Saturday, December 20, 2008

Things I don't understand...

Normally I feel like I can understand both sides of arguments. I think my parents did a good job at always asking us to think about what was the other side of an argument and this helped us to become independent thinkers. Andy might disagree with this... ;-)

But I really don't understand the whole "Merry Christmas" thing. I don't understand who would be offended by it. Obviously, the holiday season exists because Christmas is a Christian holiday that blew up in popularity. And although Christian in origin, it has a lot of secular aspects to it now including Santa, etc...

So why would people care if you say "Merry Christmas" to them? I guess some would argue it's exclusive, but I think it is the opposite. I would not be offended if someone wished me "Happy Hanukkah" just like I am not offended by "Happy Chinese New Year". I think it is nice when people wish me a greeting and I join in on holidays of other faiths and cultures as heck, why not? The more the better. I am definitely not offended and it makes me happy to celebrate. At work we celebrated all the Indian holidays with them because we had such a large Indian population and it was fun. And they loved celebrating our holidays and learning more about them. I wouldn't do any religious celebratory aspects of a holiday that would violate my faith and I get that, of course, others wouldn't want to either.

But why is it an issue? Is someone actually offended by a Merry Christmas card? I hope not because I am sure the person sending it really is just wishing you a Merry Christmas :-). And I know for me, I am celebrating Christmas and so I want to send Christmas cards. And for someone else, celebrating another holiday, I would love to get that card. Seems to me, people are creating an issue when there is none.

Merry Christmas, y'all!

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