December 19, 2004
a first glimpse
There has been a lot of hubub lately about the place of Christmas in American society. It is being said that since conservative Christian America "won the election," the debate about the place of Christmas in our culture has resurfaced.
This link is to a recent NY Times article. It is an interesting one.
Follow this link to read something Cliff emailed. I would be curious to know what you all think.
For me, the so-called debate all hinges on culture. There is so much talk about diversity in our day that we forget that one could claim that Christmas is (has been?) an American Cultural holiday. Christian religious under/overtones or not, I know Hindus who put up a tree in order to feel "more American." So, in the midst of Christmas may be a culture war, or a conflation of cultures or, like the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico, the borrowing of religious images/stories to express general cultural mores or national identity.
Posted by tripp at December 19, 2004 07:23 AMi dunno, maybe its because i largely view the holiday as an outsider, but i find all the cries that christmas is somehow being forced out of the public sphere to be patently ridiculous. roughly from mid-november until december 25th i am awash in all things christmas. it is literally everywhere. although a lot of it is secular, religious stuff is everywhere too, contrary to the objections of some talking heads on t.v.
for every "holiday party" there is at least a dozen "christmas parties." indeed, i haven't even been to a "holiday party" yet this year. although i've been to a half-dozen "christmas parties", including the one run by my law firm where four of the seven attorneys are jews.
and while the news media can find one or two instances in a nation of 300 million where a menorah but not a nativity scene was present in a mall, they don't seem to notice that the opposite is far more common. (e.g. the place next door to my office)
don't get me wrong, i don't care at all about menorahs or nativity scenes. none of this stuff offends me, but i can't help but see this whole controversy as simply absurd on its face. maybe christians notice the non-christian stuff more than the christian stuff. i don't see any other explanation for the hubbub. it's like we're all walking through a haystack when someone points to a needle and yells "what happened to all the hay?"
Posted by: upyernoz at December 20, 2004 02:38 PM