What do you think?

[MudFu]

There has been many reports on the News latly of upset Christians who think Christmas is being ruined. Instead of Merry Christmas on cards and on T.V it has been replaced with Season Greetings or Happy Holidays. Christian's say that it shouldn't be this way and that it is being unfair to them. Now the funny thing about this is that their are more hoildays during this time then Christmas. The Jewish people have their holiday comming up and I don't think I have EVER seen on T.v an ad saying Happy Chanukah. Why is this so offenive to say Seasons Greetings. I am a Christian and I really don't see the harm in it. We can still get cards to celebrate our holiday and other stuff so whats the big deal. Refering to a school break as Christmas break to me is kidda dumb cuz not everyone is Christian. Is it really that bad to be mulity-cultural? Lol What do you guys think?

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

all i can say is merry christmas, this is a BIG WHUP.

[sm0k1t]

I'm sure Santa is smokin a big doobie on this =D

[mrdevious]

I think it's dumb using happy holidays for the sole purpose of "not offeneidng anybody", but just for the sake of variety, then who cares? christmas is, after all, a christian holiday .

[beachguy in thongs]

Mr. D. kind of has me thinking this over.

It is Christmas. They are Christmas Cards.

I can send a Holiday card anytime of the year. Celebrate Good Times, c'mon. It's a Holiday. Wait, I'm getting Madonna mixed up with a 70's song.

There's a section for Happy Hannukah Cards.

And Happy Kwanzaa Cards.

[MudFu]

Well they also renamed the Christmas Tree in New York to a Holiday tree.

[mrdevious]

Well they also renamed the Christmas Tree in New York to a Holiday tree.


now that's just rediculous. muslims and jews and whoever dont' have "holiday trees", it's a specifically christmas thing. jesus, all these people are so concerned about "offending somebody by mentioning christmas", but since when did it become acceptable to be so intolerant of peoples beliefs as to be offended at the mention of their holiday?

[MudFu]

Now see thats what I thought at first but then I was reading that it wasn't the christians who wanted to do this, in fact many were pissed with the idea, but it was the jewish and people or other religious backgrounds that wanted it to be changed, they said that it was offencive...Can you imagin going down the street and saying merry christmas and someone looks at you and says thats offencive...I think I would laugh so hard at them.

[Make it Hempen]

I don't really care whether someone says "merry christmas" or "happy holidays." Free speech, damnit!

- Kate

[beachguy in thongs]

I can see how they can rename the Christmas tree in N.Y.C. so it's a symbol of all our Holiday practices. I didn't know the Jews were so concerned with a Christmas Tree, anyway.

[MudFu]

Yes true but everyone knows why a tree goes up. It all started with Christmas. Maybe we should put a Manora up in another large city.

[beachguy in thongs]

I nominate Des Moines.

[halo]

I think that saying merry christmas is perfectly fine. The only thing that bugs me is at some places they will say happy hannukah and happy kwannza but not merry christmas. This is why people are saying they are discriminating against christians. And plus, 85 percent of the usa says they are christian. I think happy holidays is fine. I dont see whats wrong with merry christmas though.

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

i do have to admit, christians have put u pa lot of BS in the past, but those were not truly christians but individuals. people need to stop blaming a type of people for the stupidity of a person.

[beachguy in thongs]

Let's change it to 'Have a Stoned Christmas' and start putting that on Christmas cards.

What about X-Mas? Who came up with X-Mas?

[MudFu]

X came from the Greek word for christmas. I forget what it is but it starts with X. Now a days people think its disrepect but it really do mean Christmas...I'll see if I can find the word for you.

[MudFu]

Found it...pretty fast too

Well, that letter may look like an "X" and walk like an "X" and quack like an "X," but it isn't an "X." That's the Greek letter "chi" which is pronounced about like "ch" was in Old English ... which is to say, about how it's pronounced in German today, or in a few imported words, like "Christ" or "Christmas," for example.

