By JAKE ROBINSON
December is a great time of the year; the trees are painted in snow, school’s out for a month and we get to celebrate holidays such as Hanukkah, Kwanza, New Year’s Eve and Day and even Christmas.
The war on Christmas, which is being waged in an effort to create equality amongst all religions during the holiday season, has been in effect for a few decades. Although the goal is to create equality, it may be going too far.
The beautiful thing about Canada is that we live in a diverse society where we accept a variety of different cultures; however, in our efforts to embrace all, have we targeted Christianity?
Christmas is a religious holiday to celebrate the birth of Jesus and censoring the holiday seems to be backtracking from diversity. Other religions, traditions and beliefs can still be acknowledged by society, but it’s only natural that in a prominent Christian country that Christmas is glorified.
Many controversial activities regarding Christmas even happen within Waterloo Region including the decorating of a community evergreen and the salutation of “Merry Christmas.” The fact that a decorated evergreen tree is known as a “Christmas Tree” is unnerving to some. They would rather the tree be known as a “Holiday Tree.” However, the tree is decorated in keeping with Dec. 25, which is known as Christmas Day, not “holiday” day.
As far as an atheist approach to changing the social traditions of Christmas, it is unfair to the people who are merely celebrating their religious holiday or a holiday that they just choose to embrace. Unlike most holidays, commercialism has brought a positive influence to Christmas. It allows non-Christians to enjoy the giving and family oriented part of the holiday. However, some atheist groups such as American Atheists use the season to promote their hatred of the holiday, calling it a myth. We are free to believe whatever we wish, but trying to make Christians and non-Christians feel guilty or stupid for celebrating Christmas is unacceptable.
The holidays are a special time of the year when the entire community is supposed to think about giving, loving and socializing. We’re not supposed to be fighting over how we greet or adieu one another. We should be embracing this time of the year and accepting everyone and all of their beliefs – and that includes Christmas.
The views herein represent the position of the newspaper, not necessarily the author.
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