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When the parent council president at Surrey, B.C.'s Newton Elementary School proposed holding a Christmas concert this year, the room fell silent.
Most of the kids at Newton are of South Asian descent, and the parent council president, Bindi Gill, is a Sikh. They hadn't put on a Christmas concert in years – until this week. Ms. Gill, who was born in Canada, has fond memories of Christmas as a child – but things have changed in the last 20 years in her community, she says. She wonders how many even know the story and customs behind Christmas.
Really? It's been *years* since they've done anything for Christmas at this school in Vancouver? And the lady seems to be insinuating that they do something for Diwali or Visakhi. Which is fine in and of itself, but they would do that, but nothing for Christmas?
It's worth mentioning that silliness of this nature often does not originate with immigrants or people of immigrant origin, but rather Canadians of "longer establishment" who want to go overboard in their obsessive desire to accommodate diversity. If you actually talk to most people of non-Christian religions, they're often baffled by this and generally will say they don't at all mind the focus on Christmas and Easter, for example.
In the article, it is mentioned that 9 students refused to participate in the Christmas concert in 2011. I suspect that is what opened the discussion to cancel Christmas, so I don't think non-Christians can claim to be baffled by cancelled Christmas when it was non-Christians who refused to participate.
There's nothing religious about the easter bunny, santa, or singing Jingle Bells, but those symbols are associated with Christian holidays and therefore increasingly perceived as politically incorrect in schools....
Interesting, I think the skew of my own experience stopped me from actually thinking beyond it.
I have many times heard Christians object to Santa and even more to the Easter Bunny, so I rather quickly jumped to the thought that having Santa or the Bunny would slickly and quickly secularize each holiday. But upon reconsideration I guess the secular and the religious, ironically, have become too joined at the hip by now to be able to be separated.
I am quite old, and it has been many, many decades since I was a Christian believer, so the Bunny (especially) and Santa have become preeminent. If there were a slogan to the effect of "Boot the Bunny out of Easter" it would take me a moment to get what would be left. It would be an "...........Oh!...Yeah, right" reaction.
Muslims and Sikhs are pretty in our faces about their religion here in Canada. I can't leave my house without seeing some one in a hijab or a turban.
Lets not kid ourselves Christmas holidays in this country are Christian in origin. I am saying this as an athiest, I am not Christian but lets be fair.
PART of the Christmas holidays. Its a Frankenstein’s Monster of Norse, Roman, and Christian traditions blended together. The last hundred years have also seen influence on the holiday by large multinational corporations. Santa Clause didn’t wear white/red till Coca-Cola ran an ad with Santa Clause in company colors.
In the article, it is mentioned that 9 students refused to participate in the Christmas concert in 2011. I suspect that is what opened the discussion to cancel Christmas, so I don't think non-Christians can claim to be baffled by cancelled Christmas when it was non-Christians who refused to participate.
Yeah, some of them can be like that. I won't deny it.
My question would be: are we encouraging more and more people to be like that?
Good point. Nuns were teachers at one point, and Catholic schools still expect their teachers to be Catholic.
It’s hard to find a Catholic school that’s really Catholic anymore. My neighbor has a daughter who teaches religion at a Catholic school, but the daughter and her family are lapsed.
Here’s an old-school Catholic school in, of all places, Quebec.
I occasionally see Mennonite(?) women in Winnipeg dressed in traditional cap and long gowns. A favorite spot to visit seems to be Value Village where they turn up with their husbands in trucks. I dropped off my mother’s 70 year old iron Dutch oven there hoping it would find a good home with one of them.
I once saw three or four teenagers in their traditional old-fashioned garb seated on a bench in a busy shopping mall tapping on their cell phones. The contrast made me smile.
Sounds like Holdeman Mennonites, an offshoot group that originated in Ohio. They dress in long dresses and baptized members have caps over their hair. They use all the modern conveniences.
I don't care what people wear on their bodies, nor do I care about "Jesus is the reason for season." I just don't see religious motifs on tee shirts here. This is the season when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ. I also don't care about the fact that secular people celebrate secular versions of Christmas since the meaningfulness of Christmas is up to the individual.
Here I'm wished "Merry Christmas" in stores. It's been decades since I was at a school Christmas programme so I don't know how secular they are but I haven't heard of any schools here without a Christmas programme. If memory serves, school programmes always were more secular than the church programmes.
PART of the Christmas holidays. Its a Frankenstein’s Monster of Norse, Roman, and Christian traditions blended together. The last hundred years have also seen influence on the holiday by large multinational corporations. Santa Clause didn’t wear white/red till Coca-Cola ran an ad with Santa Clause in company colors.
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