dollard”), Labour Day, etc.

I have the same philosophy towards Christmas, and any other denomination’s nomer, as I do towards language. The more the merrier and the better. What is so dang crucial to those who wish to stifle, as Archie Bunker would have said, the citizenry to one language or one religion?

‘I have the same philosophy towards Christmas, and any other denomination’s nomer, as I do towards language. The more the merrier and the better.’

I have written previously how Governments should encourage multilingualism versus legislating restrictions on who can speak and post what!

Let’s get over ourselves and embrace it all. I have never heard Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur having to be referred to solely or simply as “the holidays” nor Edi al-Adha or Ramadan.

Curiously, and don’t laugh, but I prefer having a paper pocket agenda and in my Letts agenda there is a list of many statutory ‘holidays’ and this year included are six Islamic holidays that were not there previously. I wonder what pressure to bear occasioned these additions, not that I have anything against them being added. Perhaps it is a sign of inclusion rather than being ‘trumped’ by exclusion.

Image: oknidius via StockPholio.net

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