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Dave, somewhere along the way Columbus Day and St Patrick's Day were pushed onto the schools too, but they aren't religious holidays either, though both were Catholics. I like these days, they are harmless. I like Octoberfest too, and the fruitcake toss competition on New Years Day here in Colorado.
IMO, black history month and women's history month and other such things are remedial efforts to make people aware that an awful lot of people had a major role in shaping our nation. Someday these will be pared back but until then we need our young people to get a more well-rounded view of all the forces that shaped us, not just the white male take on it all.
I recall from public grade school that getting ready for Christmas involved lots of activities for most of December, not all day long of course, but we rehearsed the carols and the Christmas story and put on a concert for the parents, complete with the three wise men, et al. We kids exchanged Christmas cards, decorated our classrooms, etc. By the time schools closed for a week or two, we were a bit worn out by the effort to celebrate the season. I enjoyed the SPIRIT of the season back then as I didn't see the commercialism, and I still enjoy the SPIRIT of it all, but won't play in the commercial aspects.
Back in the 1950's we lived in a WASPish environment, now we are way more diverse. IMO it's not PC to say Happy Holidays since many of the people we greet at that time of year are of other faiths, the term simply respects everyone equally. I guess we're lazy, with "Happy Holidays" more of the lazy man's "one size fits all" way to be nice without the hairsplitting of first finding out their religion and then giving them our best wishes in the proper phraseology.
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Last edited by Mike from back east; 10-08-2009 at 07:16 PM..
Please post all anti-Christmas conduct and hate on this thread.
It's starting:
Why can't non-Christians just let the Christians have their holiday in peace? Why do so many people have hate? Does anyone make demands of Jews on Yom Kippur? Muslims on Ramadan?
Memo to bigots: Let us celebrate our holiday. Christmas involves Jesus Christ by definition.
Having a Jesus ornament on an Xmas tree is just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Although, since there are three holes in it, I guess it would be easier to hang.
In my time very little class time was given over to Christmas, Columbus, or St Patrick's day other than some decorations on the doors and halls. But we did have mandatory Black History month and MLK classes over and over and over again all month long and the blacks at our school, teachers and students, acted like Saudi's morality police watching all the white students and teachers for some signs of racism so they could call them on it or use it against them if they were teachers.
Having a Jesus ornament on an Xmas tree is just about the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Although, since there are three holes in it, I guess it would be easier to hang.
20yrsinBranson
None of our Christmas trees had any religious symbols on them. We had lights, garland, and glass bulbs among other ornaments. People in our area use to regularly put out a nativity scene in the yard but many families stopped doing this because of anti-christian vandalism.
How does this point relate to what I said or this thread? Did I ever claim that people shouldn't be allowed Christmas holidays or that accomodations shouldn't be made for students of certain faiths. If I did say that, please copy and paste my quotes. And how has anything you said contradicted my earlier statement. So you found a school that closes on Yom Kippur so that contradicts my point about how schools in the United States in general do not close for non-Christian hollidays? I mentioned the fact that Diwali doesn't close down Indian dense schools in NJ and you claim that other countries do this, but we are discussing the U.S.? Did any of the schools in NJ close for Diwali? I don't really understand what you are arguing. If you are arguing that accomodations for students should be made for students of certain faiths such as school closings due to practical reasons, you won't get any disagreement with me.
I was arguing this country doesn't make the same policy toward people of other faiths. We used school closings as an example. Okay, perhaps there are a minority of schools that will close on non-Christian holidays due to a large population of non-Christians. Are you saying all schools with sizable Muslim populations close on Ramadan as well? Let's use another example aside from public schools. Let's discuss government related jobs. Does the post office in Dearborn, Michigan shut down on Ramadan because the majority of their employees are Muslim? Does this same post office stay open on Christmas? Do banks in large Jewish districts shut down on Yom Kippur in general? Do these banks stay open on Christmas?
You wrote in post #11
I'm sorry but this is an ignorant and stupid post. Christmas is imposed on our country more than any other holliday. I don't see schools closing for Ramadan, Diwali or Yom Kippur.
In post #132, I was simply responding that I knew schools were closing for Jewish Holidays.
Actually I've lived in a community with a large Jewish population and they did close the schools for various Jewish holidays. I don't think they were doing it to honor the holiday, but just being practical. If a large number of students are don't going to show up then what is the point in having the school open.
Since then I have done searches and I have found that the reasons for closing the schools on Jewish holidays in New York was for practical reasons. Not only were the students not showing up, but a significant number of teachers were also taking the days off.
I've also discovered that it is much more of a common practice then I realized. I couldn't find any that were closing for Diwali, although there have been requests. There are some schools closing for Muslim holidays.
If you are arguing that accomodations for students should be made for students of certain faiths such as school closings due to practical reasons, you won't get any disagreement with me.
The rest of my posts have been in response to your subsequent posts. I never felt that we were that far off, which is why I wrote that I thought you were misreading my posts.
I don't have first hand knowledge on the other situations. I do know that at the company I work for the Hindu employees are not expected to work during Diwali.
None of our Christmas trees had any religious symbols on them. We had lights, garland, and glass bulbs among other ornaments. People in our area use to regularly put out a nativity scene in the yard but many families stopped doing this because of anti-christian vandalism.
I really hope that it's not anti-christian vandalism, that would be sad. Seems that no matter what anyone puts out, including halloween stuff, it gets smacked around by young fools.
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I really hope that it's not anti-christian vandalism, that would be sad. Seems that no matter what anyone puts out, including halloween stuff, it gets smacked around by young fools.
The traditional target was almost always the baby Jesus. Someone getting agry at a neighbor's very loud and very bright Christmas decorations and vandalizing them is one thing. These Nativity scenes make no noise and are usually not lit or if they are lit, its one light.
Until then, bring baby jesus to the town square and praise him on high. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas and joy to the world. If the athiests and gays can sing gay to the world, we should be able to sing joy to the world.
You're perfectly welcome to go to the public square with whatever props you think are appropriate and sing whatever songs you like. People aren't kept from expressing religious sentiments and preferences -- governments are.
Why are some people so threatened if a stupid "Christmas" tree isn't hung up in a public place or someone doesn't wish them a "Merry Christmas"?
Jesus called and he wants you to get off his cross.
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