Today is Christmas. It also marks the beginning of Hanukkah. And it means – praise whomever or whatever you are accustomed to praising – that starting tomorrow, we can put the bizarre “Merry Christmas” controversy behind us.
Instead of saying “Happy Holidays,” the suspiciously inclusive among us now may simply say “Happy New Year” and not worry – too much – about offending the implacably devout.
Has there ever been such a contentious Season of Goodwill?
This year especially, those who are offended that people and merchandisers would wish them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” have been particularly vocal.
What has happened this year to elevate this unseemly disagreement to a Cause?
Perhaps one side did indeed start it, taking offense when someone wished a non-Christian “Merry Christmas,” recoiling at the presence of crèches in public displays, or complaining about carols in schools.
No doubt some non-Christians felt excluded and ostracized by general popular focus on the birth of Christ, even though that focus was overwhelmed by the emphasis on shopping and retail extravagance.
And so their pique drove them and their allies to the courts, where they often succeeded in rigid enforcement of the separation of church and state.
More likely it was not so much members of other religions who were offended as it was those who find righteousness in being offended on behalf of the downtrodden.
Wherever it started, it didn’t seem all that much of an issue until this year, when the other side fought back with a vengeance.
Certainly, Christmas is a Christian holiday. Yet it also coincides with other observances, religious and secular, that celebrate the turning point of the yearly cycle, when darkening days in the northern hemisphere start to turn brighter again.
For centuries, there have been traditions celebrating the solstice. It’s the time of the Romans’ Saturnalia.
What better time to recognize that “Happy Holidays” is not an affront to Christianity but an effort to recognize the other faiths and points of view that motivate the world’s diverse peoples?
Why is it that “Happy Holidays,” an expression of inclusiveness, should be seen as persecution of the Christian majority? Joining in the spirit of a holiday shouldn’t require a religious epiphany.
“Happy Holidays” is, or should be, an innocuous phrase encompassing a five-week period of celebration that starts with Thanksgiving and ends with the arrival of the new year.
Each of these happy holidays is more inclusive than the one preceding it. Thanksgiving is primarily a U.S. holiday. Christmas is celebrated by Christians around the world, but its spirit and message infuse other religions as well as those who profess no religion.
And the new year? Well, Jan. 1 is widely accepted as the time to switch watches, clocks, checking accounts and everything else to 2006.
Christmas only recently has become what it is today. Until the 18th century, it was rather out of control. In England, the common people would use it as an excuse to show up at manor houses, demanding gifts and sweets, or else they would do unmannerly things to the manor. It was rather like the trick-or-treating of Halloween – a date that, in many malls in more recent times, is the beginning of the Christmas season.
No question. Christmas has strayed from its origins. It has become a merchandising orgy. That’s a bad turn of events. But “Happy Holidays” is not.
Why should people be offended if others wish them “Happy Holidays” or “Live long and prosper” or even “Have a nice day” instead of “Merry Christmas”? For that matter, why should a non-Christian be offended at being invited to share the goodwill that Christmas represents?
Thank goodness we can put this behind us for another year. Happy New Year, we are permitted to say. Unless, of course, your preferred new year begins sometime other than Jan. 1. If so, please don’t be offended.
Fred Brown (punditfwb@aol.com), retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
