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Happy Epiphany! Or, Why I Say Happy Holidays Instead of Merry Christmas.
Today is the Feast of the Epiphany. Like the good lapsed Catholics we are, our decorations are coming down today, just in time to avoid embarrassment while not ticking off any lingering spirits. Epiphany, or Twelfth Night, is little celebrated in the U.S., but it's a huge holiday in the Dominican Republic, Greece, and other countries. It celebrates Christ's baptism by John the Baptist (with a name like that, how could he be anything but, right?)
Prior to today, we had several holidays that were all mashed together - we had New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa - and that was just in late November and December. This is a BUSY time of year!
So, at the risk of ticking off my Christian friends, Christ might be the reason for YOUR season, but the world has other holidays that are based on other fine, upstanding belief systems, even traditional secular holidays. Yes, Christmas dominates the lot of them in the U.S. - that's because there are so many more Christians here than any other belief system. And that's just fine and dandy.
What's not fine and dandy is when Christians demand that everyone who may or may not believe like they do observe THEIR holiday above all others. To use a favorite colloquialism, I don't cotton to that. I'll say Merry Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but the "Holiday Season" does not belong to Christmas alone. It belongs to the world.
So when I say Happy Holidays, I'm not denigrating Christmas or lowering its significance, I'm elevating the significance of other celebrations that are just as important to those who celebrate them as Christmas is to Christians. And there's nothing at all wrong with that. I'm also recognizing by saying Happy Holidays that the person I'm saying it to may be celebrating Hanukkah, or Ramadan, or the Solstice, and not my holiday of choice.
So next year, when someone wishes you Happy Holidays, or Seasons Greetings, don't look back at them and say "Merry Christmas to you, too!" Just smile and say thank you, and put a little bit of your Christian values to work.
And until next year, Happy Holidays.
Prior to today, we had several holidays that were all mashed together - we had New Year's, Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Thanksgiving, Winter Solstice, Kwanzaa - and that was just in late November and December. This is a BUSY time of year!
So, at the risk of ticking off my Christian friends, Christ might be the reason for YOUR season, but the world has other holidays that are based on other fine, upstanding belief systems, even traditional secular holidays. Yes, Christmas dominates the lot of them in the U.S. - that's because there are so many more Christians here than any other belief system. And that's just fine and dandy.
What's not fine and dandy is when Christians demand that everyone who may or may not believe like they do observe THEIR holiday above all others. To use a favorite colloquialism, I don't cotton to that. I'll say Merry Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, but the "Holiday Season" does not belong to Christmas alone. It belongs to the world.
So when I say Happy Holidays, I'm not denigrating Christmas or lowering its significance, I'm elevating the significance of other celebrations that are just as important to those who celebrate them as Christmas is to Christians. And there's nothing at all wrong with that. I'm also recognizing by saying Happy Holidays that the person I'm saying it to may be celebrating Hanukkah, or Ramadan, or the Solstice, and not my holiday of choice.
So next year, when someone wishes you Happy Holidays, or Seasons Greetings, don't look back at them and say "Merry Christmas to you, too!" Just smile and say thank you, and put a little bit of your Christian values to work.
And until next year, Happy Holidays.
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