"X" (as in chi) was used as an abbreviation for Christ from early times, perhaps initially as a camouflage for the religion. It was the first letter of the word Christos (meaning "the anointed one," e.g., the Messiah) and fortuitously was cross-shaped, so there seemed to be some symbolism or double meaning. It's been used as a scholarly and not-so-scholarly abbreviation since.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mxmas.html

[weirdo79]

Cough Cough ,Practically every xmas tradition was long ago pagan, before any christian's had shown up(anywhere)....the only thing they contributed was the creche....but of course thats(dec25th) not even the bday of Jesus either.....So its perfect Irony they celebrate it on Xmas....Silly christian's calling it their tradition......Just for adding a creche.....Wonder what other holiday's they co opted that dont actually correspond to their own given dates in the bible???(this is rhetorical I'm actually urging you to look it up yourselves ;) ).

It's kind of like that song "every generation blames the one before" but instead with these lyrics "every religion steals the traditions of the one before" Not all traditions of course but christianity sure has stolen more than most it seems. ;)

Just had to add that to the fire :).

Happy Holidays is used for the same reason Jon Stewart explained last night, and he said it oh so much better than I ever could ;).

I also love how Christian's pull statistics out of their ass to support their arguements (ones that only seem to exist on christian websites in fact.....not at StatsCan or any other for instance.....).

Christmas is basically a big finger flipped off to the Jews saying "your wrong we're right , even if we dont know the date of our supposed saviour's birth....." (as no actual biblical passage says it was xmas.......)

But I do enjoy getting presents and isnt that really the meaning of xmas........;)

And, I dont know ssw if all of those people believe the same idiocy the others do , then yes I think its fair to judge that they're ALL stupid ;).

And , truly considering all things Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas is fine , but if you say it the way Bill O Reilly did the other day, well no thats like saying something I do not wish to repeat myself......(mainly to do with the aformentioned above in a meaner sense.....). Basically saying "we dont need your kind round here boiy". It's fairly clearly implied in certain instances....

[beachguy in thongs]

Xmas (or X-mas) is an abbreviation for Christmas. It is derived from the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, transliterated as Christos, which is Greek for Christ. Greek is the language in which the whole New Testament was written.

Originally, Xmas was an abbreviation where the X represents the Greek letter (see chi . It is pronounced with a hard ch), which is the first letter of Christ's name in Greek. However, because of the modern interpretations of the letter X, many people are unaware of this and assume that this abbreviation is meant to drop Christ from Christmas as a secularization or political correctness vehicle. The occasionally seen belief that the X represents the cross. Christ was crucified on has no basis in fact; St Andrew's Cross is X-shaped, but Christ's cross was probably shaped like a T or a â?*. Indeed, X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be. The use of X as an abbreviation for cross in modern parlance may have reinforced this assumption.

In ancient Christian art X and XP (Chi Ro--the first two letters in Greek of Christos) abbreviate Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X abbreviates Christos (Xristos), as does XC (the first and last letters using the lunate sigma along with IC for Jesus in Greek. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, fifty years before the first English colonists came to America and sixty years earlier than the completion of the King James Version of the Bible. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of Christian and Christianity..

The abbreviation is widely but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it helpful to use in text messages and emails to save space. Similarly, Xianity is sometimes used as the abbreviation for Christianity (although this usage is much less common than "Xmas").

In the animated television show Futurama, which is set in the 31st century, Xmas is the official name for the day formerly known as Christmas.

[weirdo79]

Woot Santa "slays" tonight! (love futurama)

[MudFu]

Anyways I don't feel that we are "fliping off" the jews. It is true that we are very similar. Our major difference is the belief that Jesus is our savour and the son of God. Also Jews call themselves the choosen people of God...what makes them think they are so much better then everyone else? God loves all his children. Anyways, it is true that Dec. 25 is not Jesus's birthday but it is unknown of the exact day of his birth so we choose to celebrate it on that day. As far as adding in a Christmas tree and all that, it really isn't needed it was just added to make it more enjoyable. Not that it wasn't enjoyable before.

[halo]

I heard that jesus b-day was around halloween. The reason we celebrate it on decemeber 25th is bcuz at one time that was the 25th day of the 10th month. But when julius ceaser(July) and agustus ceaser (august) added 2 month they messed up the names of everthing. Like SEPTember (sept = 7) OCTOber (octo=8) NOVember(nov=9) DECember (dec=10) latin prefixes i think.

