December 10, 2011

Why I Say Happy Holidays




Some people have gotten upset because the media has switched to saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I personally don’t have a problem with this because I realize there are many different religions and people in this world and it’s only right that we should acknowledge them all.

There are the Pagans celebrating winter solstice, Jewish people celebrating Hanukkah, some celebrate Kwanza and other holidays I don’t even know about. Those people have a right to be included in our well wishes and I wouldn’t want to exclude anyone by merely saying, “Merry Christmas.”

Just because we don’t say Christmas doesn’t mean we are excluding that holiday, we are just being nice and including everyone else as well. Everybody still gets their nativity and decorated trees; goodness knows the White House even has a huge pine showcased center stage, so nobody is forgetting the Christian religion when we extend greetings to others.

Funny thing is, most of Christmas tradition is taken from the Pagans. There is no Christmas tree in the bible; that is from the Pagans, Druids used trees for sacred ceremony.

Jesus wasn’t born in December; that comes from the feast of the son of Isis when gluttonous eating, drinking and gift giving were the tradition. We’re certainly not giving gifts to Jesus this time of year; we give them to each other.

In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis (Goddess of Nature) was celebrated on December 25. Raucous partying, gluttonous eating, drinking, and gift giving were traditions of this feast. Hmm, sounds very familiar. Don’t you think?

Caroling comes from the ancient Roman celebration of mummers who would dress in costume and go door to door singing, dancing and entertaining their neighbors to celebrate the God of Agriculture.

The Yule log was to celebrate the Sun God.

Kissing under the mistletoe is a fertility ritual.

So when people try to tell me saying, “Happy Holidays” is robbing them of Christmas it makes me wonder if they realize how hypocritical that statement sounds since most of Christmas is a direct robbery of the Pagan rites.

Whatever holiday you celebrate this month I want to wish you a wonderful holiday season.