Christmas under attack continued...
I adore my cousin Daniel. His response to my Dad's recent argument for Christmas being under attack (which is that you don't see Merry Christmas written in shops any more, you can't get a nativity set in any department store, and he mentioned that since Christians are the majority, their holiday should be represented) is as follows:
1. How many “Merry Christmases” constitute a lack of an attack?
2. How many nativity sets have to be available before you’re satisfied that no attack exists?
3. If we can establish that the majority of self proclaimed Christians in America (84% of the total population) also do not believe that Christmas is under attack (not getting enough mention in the market place), then is Christmas still under attack? For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays let alone Christmas, so I’ll bet they don’t think Christmas is under attack. Does that get me down to 83% yet? What about socially liberal Methodists who do not believe that Christmas is under attack? Surely I’m down to 80%?
4. Do I have to hear or see Merry Christmas in the Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, or at Temple Beth Shalom when I go see a concert?
* Did you know that Christmas was not celebrated highly until AFTER Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
* In the mid 1800s, Scrooge wasn’t abnornal, he was normal for in his suspicion of the Christmas holiday, otherwise the story would not have been instructive. Scrooge buys the goose and gifts for the Cratchit family on Christmas day. Shop keepers were open on Christmas day as a general rule until the 20th century.
* Did you know that the end of December was more associated with Saturnalia (or remnants of that Roman holiday) until the end of the 1700s?
* The scene in Hamlet where he and the guards await the earthbound specter of his father depicts a Wassail party held by his uncle’s court in the castle. It’s a lot of drinking and carousing (Shakespeare used the word “carousing”). No prayer or celebration of Christ’s birth.
Does any of the above constitute an attack on Christmas?
If it does, thenhow is it possible -- in a day and age when we all expect to take Christmas Day off from work and where Saturnalia is a dead as a door post - that Christmas could be considered under attack if you don’t hear “Merry Christmas” enough?
If it does not constitute an attack, then how is it possible that you could be so worried about evidence of social observance of Christmas when it has only recently in historical terms been religiously observed?
1. How many “Merry Christmases” constitute a lack of an attack?
2. How many nativity sets have to be available before you’re satisfied that no attack exists?
3. If we can establish that the majority of self proclaimed Christians in America (84% of the total population) also do not believe that Christmas is under attack (not getting enough mention in the market place), then is Christmas still under attack? For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays let alone Christmas, so I’ll bet they don’t think Christmas is under attack. Does that get me down to 83% yet? What about socially liberal Methodists who do not believe that Christmas is under attack? Surely I’m down to 80%?
4. Do I have to hear or see Merry Christmas in the Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, or at Temple Beth Shalom when I go see a concert?
* Did you know that Christmas was not celebrated highly until AFTER Dickens wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
* In the mid 1800s, Scrooge wasn’t abnornal, he was normal for in his suspicion of the Christmas holiday, otherwise the story would not have been instructive. Scrooge buys the goose and gifts for the Cratchit family on Christmas day. Shop keepers were open on Christmas day as a general rule until the 20th century.
* Did you know that the end of December was more associated with Saturnalia (or remnants of that Roman holiday) until the end of the 1700s?
* The scene in Hamlet where he and the guards await the earthbound specter of his father depicts a Wassail party held by his uncle’s court in the castle. It’s a lot of drinking and carousing (Shakespeare used the word “carousing”). No prayer or celebration of Christ’s birth.
Does any of the above constitute an attack on Christmas?
If it does, thenhow is it possible -- in a day and age when we all expect to take Christmas Day off from work and where Saturnalia is a dead as a door post - that Christmas could be considered under attack if you don’t hear “Merry Christmas” enough?
If it does not constitute an attack, then how is it possible that you could be so worried about evidence of social observance of Christmas when it has only recently in historical terms been religiously observed?