Warning: This blog contains an abundance of Christmas tree images that may overwhelm some viewers.
A couple of days ago, I said, “Merry Christmas,” to a couple I passed while walking in Seal Bay Park. The words just fell out of my mouth.
The offended couple responded with a grumpy, “Happy Holidays.”
Their response to my well-intended – although thoughtless – greeting set me to wondering why some people get so twitchy about the “Christmas” word.
During the rest of the walk, I hummed, “You’re a mean one Mr. Grinch,” and took a safer approach, saying, “hello,” to people I passed. However, when a man wearing a bright red turban, responded to my lame, “hello,” with a booming, “Merry Christmas,” that would have made Santa proud, I wrapped myself in the warmth of that gift and smiled all the way home.
Is Happy Holidays a more inclusive and respectful greeting than Merry Christmas?
Wikipedia sheds some light – Like many catchphrases, happy holidays started with advertising campaigns. By the 1860s newspapers were using Happy Holidays and similar phrases in Christmas advertising. By the 1900s the phrase was everywhere from greeting cards to Christmas carols.
Food for thought as I munch on a slice of Christmas cake and look around my home with its three Christmas trees and ample decorations.
Please join me for an unfettered, no filters moment. For those of us – Christian and non-Christian alike – who acknowledge and take part in the festivities surrounding 25 December – do we put up holiday decorations, go holiday shopping, have family over for a holiday meal? I don’t think so. The majority of us writing cards, setting up trees inside our homes, hanging lights outside our homes, making lists, buying gifts, seeking elusive sugar for our baking, hunting down a turkey that doesn’t require a mortgage to finance – are getting ready to celebrate Christmas. It might be a Christian idea of Christmas, or a commercialized Hallmark extravaganza, or maybe we are following pagan practices. Perhaps we celebrate a blend of all three – but it’s Christmas.
Setting Christmas aside for a moment, December is a busy time of year for various faith-based festivities. Jews celebrate Hanukkah over eight days in December, Buddhists have Dodhi Day on 8 December and we pagans get excited about the Solstice on 21 December.
So, is it more appropriate to say, “Happy Holidays,” and thus include other groups – secular or otherwise – who celebrate a December festival?
Wikipedia informs me that the word holiday comes from an Old English word first recorded in 950 CE, as hāligdæg. Hālig – holy and dæg – day. The first record of the holiday spelling was in 1460 CE, and it eventually came to mean “a day when commoners are exempt from labor."
While I slice nibble at another sliver of Christmas cake, let’s recap. Merry Christmas might be interpreted as a non-inclusive conservative greeting that implies a Christian belief system. On a similar note, Happy Holidays ignores all the folks who don’t celebrate this time of year as a holy day or holiday. Let’s face it – both greetings imply the same thing. Neither of them includes anyone who doesn’t celebrate or enjoy one of this season’s festivals. And that is – as it happens – most people on the planet.
Sorry grumpy couple in the park – no special tolerance points for you today. When friends or strangers say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” perhaps we might respond in kind and be grateful for the social pleasantry. The same holds for a Hanukkah sameach or a wish for calm and meditative Dodhi Day. Let’s just accept the greetings in the spirit with which they were offered – as gifts.
Now, how about “Season’s Greetings?” Can we say that without offending anyone and getting embroiled in the Christmas vs Holiday word-war drama? Maybe, but at this point, as Rhett said to Scarlet, “frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
Why? Considering the roots of today’s Christmas celebrations might help us not get our knickers in a twist over which greeting is appropriate. Please join me for a quick romp through time.
Ancient peoples of the northern hemisphere recognized the winter solstice as heralding longer days ahead. This was cause for joy and over time celebrations developed. When those folks gathered around a fire to share food and stories, no doubt they understood the value of community for survival.
In Europe, the Romans came marching along with their mid-winter celebration honouring Saturn – Roman god of agriculture. A pragmatic lot, they amalgamated their festival with existing solstice celebrations. The wreaths, candles, feasting and gifting we associate with modern Christmas have their roots in the Roman Saturnalia celebrations.
What about the idea that Jesus was born on 25 December?
None of the Gospels of Mark, Luke, Mathew or John – written over thirty years after Jesus was crucified – mention when he was born. Some researchers suggest the birth was likely during the spring or summer. Without historical facts, in 336 CE, Roman emperor Constantine and Pope Julius I choose 25 December for the first Nativity festival because that date coincided with established solstice/Saturnalia celebrations.