[MudFu]

Well thats the first I heard of that...not dismissing it but I heard that his birth was in spring. Sorry I can't remember where I heard that or the reasons for thinking it. I heard it a long time ago.

[weirdo79]

Actually Mud you might want to check with the Vatican and every major Church the day is pretty much "set in stone"(and its not christmas) However you definitely grasped the original part of the point "intention" is really where the "offensiveness" if any is in any greeting.

Of course you wouldnt see the slight as you would never intend it that way, but when you look at the very basis of the two faiths it is a big flip off ;). Christian's also make the claim they're the chosen ones (when their own bible clearly indicates the Jews) , you see this is where it gets sketchy for most.....it's believing the bible is "real" but only the parts you like type thing that causes so many problems.

Also when people make up false attacks (for instance O reilly's comments about the aclu when in fact they've done pro bono work to support christmas in the traditional sense) is when people get the inclination they are being attacked (or their faith is under attack).

BUT if you walk up to a practicing Jewish person chances are "merry christmas" the traditional "celebration of christ's birthday" (despite the mistake). Is like me walking up to any Religious person and saying "you know your god doesnt exist right and your a nut for not believing in what I do" (why would you celebrate a day that has no significance to you etc). I wouldn't go up to you and say "happy halo's grandmother's day" etc. (sorry halo your post was over quick response so I just took your name for the example :) ).

So if I say Merry Christmas (which I do) to people it's not a slight , im wishing them a good season (to me) but they might take it as "im a christian and we ALL celebrate my religion!" whether we want to or not(or your stupid type thing). Which is ironic because if I named it , it would be "happy generic capitalist quarter please enjoy our goods we couldnt move in the first part of the year" day......But it's the implication that counts for some. To me its just "have a nice day" to some its the aformentioned above.

I like Happy Holiday's best for the same reason you originally did(Season's greetings etc), theres so many freaking holidays in this area of the year. (once again Jon said it better than I do though and much more concisely).

[weirdo79]

I believe and this could be wrong , thats it's actually march 5th so You are probably right there Mud Lemme backtrack and see if I can find the info properly. (give ya some linkage etc).

[RastaKaze]

the change is fine! christians are selfish. i remember someone making a joke about this. "why the hell does my laundormat say happy holidays? im not celebrating holiDAYS. i'm celebrating HOLIDAY." lol and though while funny "happy holidays" is just a nuetral way to tell everyone have a happy holiday.. i think the christians are getting it all wrong

[weirdo79]

Apparenetly there is too much dichotomy in the church , we've got official records from Roman Empire saying in March (basically) and the vatican taking the official view of spring "sometime" and die hard fundies saying the DEC 25th (because they have no idea about their own religion of course ;) ). Other's still postulating because of the very few writings about it , that it could have been almost any date. Although if you look up chronological biblical stories it appears to be "spring sometime".

(apologize for my earlier assumption that it was "set in stone" technically speaking that would only be the archeological evidence for someone named Jesus ;) not necessarily "The Jesus" etc).

[MudFu]

See I say it as happy seasons and have a nice/ good year. I dont mean harm from it Lol.

[Oneironaut]

I don't care what they say. Christmas doesn't really matter much to me, not being a Christian. But for fuck's sake, please stop playing your crappy holiday carols in public! They suck. Think about it, when have you ever been at a party and then Silent Night came on? Or put Santa Claus Is Coming To Town on your iPod? I mean, come on, could you guys please spare us your religion's bad taste in music? Or at least make shopping malls and radio stations play alongside them songs about the problem of evil, Biblical contradictions, the flaws of Creation "Science", and the detrimental effect of religion on intercultural relations.

[beachguy in thongs]

Try not listening to Christmas music. I haven't heard a song, yet, though I've had a few stuck in my head somehow.

Don't watch TV, if you don't like the commercials. I can't stand commercials. I don't understand what a person is thinking when they gaze intently at a commercial.

I need more coffee. It's amazing how they make coffee. Actually, I made it this morning, so I guess I'm amazing.

It's like squeezing juice out of a telephone poll.