Christmas and Religious symbols

I just saw on TV about people up in arms again about religious symbols at christmas. I think it's silly, what happened to freedom of belief. They said some schools don't even call a christmas tree a christmas tree anymore. They call it a friendship tree, or tree of lights. In a office I worked in afew years ago, the only signs we could put up had to say "Happy Holidays" not marry x-mas. What are some of your views?

 

i think it's lame. "friendship tree"? gimme a break. i'm not a christian; i say "merry christmas" and start feeling all warm & fuzzy around dec 1....

people need festival days. christmas is a big festival day, regardless of your religious beliefs.

seriously, friendship tree? that makes me want to barf.

 

pff! they already have it!

 

They used to have this country too - but no more.

I think all this anti-christmas stuff is another example of political correctness gone really silly.

 

Yeah so fucking stupid

Fancy using religious symbols in a religious holiday, how patently absurd.
Can't have that now can we. It might offend somebody. Oh but who...
The other religions (who have better things to do like their own holidays)
The secular/humanists (who don't even notice)
Jehovah witnesses (who probably deserve it for bugging everyone else with their door to door conversion pitches)

Hmm no wait how about the overwhelming majority of people who either are Christians and want to enjoy their holiday in peace. Or the ordinary non Christian folk who respect the practise and enjoy it for their own sake.

Italics is sarcasm of course.
I'm possibly one of the most unchristian people around (that still has/uses morals) but totally respect the concept. They have as much right to it as I do to halloween.
If anyting it's the secularisation of christmas that pisses me off. They should go more religious, get back to their roots.

Just today I was walking past a card shop and saw displays for christmas cards (already! but that's a whole other rant) and they also had posters for cards to celebrate the Hindu and Muslim festivals going on around this time. Filled my heart with joy.
That's what we really need, to give everyone a chance to celebate.

 

Yes. When I said in my earlier post 'they had this country (Britain) once' - they also tried, under Cromwell to ban all celebration of Christmas. Puritan soldiers actually went around enforcing this.

It led absolutely nowhere. With the restoration of Charles II, Christmas celebrations were brought back too.
And a good thing I say!
I mean, what else is there to do at that time of year?

 

^Yeah, then you sent all your damn Puritains over here and ruined America.

I agree, Sage-Pheonix, it should be more religious. this shopping frenzy just proves that MONEY is everyone's REAL god.

The problem is, a few sensetive atheists complain about it and tend to ruin everything. Now, to a point I agree with them, because they're trying to keep the church and state seperate as it should be, and as a previous poster said, give the religious right an inch and they'll take a mile...or the whole damn country. I don't know whether religious celebration belongs in the public schools, seems like it shouldn't...but it's a hard thing to ignore, since it's an important time of year for so many people. At work? Well, that's just ridiculous, you should be allowed to decorate your office or desk as you please. Sometimes this all just goes way too far.

 

Ah well. All I can say is please don't send them back

It's interesting though - I'm not sure but does the anti-xmas stuff in the USA mainly come from purely secular politically correct sources?
In the UK there's a similar thing, but based more on the idea of 'multi-culturalism' - would xmas offend Muslims for instance?

My view is that xmas is older than christianity, and it seems quite natural to me that at a time of year when the days are so short and it's usually cold, and not much to be done down on the farm, people should use the time to celebrate and enjoy life - whatever they believe it's origin to be.

It's a shame it's been ursurped by market forces etc. But it does also have a function in the capitalist economy - it gives retailers a big sales boom etc. Even my ebay sales go up.

Lets keep christmas, and let everyone who wants to celebrate it or yule or solstice as they see fit.

 

I think that people with other religious beliefs and traditions may feel somewhat alienated by our public celebration of christian holidays. They may not understand that secular america just looks at the celebration as a social tradition and not a religious one.

BBB said it right though, christmas IS older than christianity. People have been celebrating the winter season for a VERY long time now. I think we should continue.

I wouldn't be adverse to us changing the name of the celebration, though.

 

Let' call it "Arbor Day"

 

^that one's already taken, bro. How about just "winter solstice"?

 

They put a giant replica of the baby jesus three wise men and stable in the middle of our downtown area. Why do we need to see that?

 

What I see happening is a shift from the ideal of freedom to follow whichever religion you choose, to the opposite - not being allowed to follow ANY religion whatsoever.

The thing is, Christians are a majority, so naturally their holidays and festicvals are more visible. HIndus are a majority in India, there Hindu festivals are more visible. People just ned to chill out and get the prickly pears outta their behinds.