Even so, those Nativity celebrations didn’t become significant in the Christian calendar until the 9th century because early Christian leaders insisted that celebrating birthdays was a dreadful pagan habit. They argued that the day of death or martyrdom should be celebrated because that was when the soul went to heaven. And so, for centuries after Jesus was crucified, Easter was the major Christian celebration.
Enjoy the lovely manger scenes and beautiful carols – some of my favourite music anytime of the year – but keep in mind that the choosing of 25 December over three centuries after Christ’s death was an arbitrary decision to maximize celebration options. Good call, Constantine, your festival has developed into what it is today as a result of brilliant marketing ploys.
Now, let’s delve into the convoluted origin of the word “Christmas,” itself? Derived from the Old English words Cristes – Christ and mæsse – mass, that is just the end of a longer word-development story.Cristes comes from the Greek word khristos, which had a Hebrew origin meaning messiah. Mass developed from the Latin word missa which came from the dismissal of worshippers after the liturgy – Ite, missa est. The Crīstesmæsse spelling first shows up in 1038, then Cristes-messe in 1131.
I’ve been trying to discover when our modern spelling of “Christmas” appears but so far have been unsuccessful. But, before anyone used any derivative of the term, “Yule” was in common use having developed from jōl used by Germanic people or geōl used by Anglo-Saxons for their winter solstice feasts.
Imagine this:
It's a dark and snowy night when an Anglo-Saxon pagan meets a wondering monk and invites him in to join a feast.
“Hey stranger, how about joining the clan for our geōl feast.”
“The feast is called Crīstesmæsse these days,” grumps the offended monk who carries on into a snowstorm.
Feel free to create your own ending to that story. Does the monk spend a miserable night alone in the storm – maybe he dies or gets frostbite. Or does he think better of his intolerance, turn back, and accept the offer of hospitality – maybe he gets drunk and makes new friends.
While you’re deciding on the monk’s fate, let’s consider the advent of Christmas trees?
Long before Christianity, evergreen boughs were brought into homes to hang over doors and windows because people believed this would keep evil spirits and sickness at bay during the long dark nights of winter. There’s no record of decorating a tree until 1419 when a guild in Freiburg in present-day Germany, hung apples, wafers and gingerbread on an outside tree. During the 16th century, northern European Lutherans began bringing trees into their homes, but it was in 1846 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had a Christmas tree that the idea really caught on. Having decorated trees in our homes has roots in an ancient tradition of keeping out evil and more recently keeping up with the British royals. Christian ideology plays a minor role here. Indeed, the first “Catholic” Christmas tree was erected at St Peters in 1982.
What about Santa Claus, how does the jolly old elf fit into this Christmas tale?
Born around 280 CE in Patara, in today’s Turkey, a wealthy monk named Nicholas gave his wealth to poor people. Canonized in 1446, he became the patron saint of children and sailors, his popularity not waning when other saints went out of favour during the rise of protestant belief systems. The Santa Claus title evolved from his Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas. His image has also evolved from a skinny guy dressed in bishop’s robes to the more modern rendition first illustrated in 1862 by a cartoonist, Thomas Nast. While Nast’s Santa was depicted wearing the stars and stripes, in 1933, Coca-Cola famously used the jolly man in red in one of their advertising campaigns. Santa has been a red-suited fat man with bushy white beard ever since. More marketing genius.
On that note – let's consider cities, stores and homes both large and small in areas where Christmas is part of the popular culture.
When we put up lights outside our homes, do we wonder if we are being disrespectful to our neighbours who don’t celebrate this time of year? Do cities and towns decide not to have Santa Claus parades and to not decorate the streets for fear of offending? Do shops decline to sell trappings of Christmas? I’m going out on a limb here, but I anticipate the responses to the above questions are a hearty chorus of nos.
This all began as I tried to discover if saying, “Merry Christmas,” excludes or disrespects the 68% of the world’s population who are non-Christian. While researching the roots of Christmas celebrations, I came across a study indicating that 90% of Canadians celebrate Christmas, many doing so in a secular manner. I also discovered that only 53.33% of Canadians report themselves as Christian. In Canada, Christmas celebrations, it would appear, transend religious belief systems. Way to go Christmas.
Given the demography of where I live, is “Merry Christmas” a disrespectful, intolerant greeting? Perhaps an old curmudgeon like Scrooge will respond with, “Bah Humbug.” But when I wish anyone a “Merry Christmas, or a Happy Solstice, I’m offering the gift of genuine good-will. It’s up to recipients to decide how they wish to receive that gift.
To you and yours – Lacy and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy Solstice.
"Lacy, what are you up to?"
Comments