h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm fed up, so so utterly fed up of all this new and quite boggeling political corectness stuff thats going around I mean... I'm all for not insulting other faiths but at the cost of removing christmas!

I'm fed up of it being winterlights instead of christmas lights

I dont think midnight mass should be banned... if you dont like it dont go

I dont think it should be x.mass or CRIMBO

I dont think Christmas carrols should be changed to be less catholic

I dont think offices and stores should be banned from putting up decorations

and so many other things,
what Is the world coming to when in order to walk on egg shells around others customs we need to delete our own
I think enough is enough if we removed there festivals in this way blood would run in the streets in a metaphorical way
we would be racist and other things allong those lines,
but its fine for our christmas to be taken away because we might offend them....
somethings not quite right there

Yeah, but it's not people of other faiths complaining, it's people complaining on their behalf, usually to save their companies money on crappy fake plastic trees and suchlike.

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/xmasabbr.asp

I still prefer christmas
and I think although xmas may not origanaly have been intended to take the christ out of christmas thats what it is now


and shops storing tinsel in october....
that annoyes me too

Its CHRISTMAS and will allways be CHRISTMAS cus its around this time 2005 years ago somethng happened..... funny i forget what it is!

Actually, that's a huge misconception about xmas/Christmas.

Xmas is a perfectly acceptable abbreviation- it's in Greek.

And personally, I'd like to see /less/ of the crass commercialization of Christmas. If that means calling Christmas trees and Christmas lights Holiday Trees and Seasonal Displays, so be it. I'm for keeping the RELIGIOUS holiday out of the culture of consumerism.

here here and evening

winterlights...winterlight?...WINTERLIGHT?...WTF!!!...that's the stu-...man...no...and saying happy holidays needs to stop as well...it's merry christmas!!!
happy holidays just doesn't seem special...saying merry christmas has a specialness to it...

Can I still say Merry Chrismahanakwaanzadon?

that's a funny commercial...with the cell phone...

Its not a real holiday ?

I'd say it's more of an all encompasing word...

Piffle. You should all celebrate Clawmas. Its like christmas except vaguely... no. Its not like christmas at all except for a guy in a red suit and the giving of gifts...

Christmas has long grown past its religious origin into something we heretical athiests and the other religions can recognise. No not the commercialism but that giving stuff. The wanting to, not the getting gave bit.

I do wish Brit-- England was allowed its own cultural traditions to be recognised.

Well, you might want to take issue with the government about that one then HPB, seeing as it's their initiaties which try not to offend people who aren't offended anyway. I don't see why there's all this aggro anyway, I mean Christianity and Islam are basically Judaism with a sequel...

'I'm for keeping the RELIGIOUS holiday out of the culture of consumerism.'—Scandrea

When's the last time YOU heard anyone selling 'Samhain trees'?

That aside, Christmas has long since ceased to be solely a matter of religious observance. Yes, there's Christmas Mass and the obligatory pantomime about the baby Jesus in Christian schools, but most Christians accept the truth: that there's no evidence that Jesus was born around this time of year, and Christmas was likely invented a way of neutering a pagan festival in the name of missionary work. (Or so I'm told the Christmas Story goes.) Besides, the Christmas memes have propagated deep and wide into popular culture, often divorced from religion, and are now far beyond the purview of Christendom.

Various religious groups have responded to this 'market saturation' in different ways. The Jewish community celebrate Hannukah at roughly the same time of the year, and seem to view Christmas with equanimity; Jehovah's Witnesses treat it with some disdain, a reaction which would not diminish if it were given another name. (It would still be a pagan festival.) Reluctantly leaving JWs aside, there seems to be no serious objection to a period of general festivity.

That said, this morning I read in the Guardian that the Red Cross is being replaced by the Red Crystal. This seems like PC gone mad, but there's a convincing rationale: many Muslims were genuinely offended that they should bear crosses, so the Red Crescent was developed as an alternative. Considering the last time that crosses marched through Muslim lands, it's hard to blame them. The Red Crystal will replace both the Crescent and the Cross as a symbol devoid of religious or political connotations—although it is dispiriting that they could not have found a symbol based on a point of mutual understanding.

Humans not being rational creatures, it does not matter that the Crusades were many centuries ago, nor that the Red Cross is no longer a religious organisation. If people of other faiths are genuinely intimidated by the morphological roots of Christmas, there may be a case for changing it.

Incidentally, the best rendering of Christmas I have seen was coined in a "Third Rock from the Sun" book: "the Pagan Tree Festival". The accompanying summary ("It may bankrupt them... But nothing is too good for the Tree") perfectly describes how I interpret Christmas in these latter days.

I thought the Red Cross was never religious, and only bears a red cross on white because it's the flag of Switzerland, the most neutral state ever, inverted.

'Christmas has long grown past its religious origin into something we heretical athiests and the other religions can recognise. No not the commercialism but that giving stuff.'—HPB

I just said that in five times the space. Why do I bother posting ever?

—Jordan

'I thought the Red Cross was never religious, and only bears a red cross on white because it's the flag of Switzerland, the most neutral state ever inverted.'—Psycorp

You're right, of course. I just read that this morning! Weren't the colours reversed? This is what comes of staying up late; my brain frizzles. It's not helping that my relatives (and their friends) have developed the new hobby of loudly discussing the time, for my benefit, every five minutes come ten o'clock.

Night!

—Jordan

The Red Cross in Islamic countries uses a crescent moon instead of a cross.