Now they want to ban Holidays.
The University of Minnesota has notified employees that, not only is the term Christmas inappropriate, but now even Holiday should be avoided. The suggested substitution isWinter celebration. Apparently, the fact that virtually every society, religion, or tribe, past and present, have celebrated some holiday in December is not enough to allow the word holiday to be used without violating someones rights or feelings.
There are a couple things beyond the obvious that are wrong with this approach. First, even my dog celebrates the holidays, Christmas to be precise. Although he's not too fond of Santa, he does enjoy the outdoor lights and the indoor tree, even if he is prohibited from doing what he does best to trees. It's hard to imagine that any human is completely immune to either a religious or a secular celebration of some holiday on or near the winter solstice.
Second, if Christmas is offensive to anyone, why doesn't the mail get delivered on December 25? Maybe because the federal government decided that it is a Winter Celebration? Then why does the government call it Christmas? Maybe some bureaucrats are just making extra work for themselves creating really stupid policy directives. Maybe somebody should think about which bureaucrat could replace the traditional angel with that tree stuck.... Well, enough of that.
Back to the suggested substitution for thousands of years of tradition. Winter celebration? Who in their right mind celebrates winter? Face it, it's the absolute worst season, short days and long nights, cold, hard to drive or even walk. Of all the things that happen this time of year, winter is the worst.
Most Christmas celebrations are slight mutations of secular traditions involving excess food and drink, and other politician-like behavior. People traditionally did very inappropriate things to help them forget that there was almost no daylight, and it was often a little chilly too. They celebrated the fact that the days were beginning to get longer, and they all had the day off. I don't know when they started calling the various holidays holidays, but I bet nobody called them a Winter Celebration.
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